Interesting. I find that a bit odd in that the sales person I spent almost 2 hours with basically talked me out of buying an iMac. He told me I should go home and order the Mac Pro I ended up with. I did this, and there is no way he got any kind of credit for the sale. He did however really impress me by encouraging me to be patient and order what I really wanted.
This sort of behavior is what impressed me the most about the salesman I had. He spent literally hours with me, knowing full well that I was not going to buy that day (and I didn't - I didn't make the purchase until several days later). He was patient, helpful, enthusiastic about the product (BOY was he enthusiastic!) and just really pleasant to deal with. It really added to my overall purchase experience.
I was lucky of course. Those of us of "a certain age" appreciate a salesperson of a similar age, and I was blessed enough to get one. This guy was clearly an experienced and polished sales person. He KNEW how to sell. He had the art of low key, low pressure, let-the-product-sell-itself, selling down to ... well, an art. I am sure that one of the many young kids who normally populate the sales floor at the Apple store would not have had enough general sales experience yet under their belt to know how to treat a customer so well. But, everyone has to learn somewhere...
In the meantime, I went into an Apple store, had a great experience, and purchased a product... the first of many from them. I have never regretted it. Kind of makes me want to work there, so that I could extend a similar experience to other users. Since I can't do that however, I come here instead. I can't be on the sales floor, but I can extend that same patient helpful attitude towards other Mac new comers.