Walking Into A Brick & Mortar High End Audio Store

Half the people that go in with no plan to buy probably find a way to buy something after they do it. I know I've been getting ready to sell my Harbeth C7es3's and REL sub after my local shop gave me a nice audition of the Revel F208 when I wasn't planning on buying anything.

Lowrider57,
I'm in retail, and my fellow sales associates have a lot of unflattering names for people like you; but the one YOU should remember is "timewaster". Don't think that the salespeople you are doing this to don't know (and resent) you. All stores that sell luxury goods have regular non-customers who make a habit of coming in and pretending that they are going to purchase something. They do it for different reasons. Sometimes, it's to pass the time. With others, it's just a case of dreaming about things they can't afford. There are also those who want to try on or hear in this case, things that they actually want, but have no intention of buying new. They are going to buy online used, and they have already resolved to do that.
Of course there is nothing wrong with browsing in a store that you have stumbled upon, or even deliberately looked for. The problem is that people like yourself are wasting the valuable time of the commissioned sales associate who is there trying to make a living. While he is doing a fruitless demo, or just shooting the breeze with you, he is missing his next turn to wait on a client who may actually want to buy something from him/her.
I live in the Phoenix area, and there is one very large, and one small high end audio store near where I work in the city. I was in the small store once with a friend who needed service on his turntable. I was interested to look around while he was doing his business, but I made it clear that I was not a customer. The other store (US Tube Audio in Scottsdale) has a lot of things that I would love to see and hear, but for the reasons stated above, I will not go into that store and pretend to be a customer. The fact is that for many years now, I have bought my equipment online, whether new or used, mostly here on Audiogon, or from manufacturers that sell direct to consumer. I readily admit that I do so because I can't afford to buy most of these items new, even though doing so comes with certain advantages.
So Lowrider, I don't know what you do to earn a living, but I will make a guess that you don't appreciate having people interrupt you while you are trying to do it. Maybe you have never looked at it from the point of view of the salesperson before. If not, then you should. If you have, and you still continue to do it, then you should consider changing your screen name from Lowrider to Lowlife.

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Whoa there Roxy... No need for name calling.
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Roxy54; your response would have been much more effective had you deleted the last 2 sentences.

Roxy54, I understand what you're saying and you make a valid point, albeit rudely. But with the limited amount of HiFi stores in my area, the salesman gets to know me and I have ended up buying items within the year. It's not like I'm pretending to buy in a Ferrari dealership.

I do tell them I am in an auditioning period, because let's face it, many folks on this forum are in a constant state of upgrading. I have found due to the poor economy, the salesmen are more open to developing relationships with the customers. I'm not going into the $20K speaker room; clearly that would be wrong if my income bracket could only afford $6000 spkrs, but I would ask to see speakers higher up their line.

You may call me a "tire-kicker" or worse but when I'm treated right by a salesman, I'll be back and ask for him personally.
And it's part of the salesman's job to know the risks of having someone waste their time. When I went back and forth between 2 stores looking at speakers and 6 months later bought speakers at one of the stores, I'm not thinking that I wasted the other salesman's time.