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.