Personally, id never feel that it was OK to uncase a tubo (or remove the cello) wheather id been frequenting a shop for 30 seconds or 30 years unless I was 110% sure I was going to buy that very stick. And in which case, you might as well just buy it unseen/unsmelled at that point.
I do wish the clerk had handled themselves differently, but on the other hand, you have to look at the sensitive nature of the product and compare that to the demographics they are surrounded by. All that being said, I think a mall is a poor choice for a Cigar B&M and unfortunatley like in your case, run a higher risk at running off customes who might not be 100% on top of their B&M Etiquette. You will be more carefully scrutanized and watched, but if you can get past that, they can be just as enjoyable. I frequent one located inside a mall, and after BS'ing with the owner for 10-15 minutes, he picked up that I was there because I was truly into cigars and left me to browse at my leisure.
I do wish the clerk had handled themselves differently, but on the other hand, you have to look at the sensitive nature of the product and compare that to the demographics they are surrounded by. All that being said, I think a mall is a poor choice for a Cigar B&M and unfortunatley like in your case, run a higher risk at running off customes who might not be 100% on top of their B&M Etiquette. You will be more carefully scrutanized and watched, but if you can get past that, they can be just as enjoyable. I frequent one located inside a mall, and after BS'ing with the owner for 10-15 minutes, he picked up that I was there because I was truly into cigars and left me to browse at my leisure.