This is why I hugely prefer shopping online to shopping at a store. Even not counting the time it takes to drive there, at a real store you are the store's bitch, to manipulate for maximum benefit. An online store, on the other hand, is your bitch--it has to attract you right away to the things you're looking for, rather than prolong contact with those for as long as possible.
I'm not sure that online shops are any less likely to try "to manipulate for maximum benefit". The palette may change (fresh bread smells & video surveillance get replaced by cookies and Referer fields) but the motivations and biases stay the same.
Of course, but my point is that the online shops have a much narrower range to work in. If a grocery store makes you walk around a quarter of a mile to get a ten-item list of necessities, people will accept it. If an online store makes you view half its inventory before you can purchase something, it's not going to make much business.
I greatly prefer shopping online for those things I'm just going to buy all the time anyway (groceries, etc), but strongly prefer shopping in person for things that I buy rarely, or when I'm shopping to have fun.
