Can't buy unlocked iPhone 5 in store?

Yesterday I went looking for an iPhone 5, I went to 2 stores which were sold out, finally at the third store they had them in stock, I picked the Black 16GB model, the apple employee was setting it up for me and asked which carrier I wanted the phone with, I said telus, she asked for my telus account details, I told her I didn't have a telus account and that this was a new activation, she then asked a manager and came back and said sorry I can't sell you the phone, we don't do new activations, you have to order the unlocked version online and wait 5-6 weeks for delivery, I told her I wasn't going to wait that long, so she asked another manager, same thing, she couldn't sell it to me
My question is, why are they not selling the iPhone 5 unlocked in store? I don't want to buy it on contract, why is ordering it online the only option?, to me this is just stupidity.

This may be a stupid idea, but I was just wondering... I'm considering buying an unlocked iPhone as well, currently not available in the US. I'm with AT&T and will probably stay with them because of my grandfathered plan and discounts I get from my employer. However I am interested in the Verizon model phone since it has the most 4g bands AND will work on AT&T out of the box. Since I'm willing to pay full price, what if I bought a new iPhone from verizon with a contract and then simply cancelled an paid the early termination fee? Since I want the 32gb version I figure I'd pay 299+tax, ~100 for a month of service and the 350 early termination fee. Isn't that the same as buying an unlocked phone for $750 (32gb) ?
I'm not trying to cheat the system (stupid as it may be and actually encourages clever solutions for dealing with it), I would rather switch to Verizon (actually I'd rather be on Virgin Mobile to eventually spend the least in monthly service fees) but I'm not too keen on the inability to talk/text at the same time AND my monthly plan would go up $20 or more...

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