Recently, the need for a new laptop took me to Future Shop, Best Buy, and the Apple store in search of the best option. A tech novice with relatively little knowledge of what aspects I should be looking for in a laptop. I stuck with my primary need of a lightweight laptop ideal for carrying to and from campus. Aching shoulders after lugging a heavy 15” Toshiba truly drove my desire for a laptop that solved the weight issue first and foremost.  My venture to “the big 3” in reference to Future Shop, Best Buy, and the Apple store was for one key purpose, test out the weight of laptops. However, my purchase intention was very low. I tested out a variety of laptops weighing one after the next and looking for simple features and a sleek design. After testing out laptops at all three stores, I walked out with…nothing, as expected. Ultimately, although Future Shop, Best Buy, and the Apple store all offered a great showroom of product, their overpriced merchandise in comparison to online shopping outlets for tech products or even the corporate websites themselves generally leads shoppers to use the retail stores as a “showroom” rather than a place of purchase. I later found out that my trip to “the big 3” is a common practice among a wide range of consumers who prefer the lower price point to the service benefits offered by large retail chains. Following researching the future prospects of Future Shop and Best Buy, it became evident that opening up large stores was not in their plans and lower retail sales as a result of this change in purchase behavior was evident. The biggest push of the change in purchase behavior, strictly disintermediation. Cutting down links in the supply chain brings the end goal closer to the consumer than ever before. Online distribution encourages disintermediation as they essentially eliminate the need for bricks and mortar businesses to supply product to the end consumer.  A first hand experience with the value of online versus physical retailers has truly lead me to believe that disintermediation brings true value to the end consumer.