Consumers say they lament the loss of brick and mortar stores, yet their actions of only buying online shows that isn't really that big of a loss to them. It's such a weird situation for a retailer. I don't envy their situation.
Do they still do this?
Makes it very tedious to price-shop.
I will actually go out of my way to search for some suppliers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, even Tictok before dealing with buying directly, just so I can rule them out if they're gonna pull a "$10 + $60 s&h" trick.
And... Again, this isn't new; pretty sure Ronco was doing this on TV before the Web.
The old "which long distance carrier do you want?" with an "I don't care" response resulted in you receiving the most expensive long distance plan from a company called "I Don't Care".
Just because scams/shaddy practices existed in the days of yore does not make them any more acceptable today.
Not a new phenomenon.
A year later, I wanted to buy a scope as a guide scope, and they had sadly closed. Telescopes are clearly a niche market, and even though it was a proper store the market just wasn't there to sustain the rent. There are plenty of places to go online to get similar advice, but nothing online can replace the experience of having someone right there showing something to you.
Sadly, the longer the internet exists, the less I'm liking it. It is soulless and just sucks the soul out of humanity more than it adds.
The ultra rich are, once again, externalizing costs to society (because a run-down mall is a blight that takes down the value of everything around it) while taking and gobbling their profits.
The other alternative is that instead of niche specialty dealerships, you got national or even international chains moving in, that sell cheap-ass clothes from Bangladesh or other sweatshops in masses.