I agree with Happy, but unfortunately a lot of things I buy are no longer available locally. The trend towards big box stores is also a trend towards carrying only stuff that has high volume sales. I've also "lost" the expertise that used to be common in local stores, since usually the sales person now only knows enough to find something on the shelf -- often they've never heard of what I'm looking for. So I'm forced to go online for much of what I want.
For instance I went into a local Best Buy looking for a handheld CB radio. One of the floor staff didn't even know what that is. They carry FRS radios but not CBs. Even a simple joystick for flight simulation is no longer carried. I like to get hands on before I buy, but more and more that's not possible. And depending on user "reviews" (few of them are reviews, mostly a one or two sentence opinion) online is chancy, at best. Not only are they not necessarily trustworthy, but they often have different ways of looking at things or different needs, thus skewing the results (for me, at least).