Charging A Fee To Demo An Amplifier In A Brick & Mortar Store

What I think this shows is the erosion of the function of B&M stores.  Before the internet, that's where you went to see, check out, and hear (!! what a concept) equipment.  If you liked what you heard, you started to think you might buy it, and made a couple more trips back.
These days, it's much more probable it will sell over the internet.  The B&M space is essentially functioning as a warehouse/shipping center.  If this merchant wants to maintain the impression of a real B&M store, a customer should be able to come in, look around, and check out anything.  That's part of the cost of doing business.  

Time to find a new dealer!

Retailers are able to behave as they please ,no surprises there.Product sales require advertising and customers.For every tire kicker that comes in he will tell 20 other potential customers.Putting a fee in front of it limits the number of potential customers as demonstrated by the reaction here.Not really smart business.As for the issue of setting up said product Im curious as to what the retailer thinks his role is.Surely setting up products for demonstration is part of his work duties.

I was looking to buy new speakers in the $8k-$12k range a few years back.  A local dealer had a brand which interested me.  I dropped into the store, and the dealer let me listen to a pair of bookshelf speakers by the brand I was interested in.  I like them, but wanted to try out the brand's floorstanders.  I made an appointment for a few days later, and spent a hour or so listening to the floorstanders.  I liked both, but wanted to try at least one of the pairs at home.  I told them that as long as the speakers sounded good at home, I would buy one of the pairs.  The dealer wanted $500 to allow me to take the bookshelf speaker home.  I had to transport and setup.  About half of the $500 was non-refundable.

I balked.  As a long shot, I then called a distributor that carried another brand I was interested in.  He agreed to ship a pair of large floorstanders from St. Louis to SF Area at the same time one of his dealers in Austin was going to be on vacation in SF.  If I didn't like the speakers, I had to pay for return shipping.  The dealer set the speakers up, we listen to music for about 3 hours, had a couple beers.  I really loved the speakers, and bought them.

I would've never called the distributor if I could've auditioned the local pair at home.  Sale lost.  I'm sure the local dealer thinks that I was just a time-waster.

I don't think the fee has anything to do with the setup time required.  Heck, they were setup for the purpose of advertising pictures and getting a sale.  Most people interested in purchases in this price range or better are not likely tire kickers.  The fee does help put pressure on the buyer however to make the purchase rather than lose the fee or use it for something they do not need.