My trainers are dead, so I recently went to the "flagship" store of two shoe companies that produce some of the most popular running shoes, to buy a replacement. There is a large areas dedicated to running shoes, but the sale persons do not know much about running. You have to ask which model you want and which size; after 15 minutes, someone will bring the shoes form the storage. There is no treadmill and nowhere to test the shoes and you are not allowed to try them outside (they seemed to be kind of surprised by my request to actually try running in them). Shoe does not fit and wanna try a different number? wait another 10-15 minutes to be told that they actually do not have your number. After one hour I got a pair because they had a 30-day refund policy. As soon as I tried running in them I realized they were a bad fit and will return them. Basically wasted one hour of my time.
In hindsight, it was a mistake going to a "flagship" store, I should have gone to one of the excellent local running stores that have competent people and allow to try shoes on a treadmill and/or outside. I was the only one there buying shoes to actually run in them; probably >90% of the customers use the shoes for walking or "fitness" and care much more about the color than anything else. I suspect that dedicated runners are probably a very small fraction of their overall business, it makes sense that they do not really care much about them.