A lot of the focus of Sony's stores seemed to be on the showroom aspect though I haven't been in since the one in the Metreon in SF closed. And I imagine it worked better for Sony when they were better regarded as a style and technology trendsetter. In general, a consumer electronics manufacturer would be more presumably be more than happy to sell you something at the showroom--especially at full list price. There's no real reason not to. (If they discount they could get into conflicts with their distributors but that's not much of an issue so long as you're not discounting.)