"Why go to a fine restaurant when you can just stick something in the microwave? Why go to the park and fly a kite when you can just pop a pill?" - Kramer, Seinfeld
If you're buying a shrink-wrapped GPU, then I think you're romanticizing what a big box store adds to that transaction.
And yes, I am romanticizing in-person experiences and interactions over the insistence that more and more things in life are best experienced through a phone or computer.
I don't expect to establish friendships while shopping. It's never even occurred to me.
I have never "established a friendship" while shopping, at least not that I can recall. But I have gone to a store with a friend as a social activity to browse for goods together. Pretty common experience from what I have seen.