I recently decided to upgrade my computers and used Curry's/PC World ... even though my earlier opinion of them was not great.
Buying a Laptop
I decided my budget and spent hours looking at their presentable and informative website. I always read the full specifications on their website and decided on a laptop with 17" screen and reasonable specification.
One Sunday morning I wandered into Curry's looked at the laptop and wanted to buy one. I was bit surprised when they said they only had one in stock and someone had reserved it. I had always thought the place was full of computers so I left. Later on Sunday night I looked again at their website and saw there was a Monday sale with 10% reduction on laptops. Using the website I reserved the one I had chosen with no obligation to buy it. A return email came back saying it would be in-store next morning. I went in and bought it.
If you go in knowing exactly what you want (written down if necessary) they soon sense that there is no use trying to sell extras and don't push their extended guarantees if you don't want them. Back home I started it and Win 10 offered to read my fingerprint (wasn't in the spec) and now it starts with a quick read of my fingerprint. I've registered more than one finger on it ...
Buying a Desktop Tower... my old one was 12 years old.
Same procedure, studied the specs within my budget and as usual I wandered in to have a look. A sales person told me that the one I wanted was going out of manufacture and no more were being made. A nearby sales person was listening and pointed to another desktop tower and said it was near or slightly better than the item I wanted and was in stock. He left me to play with it and the first thing I did on it was to look at their website to read the full specifications. I liked what I saw (ok it was £30 more than my budget) and bought it. I've been well pleased with it and then decided my 10 year old 19" screen needed replacing.
Buying a 24" Screen.
As usual I studied the specs on their website, went in and looked at the one I wanted which was on display. It looked very nice with an extremely thin frame round the image. There were boxes of them underneath the display so I picked one up and paid for it.
My old laptop went to my young grandaughter and my old screen to a relative. The old desktop tower (made of metal) went to the dump.
I'm not recommending the particular retailer I used but there are not many places were they have computers on working display. You can go in there, do all the things I've mentioned above and have them deliver if you cannot carry large items home.
The laptop was a Dell, the tower an Acer, and the screen a Dell. I've never used those makes before. These days there is not much difference between different makes but try and buy the highest spec you can afford.
One important thing is to always check that the packaging has the manufacturer's unopened seals on them.
I did buy an iPad online !!!