Given my closest dealer is a long day’s drive away, I doubt I will buy any more expensive B&O (>$5K). Otherwise, I buy on-line and use the generous return policy.
It used to bother me… buying something I might return, but I now justify that the returns must factor into B&O’s cost of doing business in the US. Perhaps it’s cheaper for B&O to re-sell my returned item as “open box” vs. supporting a nearby retail store. Then again, I’ve only returned 2 products since my local store closed – a gen 1 A1 as it could not reliably stereo pair with its sibling, and a Level as I preferred the BS1 I bought around the same time.