it's the only place I've ever been with sales help so annoying it convinced me to not buy something I needed.

Ah, so you must not have a Fry's Electronics where you live, then.

The only reason I haven't just walked out of Fry's in disgust on multiple occasions is because it takes me an hour to drive there to begin with. So I only go when I really do need something that I can't easily comparison-shop for anywhere else. If I lived near the store I probably would have walked out on the salesperson mid-sentence on several occasions.

The local Radio Shack borders on this, so I do my best only to enter the store when I know precisely what I want (usually an electronic component such as an adapter plug or a diode or something) and don't need to converse with the help other than the grunt of "No" when they ask me if I want a bag.