Can I expect to pay full retail for a new system?

Why on earth would anybody want to deal with a snooty audio dealer and pay him money for being an ahole. Occasianally I have to deal with rude customers, damn if I will spend my money dealing with a snooty prick. Just my 2 cents....

On the subject of discounting and retail stores telling customers that the manufacturer won let them discount...is 100 percent illegal....and furthermore no manufacturer can terrminate a dealer for discounting.

I don't know why some of these stores don't have "Snooty Audio" as the name of their store. Or, "Snotty Pretentious Audio" maybe. They should do a sketch on SNL, with a pompous salesperson (played by Will Ferrell perhaps) insulting all the customers & sneering at their current gear......

It reminds me of the time an audio store in So. NH tried very, very hard to sell me a set of $10,000 speaker cables.......for speakers I had paid $2500 for, & an amp I'd paid $1000 for. Apparently, every cable they had for less than $10,000 just wasn't quite good enough.....

"It reminds me of the time an audio store in So. NH tried very, very hard to sell me a set of $10,000 speaker cables.......for speakers I had paid $2500 for, & an amp I'd paid $1000 for. Apparently, every cable they had for less than $10,000 just wasn't quite good enough...."

Nah, just not quite expensive enough (AKA high-commission enough), same as your amp and speakers. The lousy salesman typically prefers 0% of an impossible dream to 10% of reality...

I think it's important to know where you are bargaining from. I am very close to a dealer who just had this happen:
Customer (let's just say not American, but from one of those parts of the world that does know how to bargain!)asks for dealer's best price. Well discounted price was ~$15K for multi-room + home theater etc. Now the dealer had already done a site survey and had spent many many hours w/ this fellow. Buyers stated budget was around $15K, so requested price was met with well discounted equipment after much time invested. Buyer says, OK, I'll do it - for $12K. After much wrangling dealer comes close to 12K, and buyer won't budge. Since dealer would lose money at this point for dropping his pants for this jerk, dealer lets him walk. Dealer points out that
1) If I started at $18K (still below retail)and we met at $15K, you would have been perfectly happy! and
2) Dealer did not assume beginning the negotiation that it was EXPECTED that he was SUPPOSED to try to be ripping the buyer off!

So, the moral is, if your dealer is a good guy and the stuff is already discounted a bit, be fair. But I guess if your main point is to feel like you are taking advantage of someone, an honest, hardworking B+M that truly wants to get you the best bang for your buck is not the place to shop.