Here in the UK, we have "PC World". From what I can tell, it's pretty similar to places like Best Buy, except that it only deals with PCs, peripherals and electronic equipment.

Anyone who works with computers over here will tell you that PC World is pretty much never a good place to go to buy hardware, as they will of course charge you more than mail order to cover their overheads, and their staff are (in general) pretty clueless.

There is one exception to this rule. On their website, you can reserve items for collection from your local store. This can be done pretty instantly - make the reservation, wait half an hour or so and then head over to the store. It tells you live stock numbers so you're guaranteed to get your item, and you can usually collect it from the customer service point and pay there and then. Nothing really that remarkable about that, but it's a useful service if you need (or want) something in a hurry.

However, quite a lot of items on the site have a special "online" price next to them, which is what you pay if you get the items through their mail order service, rather than buying at the store. What's great is that they honour these prices in-store - I have been in a situation before where an item is £49.99 on the shelf in a store, but is £31.99 if you buy online. That offers a 35% saving, and you can get your item on the same day. It seems utterly stupid, as I am still going to the store and picking the exact item up off a shelf, and it takes all of three minutes for me to reserve the item I want on the web and get a confirmation number.

This is the only reason I ever go to PC World. Well, that and the fact that if I ever want to have a really geeky laugh at something, I just have to eavesdrop on one of their sales assistants trying to put the hard sell on someone.