Mexican Fender products have always been crap for me, maybe they've in recent years. Mostly it's about the fretwork and the oversized Compound C necks. While they didn't start that way,,, Chinese fender products have much better construction though the pups tend to suffer. Yes I've had American Fender Tele's Strats, Charvel USA Mexican Fender Tele and Charvel MiM. Both Fender CIC's and Jackson CIC's
I buy mostly online. Just because a store is brick and mortar that doesn't mean they wont play bait and switch. And it doesn't mean they'll do a proper setup when the guitar arrives at the store. Hot lights, scruffy characters leaving bucklewash and god know what else on a guitar. Nah would rather have it be inspected then stored until delivery... The Sweetwater way.
