The future of the local hifi and white goods stores

[alwaysinvert]

Although all of the larger chain stores in the hifi and white goods segments seem to be struggling, at least some locally owned alternatives that have outsourced warehousing and distribution still seem to be hanging on (sometimes under franchised names) - despite higher prices than their megachain and internet counterparts. The numbers up until this point seem fine on some investment opportunities and people seem to appreciate the extra service, such as free installation, so I am beginning to wonder if there is something that I'm missing.

 

I want to minimize my time browsing in stores and having to deal with salesmen and try and do as much shopping online as possible. Because of this my instinct is that they are near death even though they maybe haven't all started bleeding yet.

 

So what do you think, will their time be up when the less computer savvy people get old and stop buying new LED TV's or do they actually fill some sort of purpose even for the younger generations (me being something of an outlier)? Is their added service enough to keep them going as customers such as companies need that? What am I missing here that actually allows these locally owned stores to live on?