I looked to buy an apple product last year and went to every store I could find nearby including walmart, target and microcenter. Bestbuy and the apple store were closed because of covid at the time. None had an apple laptop to sell me let along an M1/2.

You could have it ordered within ten minutes and delivered within a few days. Also, you can custom-configure Macs ordered online, whereas only a few specific configurations are sold at retail.