When I got my Tesla there were zero stores. I got my test drive via the service center and it was an awesome experience. The whole store concept never made sense to me. We had a stored in Tyson's Corner, VA that was just one mile from the service center. The store had nothing in it. Tesla couldn't seem to make up their mind what it was supposed to be so it never went beyond display booth. You couldn't buy much in the way of accessories. I think Tesla thought Apple Store but never followed up with cool accessories so I could actually buy something and help them justify the store. Imagine going to an Apple store and being told they cannot sell it to you, you had to buy it online and also had 1 or 2 accessories. They would also be closing.
Tesla tends to lurch from crisis to crisis rather than fix underlying problems before they become a problem. That's why I've said they need a COO like SpaceX's. They may have intended the stores to sell accessories and swag, but never managed to stock them probably for the same reasons their spare parts have been hard to come by. It wasn't enough of a crisis and all the energy was going into fighting other fires.
Tesla has probably lost out on a lot of sales to fans of hats, t-shirts, jackets, etc. by not having stocks of them in stores. Especially the mall stores. If they had stocks of reasonably priced knick knacks at mall stores, they probably could have gone a long way towards covering their rent on the stores through merchandise sales. There are lots of people who love Tesla but can't even afford any new car. The average age of cars on US roads is 12 years.
A lot of those people would buy some sort of Tesla branded merchandise. Most of the super car brands sell a lot of merchandise to people who will never own one of their cars.
I think the main thing you are missing in neroden's responses is twofold:
a) Tesla lowering prices and accelerating delivery were intentional from day 1 and Tesla always said it would be aggressive and hard. It was. They did it though. Most people think it took too long.. you seem to feel it was rushed. Differences of opinion.
b) Neroden is pointing out that the peak in "Growth" of ICE is at hand. It is. ICE vehicles will not see a major resurgence in GROWTH. Sales maybe if there are some unforeseen breakthroughs. The growth side favors EV for the next decade.. I promise you.
c) You see thrashing and fear where I see Tesla consciously not opening the door to competitors to walk in. They have always been increasing features and changing their line up. This year was no more so or less so than previous years.
The US car fleet has been aging for decades. When I was a kid, my father, made the point that most cars became too expensive to keep around age 10. About that time, the car would have a cascade of maintenance issues and would end up costing more than it was worth. My sister went through that with her hand me down 1967 Chevy when she was in grad school. She couldn't afford to replace it, so she got nickled and dimed for a couple of years. One month it would be the alternator, then the water pump, etc. The car was right around 10 years old. She handed it down to me when I got my license and she was in a position to buy a new car.
The effect of the Japanese invasion of the 70s and 80s resulted in all car companies stepping up their quality and making cars more reliable. As a result, I sold a 24 year old Buick I bought new when I bought my Model S and it was still in great running condition. My mechanic said the transmission looked new the last time it was serviced.
The bulk of the population may like some gadget in cars, but at the end of the day they want something that will get them from point A to point B with little risk of breakdown. Add to this that the cost of new cars has climbed out of reach for most car buyers and there are a lot more older cars on the road than there used to be. A new Chevy Malibu isn't competing with new Toyota Camrys and Honda Accords, it's also competing with 2015 Malibus which are significantly cheaper and have most of what most car buyers want.
The ICE market has nothing compelling that can lure in a new buyer. I looked to replace my Buick from time to time and other than the infotainment system (my Buick had a cassette player), there really wasn't anything in new cars that made me want to bite until I came across the Model S. With ICE they get a lot more out of smaller engines than the V-8 in my Buick, but the Buick had much more low end torque and produced it's horsepower over a much wider spread of its range. Plus the fuel economy of newer cars is really not much better than 1992. My 1992 got better gas mileage than my 1981 which got far better gas mileage than my 1974, but comparing fuel economy between 1992 and new cars, there wasn't much difference once you got past the smoke and mirrors. A car with 75% of my Buick's cargo capacity with equivalent 0-60 time (enough to get onto the freeway without getting lunched, but nothing special) may actually have worse fuel economy.
ICE have reached the end of what they can do. The laws of Physics limit them from getting any better.
On the other hand, the Model S blew away my Buick in every category. It has 3X the cargo capacity, 1/2 the 0-60 time, and 4-5X the energy efficiency. The Model S is actually a little smaller too. The wheel base and width are virtually identical between the Model S and my Buick, but the wheels are closer to the corners, so the nose and tail of the Model S don't stick out as far. I don't have to be as careful parking in just the right spot in the garage like I did with my Buick.
Technologically ICE are dinosaurs in an age of mammals and the public, on some level, knows it.
