Why would anyone expect to find a quality appliance in a store these days? It's a toss-up as to whether you'd even be able to find a crappy hard drive enclosure at Best Buy. Brick and mortar are expensive, only the highest-margin items can be profitably stocked anymore. Raising the price just means the item will get ignored by everyone except people like your friend's dad.

Just get stuff like that online.

This is a common story: "I went into the store and asked for ______. The sales guy just laughed." Has it ever actually happened to anyone? That's not how retail employees work at all.

The sales guy didn't laugh at my friend's dad, just at the concept. It also doesn't mean he was rolling around on the floor like in a cartoon. It's really not that far-fetched a story.

I pity your local retail employees if they're never able to express amusement at something funny.