There used to be this place in Canada that IIRC was called "Consumers Retail" or something like that. Essentially you would go into this kind of bank looking place and they'd have catalogs for you to browse through. If you saw something you liked they'd generally have ONE demo model of the thingy (and they had showcases/display cases showing off specific items) that you could take a gander at.
Then you'd fill out an order form and hand it to the people behind the counter. The thingie would be delivered to your door (and/or I think in store). As no nonsense hippety dippety yet capitalist pragmatist I always liked that model. Less "showroom" space, less "shrinkage", less... well everything and you could get whatever you wanted.
I think Amazon has been tinkering with the idea of showrooms and I'd certainly like to see other companies go that route for the sheer efficiency/less wastage while still allowing us, the buyers, have a place to go and actually check things out before buying AND be able to pay cash or whatever instead of mucking about online.
The downside of course being a lot of crappy retail jobs get lost but that's happening anyway and they would still need staff in the warehouse/shipping departments.
Meh.