I met a chap at my local fishery yesterday who had just taken up fly fishing and wasn't too sure about the equipment he had purchased.
Having a look at it he had 2 rods and one reel and line which wasn't suitable for his rods as it was the wrong weight. Along with various, lures, flies, buzzers etc. and a large reel of 8lb nylon which was more suitable for bait fishing and sea fishing than fly fishing.
I asked him where he got it all from and he said it was from online stores.
I spent a good 30 minutes having a discussion with him about purchasing his equipment, especially as he was new to the fly fishing scene.
I asked him if there were any fishing tackle shops near him and he said there was, as that's where he used to get all his fishing equipment from for sea and bait fishing. On further discussion it turned out that he liked the shop and staff as they were very knowledgeable of all the equipment he had purchased before.
I told him to go there in future as that's where I go for all my equipment from the local tackle shop.
Online you can get what you want but they don't have the personal touch. Plus you pay the same price in the store as you would online from tackle manufacturers and outlets.
If everyone supported their local tackle shop, it would help them greatly in surviving especially during this trying period with the Covid-19 virus. It's not the shop you would be helping survive but also their families to survive with the steady income coming in.