In my experience, if i’m 10 mins away from a store, my end to end time is at least an hour if you don’t already know where the items is and if it is in stock. Then it’s 30-45 minutes. Driving, parking, walking into the store, check out, walking out, driving takes a surprising amount of time if you actually count it.

If I call, it’s often 5 to 10 minutes for the call to determine stock availability (often the clerk needs to go wander around to find it, or go to the far back of their lot to see how much they have). That’s assuming anyone knows what I’m talking about/I can adequately describe what I’m looking for without them getting confused, which isn’t always the case.

This adds up. For some things it’s worth it, or even essential. For other things, it is not. I’ve given up on in-person for computer/networking/IT equipment for instance. Too difficult to get a clear answer, local markups and stocking are too unpredictable, it’s so much faster doing a search and purchasing online.