Sure there are 'degrees' of everything.
'Shopping around", as I intended to use the term, is checking prices. It's 'OK' to go into a store and check prices. Picking up a box and looking at it (which MAY be opened or shrink-wrapped as to view the contents) is 'OK'. What is NOT 'OK' is to open boxes, or take materials to the counter to be opened by store personnel, inspect parts, or to ask questions requiring non-trivial TIME for the store personnel to answer, or to test run something ... WITHOUT ANY INTENTION TO BUY AT *THAT* STORE!
Now requesting such service from a store does NOT require you to buy there. Maybe the item is just not what you want. Maybe it's somehow defective. But you should NOT use the services of one store when you INTEND to buy from another.
Providing such services is part of the reason local hobby shops MUST charge more for their merchandise. Such service costs the store money. Using the service with NO intention to buy is just cheating the store at best, and stealing at worst.
Now it's agreed that SOME local shops are very poor. They charge high prices and offer little or no service anyway. That's still no reason to cheat them. Just don't go there in the first place!
And, as I've said, I have NO problem with 'buying from the lowest bidder' ... as long as you do your OWN research on what to buy, and don't steal the knowledge from some other store then stab them in the back.
That's MY position on the matter.
Dan Mitchell ==========