They are different from dealers: you don't "buy" your Tesla at their store, it's for doing test rides. And they will walk you through filling out your purchase on the website. Part of this is semantic, part of it matters.

You can see more about the dispute here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_US_dealership_disputes

Those aren't Tesla dealers, those are Tesla stores.

Most (all other?) car manufacturers sell in the US via independently owned dealerships. Tesla sells directly to customers (where I am, at least) and they've had problems in some states because they have laws that prohibit direct sales by manufacturers.