I was in my local Joann's a couple of weekends ago, and they had a sale on a sewing machine for $400.00.
I was having material cut, and a lady came in and wanted to see the advertised machine. The lady behind the counter told her where it was.
She came back and asked to have it taken out of the box so she could look at it closer, and see what all it amounted to. The employee told her she couldn't take it out of the box.
The lady asked to see the manager, and the woman told her that she WAS the manager, and that was her instructions.
The prospective customer got irate, and could not believe that she had to buy it first, to even see it out of the box. She had driven down from OK to buy this, but when she couldn't see any more than the box, she opted to forego any further dealings with Joann's.
I haven't had any bad dealings with this store, but certainly saw where that issue would have killed a possible sale.