I still shop at stores that have real customer service, hard to find now though. Trying to find store employees that know what is in the store, and some knowledge of the products is getting harder. Then often employees are surly, acting as though a customer is a pain.
Good employees are hard to find, and the cost of doing retail business prohibits paying wages that retain valuable employees. There is also the problem of a public that believes that retail businesses should not make a substantial profit, completely unaware of overhead costs.
Back to customer service; KEY TO SURVIVAL!, and a business owner cannot give away good customer service or he will be gone. Customer service must be compensated either through product sales margins or labor charges.
Without giving away my own solutions to working with a public that has become accustomed to buying at near wholesale prices, I say it can be done.
Now concerning government intervention into business, don’t get me started on how our country’s socialism has penalized the ambition of retail business owners. That is a LARGE part of the cost of doing business.