My biggest concern is lighting. I want to be able to distinguish subtle gradations in color and poor -- or poorly directed -- lighting gets in the way.

There is a shop near Goshen/Middlebury Indiana called Calico Corner. Their fabric is displayed on the wall - each bolt is hanging horizontally on a flat stick and all are beautifully color co-ordinated! It took my breath away when I walked in the first time! I wish I had taken a picture...

I can't handle "stuff" everywhere and unorganized fabric bolts. Our lqs has all fabrics of a particular line together and every color range together, notions together, etc. If I have to move 'stuff" to get to the fabric, I will go elsewhere. I can't imagine anyone expecting people to move things to get to the fabric. Bad business practice.

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle here ... I prefer too much fabric to too little ! LOL

I've been in a lot of shops, far and wide, and I'll take a (somewhat) cluttered shop over one that doesn't have enough to choose from, or one that feels so "done" you don't want to touch anything!
That being said, I've been in shops that were definitely FIRE traps ... overcrowded, so much dust and mess you couldn't stand to shop. One had EVERY major fabric line and collection made in recent years ... but we couldn't stand digging through the thousands of bolts literally piled and stacked up everywhere, there was no help, and you had to pull 100 bolts out to get to 1 or 2 you might want ...

When I go into a quilt store I want to feel inspiration and joy. In an unorganized space, it is hard to find those things. Don't you feel good and ready to create when your sewing room is in order or at least you can see a fair amount of space to work in? When we have that feeling of peace and tranquility, we tend to buy more because we feel good. A quilt shop that wants the customer to come back, will make note of this.

don't like the cluttered fabric stores, my mind gets too overwhelmed.

I don't like it when I have to move merchandise just to get a good look at something in the back. Yes, appearance matters to me.

Sorry, I had the name wrong - it is Calico Point! Here is a link to the store and the photos show the way they display the fabric.
http://www.amishcountry.org/leisure/calico-point

Can't handle chaos, smells, crowded and can't move, closed in, dark, too loud music.

The inside any store matters to me. I don't like chaos, I like to be able to find what I'm looking for without going on safari. A little cluttering or out of order doesn't bother me too much as I know customers can and do just put things down where ever instead of returning things to where they belong but I'd cringe at a store you're describing!