Store-level customer service will become increasingly critical to CE retailers’ success during the holiday selling season as consumers reconsider their electronics expenditures amid the economic downturn.

That’s the outlook from Associates Interactive, here, a 1-year-old firm that develops custom training programs for sales staffs at large CE chains.

So you're finally ready to buy that jumbo flat-screen high-def television of your dreams. But are you also prepared for the potential shopping nightmare that lies ahead?

Three of the TVs are dark in Wal-Mart's electronics department, where the only two clerks in sight stock a shelf and disappear. At a nearby Target, the digital camera desk is unmanned, and there's no staff roaming electronics. In Circuit City, a clerk concedes it's his first day on the job and first week in the country....