She is full of bull and was only trying to get you to be interested in buying something they have. They want your money that is all.
As for why many of the big electronic stores don't carry them. I suspect it is because most joe-sixpacks don't even know Panasonic makes digitial cameras. These stores generally have limited to shelf space and use about 90% of that for dirt cheap cameras with names people are used to seeing like Sony, Olypus, Canon, etc. The remaining 10% is used for one or two mid-range dSLR's ones they know are hot and popular so that they will sell.
They simply can't be bothered wasting limited space on cameras that are not going to be top sellers. Sometimes they carry these others on their web site so you can order them, but not always.
The last thing that happens especially with mom and pop stores is that they carry the brands that the owners know and like. For example here in Santa Rosa we have one camera store it is Shutterbug and they primarily carry digital cameras from makers like Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc. They have next to nothing from companies that have not been in the cameras business for years. This I believe reflects they owners thinking that only the old camera companies can make great cameras.
This I think is false. In fact I think by and large companies that have never made a film cameras tend to do a better job on digital than companies that have made film cameras for decades. I think they are just too caught up trying to build digital cameras that operate like film cameras instead of making digital cameras for digital. There are expections to this, but not as many as one would think. Canon seems to manage most of the exceptions.
Just my 2 cents,
Robert
