Good points. I hadn't been to ANY audio retailers since Ieft DC for Huntsville, Alabama in 2006. And even in DC then there were only a couple brick & mortar stores left.
Whilst I certainly never felt pressure to make an appt and any retailer in 40yrs in the hobby, I must say that the fairly newly opened AVIQ in Huntsville, Al (Macintosh, NAD, Classe, Klipsch, among many other brands) gave me the EXACT opposite impression of OP's experience. And I was SO happy just be in a high end store again! They'd been doing custom high-end home installations for 25yrs-ish and only opened the store rather as a hobby than a profit center. So they expressly made it clear that I, or anyone else, can just come in, shoot the sh** (can't believe I have to edit that word here), listen to some fine audio eqpt and music with really no pressure to buy anything. And as the OP says, they know that they'll be the first place I go when I might want to buy something and certainly where I will recommend someone to go if they are looking for high end gear.
Whilst I certainly never felt pressure to make an appt and any retailer in 40yrs in the hobby, I must say that the fairly newly opened AVIQ in Huntsville, Al (Macintosh, NAD, Classe, Klipsch, among many other brands) gave me the EXACT opposite impression of OP's experience. And I was SO happy just be in a high end store again! They'd been doing custom high-end home installations for 25yrs-ish and only opened the store rather as a hobby than a profit center. So they expressly made it clear that I, or anyone else, can just come in, shoot the sh** (can't believe I have to edit that word here), listen to some fine audio eqpt and music with really no pressure to buy anything. And as the OP says, they know that they'll be the first place I go when I might want to buy something and certainly where I will recommend someone to go if they are looking for high end gear.