And I quoted you saying something that completely contradicts this:
You made the same point in your OP:
Retailers supplying what’s demanded is not “pretty damn close” to Apple having a monopoly.
Tell me, if I changed my OP to “I pit retailers for only stocking Apple products” would you agree with my views or just find something else to argue with me about? 
I still wouldn’t agree with you as retailers would be doing the smart thing by utilizing their space to stock what people demand (by your own admission). And there still wouldn’t be a monopoly.
I don’t know why you added “or just find something else to argue with me about?”. Was that just for me or everyone who disagreed with you? I know, I know- you added a smiley so I wasn’t supposed to comment on that last part.
It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to an impression I’ve formed where people seem to disagree with me for the hell of it, and if someone else posted the same thing then people would be falling over themselves to agree with them. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular.
It’s not you, it’s the pit.
What irritates me about the ipod dominance of the market is that they sound terrible. I mean their codecs, hardware, amplifier, etc. - garbage. There’s very little quality in the market.
Then again, most ipod users seem only interested in listening on the shitty packaged earbuds at a volume that introduces massive distortion and couldn’t tell the difference between a 96Kbps mp3 and a cd.
On the other hand, I own an ipod touch and it’s awesome. The actual sound is mediocre to decent (you have to leave the software equalizer off - it preamps the hell out of shit and is horrible), but overall as a gadget it’s incredible. All the apps, the awesome video, some great games. I love it.
If I got an mp3 player purely for music though I’d probably go with a Cowan unit.
While I agree that (here in the UK) bricks and mortar retailers seem to stock only Apple MP3 players, I don’t get your objection to on-line purchasing. You get a very large range of non-Apple products at (in my experience) far better prices, and I like reading users’ opinions on the products I’m interested in.
To address your main issue, I find it far easier to exchange or refund on line. For example, I bought an external hard drive from Amazon in February. Yesterday, it died on me. I phoned Amazon (on a toll free number) at 4.00pm. A very chirpy young lady told me that they couldn’t do an exchange, because they didn’t stock it any more. She emailed me a postage paid label, and will refund me on receipt. I bought another drive which turned up at 11.00am this morning. No arguments, no questions asked, no problems. I don’t find high street or out of town retailers to be that accommodating most of the time. YMMV.
I found that even the Sony Erricson models that are biased towards a better camera than MP3 player do a good job at playing music. When my MP3 player was nicked I didn’t bother replacing it. You can drag and drop files without worrying about any software to manage it for you too.
It would certainly be more accurate than blaming Apple for it, that’s for damn sure. Your ultimate hatred should be directed against other consumers, though, since when retailers did stock the other brands, no one bought them. Shit, you could pit yourself for not buying one when they were available.
I know this is going to come as a huge blow to your ego, but not everything is about you.
That always makes me laugh. You drop several hundred dollars on an MP3 player… and use the low-quality earbuds that came with it? Seriously, dude?
I have a Cowon D2 (two actually, bought the second 1 when the first one’s battery started losing charge a little more quickly). I did have to buy them online, but it’s a totally awesome player.
Granted, I listen to spoken audio (podcasts and audio books) rather than music, so I can’t swear it will handle music like you want.
I’m one of those annoying people that doesn’t want an iPod because everybody has an iPod. Feel free to jeer.
That looks pretty freaken sweet for a dedicated mp3/media player.
Oh yeah. I wear mine on a lanyard around my neck while I’m going around town/shopping/walking dogs and listen. I fall asleep listening to it. I love the touch screen. I can show people pictures of my dogs on it.
I’ve have one for a couple of years now. I just got done loading about 10 audiobooks onto it for vacation. 
I like the tv hookups, and flashcard bay.
I haven’t used the tv hookup, so I can’t speak to that, but I use the SD card slot continuously.