I know a place I personally think goes overboard in the other direction.
I think its fine to have disc's and games behind the counter and you pick them up when you buy them.
But this place i know has everything behind the counter (which is no problem) and if I ask to look at something the guy there wont let me touch the game in anyway, if i ask to show me like say the label, back of disc etc he gets all pissed about it. I have to pretty much drop the cash then I can have the game and if there's something I don't like tough. He pretty much doesn't like pulling out any games unless I just buy it with out examining it first.
Maybe the guy had a few grab and runs, so now he won't trust anyone.
On the other side of the scale, one of my local game stores i visit every week will hand me a game from in the case (even expensive ones and I could walk around the store with it in my hand and they don't care because they know me and know I buy from them all the time. It sucks when thieves ruin it and make store owners get paranoid and wont even let you touch a game unless you buy it first.