Are the salesmen at Fry's on commission by any chance? I'd bet they are.
When buying any major appliance at a store where the employees are on commission, you can almost guarantee they'll try and get you to "buy up". When my dad bought a new TV, they talked him out of a $299 magnavox in favor of a $450 Sony (in retrospect, its good he bought the one he did, as it has s-video in). This was at ABC Warehouse, which I think is a local name, but in some way affiliated with Fry's (as they have similar specials the same weeks). When they needed to replace their refridgerator, they researched it ahead of time, went there and picked out the exact model they wanted and had it ordered. The sales guy tried to sell a "better" model to them, but they knew what they wanted from what they read. Epinions.com is an excellent place to start looking for reviews of stuff.
Bottem line, do your research, and know what you want before you go into the store to buy it. That way you won't be influenced by the hard sell.