> Took me five dealers and I had to drive 45 minutes to get the car
That's not bad when you compare it to car sales in the past, but really, it's far from optimal. If you read just what I quoted and replace "car" with any other product I'd say it's kind of ridiculous unless the product you're looking for has very specific options and is out of production.
Not that ridiculous. Too often, I'm faced in a shop with a choice between a large doohickey and a small doohickey and I really want a medium doohickey, and have to drive/phone/search a lot for it.
Laptops. So many different models, impossible to fine tune for on anywhere except Newegg, but their laptop prices are surprisingly high and you can't find the same model at BestBuy
That's not bad when you compare it to car sales in the past, but really, it's far from optimal. If you read just what I quoted and replace "car" with any other product I'd say it's kind of ridiculous unless the product you're looking for has very specific options and is out of production.