I would say this is true of most retail experiences. It's easy enough to shop for exactly the things that you know you want. It's much harder to do discovery, to find alternatives or to creatively solve problems without 1) seeing options spread in front of you in the way you only get in a physical environment 2) having staff around you can ask. I'm thinking specifically in a hardware store like scenario. I know I have such and such a problem in my house but I'm not a contractor, but I am handy. Having someone right there that I can describe my problem too and how I'm thinking of solving it and having someone with some experience say "oh what you need is xyz, isle 4" is invaluable. You don't get that on amazon.
