>I was shopping in Cleveland in the late 70s for some high-end stereo gear.
The only high-end audio store in Cleveland proper was Audio Craft, located at 39th and Carnegie. A typical urban working-class neighborhood looking a little rough but mostly harmless. Still, I could certainly see something like the event you relate happening there.
They got bought out somewhere along the line, closed all their stores and moved to a suburb and now sell very high-end home theater and corporate A-V systems.
I think I still have the receipts — I’d have to go check. That sounds vaguely familiar.
While I don’t remember the name of the store, I remember what I purchased! I bought the very first Mark Levinson ML-1 preamp, Kenwood LO-7M mono block power amps, Dahlquist DQ10 phased array speakers, and a Thorens turntable with a moving coil cartridge. I’d just come back from working overseas for a couple years and was flush with cash, single and decided to splurge. That was the only time in my life I can say that I was “flush with cash.”
I still have the Kenwood power amps — in fact, I can see them right now in my living room. They are about 43 years old now. I had them re-capped a while back and they still sound sweet.