What happened to all the highend stereo shops

I feel like it's a management and communication problem. People, old and young, male, female, black, white, any and all minorities love music. Manufacturer's web sites are horrible, listening to systems is nearly impossible, how would someone with limited time and budget put together a satisfying system?  Most of us have good hearing and at least one in 10 is head over heels for listening to music in high, mesmerizing quality. We used to have local shops, Circuit City, Tweeter, Lechmere, etc. now the last one: BestBuy is downsizing, all we got left is online. There has got to be a better way.... 

I believe any music lover might be open to hearing about how their music might sound better. The problem begins and ends with the prices. The stores that seem to do well have made a huge investment to stock the ultra high end. Bottom line if I can't listen in your store you have offered me nothing more than an online seller.

Honestly now that I have thought about it I was mostly misled and ripped off and taken advantage of by "brick and Mortar"- I would rather research and order online and take my chances- I also love streaming- I don't much miss record stores either and I'm 70; And I saw 400 Dead shows in analog for starters. You can order anything half way decent out of the box for daily use noe unless you're a Russian oligarch and require that kind of high end service and and pay for that kind of respect. And I know we have a few here...

If you want the honest truth instead of circling around the existence and reason for their downfall, learn to except all customers who walk in their store without prejudice and stereotypes. Now some of you may claim that this doesn’t happen but it does. The sad part is that my daughter witnessed the whole thing in front of her eyes. Here is what happened a few weeks ago at an high end audio store in Las Vegas by the name of AV Luxury Group.  We walked in looked to hear some equipment, potentially wanting to make a purchase for my daughter and getting the young adults into HiFi and the first words that comes out of the salesman’s mouth is, “sorry, we don’t carry anything Best Buy carries.  There’s a Best Buy near by.” I said, “that’s funny because I didn’t know that Best Buy carries Boulder Amplifier.”  Not that it matters that I do own Boulder gear but wow, there’s your reason.  I along with others especially young adults would not support a store like this one.  Now some may want to defend the store and so forth but until you walk in our shoes, you have no leg to stand on and are part of the problem, not the solution hence the reason why Best Buy are putting these small mom and pops stores out of business because the way they treat potential customers walking in their store that doesn’t look like them or the type that can afford what they are selling.

Decathlon 1981many high end audio stores don’t know how to treat costumers.i have been mistreated many times as well in the past ? Here in Chicago Quintessence audio is the best audio store treating their costumers nicely. Mick the owner is very nice.