You are correct in one aspect. Can't win them all. We all have an opinion on who we want to spend our money with and who we don't. This is a relativelt small community of reefers here, and if you really want to keep good customers, you will spend the few seconds it takes to ask a customer a couple of key questions about what you are about to sell them. It builds a relationship that makes me or the customer feel comfortable. I'm so happy that you have had good experiences with the above mentioned stores. But do some searching on this forum about a couple of them. You may be a little surprised at what you find.
I've known Tom for many years, since he worked for Shaun at Waves, and he has never steered me wrong. But our experience with the owner and his father at Upscales long ago has made my wife and I not want to shop there. Travis has nice stuff and I have heard that the attitude there has changed somewhat. Doesn't change our mind however.
For my money, I would rather drive the 120 round trip miles to go somewhere that the owner and his employees are knowledgable and seem to genuinely care about me as a customer and a hobbyist.