ORIGINAL: Cougar Mag
I'd have to agree with Bigbulls about trying bows out. It would be almost feasibly impossible and too time consuming to allow customers to rig up each bow they wanted to try out. Having said that........the Switchback that I shot fully rigged was the shop owners bow whose draw length is identical to mine. The XT was the bow Mathews gave him for customers to shoot and look at......the one with the sticker that says not for sale.
I am deffinately against rigging every single bow in a shop. Thats just not an economically wise decision. And sorta on track with how you tried the XT - a couple bows rigged up with some accessories, even if the bow isnt for sale like your example, I feel, is a good thing to have in a shop. The Parker I got, was an out of the box bow- but I was able to shoot an identical bow that already had all the fixin's on it. So when I paid for mine he added the stuff I wanted and we called it a day.
As far as expecting it out of a shop - I completely agree with you guys. There are plenty of things I would love to see in a shop - but very few things I know/expect to be set up in a shop. Be happy with what's available to you. I am lucky enough to know the local shop owner pretty well (ex-gf's dad introduced me one day, lol), and he can/will do just about anything to make sure you get the bow you want/need. He set up my parker for me when I bought it and ordered a bunch of the stuff I need for my Recurve too. I guess it really comes down to individual shops and owners.