[underbluewaters]

Having these amounts of RAM on the base models hurt walk-in retail customers as well. Recently I had a computer die and luckily my boss found some extra funds in our budget that needed to be spent ASAP. I had an opportune moment to get a machine that day, but only if I could walk into the Apple Store and get it off the shelf. I settled for less RAM than I would have liked because a "custom order" would have taken weeks to arrive.

I have no problem with low-memory being an option, but why stock only meager amounts of RAM on the models sold in the store?

[CharlesW]

I bought my 16GB MacBook Air from a store. And FWIW, vendors like B&H and others regularly stock high-spec Macs that you can get overnight.