" The example above illustrates (partially) what I mean. People (in my experience) automatically think that whatever appears cheapest is automatically the best deal for them. More often than not, it is. But you often get reduced reliability or a worse service as a result. For instance, to use the CD example above: It costs more to buy CDs in my local record shop, but I can talk to the staff, get their recommendations, and have ended up with some interesting CDs as a result."
Good point
however if you already know what you are looking for, as the majority of the time I do, and the companies I order from have provided me an excellent service in terms of quality of the cd, ontime delivery etc;
A lot of sites are about that will actually recommend similar music that youre looking for, there was one that I looked at, you typed in the artist you wanted and it gave you other artists, groups etc of the same type of music, you could actually listen to a clip of a sample
But yes, you cannot beat that personal service, when you can get it with all the shops cutting back on staff, but the price you pay will bear no relation to the value of the item, so you are in a way paying extra for personal customer service.