"One lady from out of town rung and had one of my staff on the phone for 20 minutes, maybe even half an hour, asking her all sorts of questions. When the staff member asked her if she would like anything delivered, the lady said no because there was a health shop just down the road."
Mrs Randell said her shop was not just a run of the mill health shop.
"We really put ourselves and our knowledge out there to try and help people. It may be the case they then go elsewhere, but we're in it to help people. I'm hoping those customers will come to us and buy something when they can afford it. You win some and you lose some, we have some wonderful customers that come in and are wonderfully loyal."
Traks Records owner Lex Clay said being used for advice was something that always happened and always would.
He said he had a larger selection of music than big discount retailers so people who thought they could find what they wanted in his store and then buy elsewhere often had to come back.
"There was a lady who came in and looked at some stuff then told me she would it get online but it hasn't had a big impact. People come in and have a look, then try to go somewhere a bit cheaper to get their music, then find out no one else stocks it so they end up coming back to me anyway. It's been happening like that for years although 10 years ago, price didn't matter so much but now with the economy the way it is, everybody's trying to save a buck."
Mr Clay said he had many loyal customers and had a lot of holiday makers visiting him as their towns no longer had record stores.
One Stop Gluten Free Shop owner Lauren Cooke said she did have people coming in and using her knowledge, but her shop had a better and bigger range of gluten-free products than supermarkets so had a good customer base.
"People will come in and question us but, on the whole, it's not a big problem. We're the ones with the knowledge and are giving it away for free. We spend a lot of time with people but that's what specialty stores do, we work hard on looking after people and that's what brings in our customers."
Downtown Tauranga manager Kirby Weis said customer service was the priority for local stores whether they ended up buying or not.
"One of the things we do for our customers is good service, maybe they don't buy straight away but they may return on another day because of that help. Feedback from our members is that being used for advice isn't a huge problem."
