I spent some time at Best Buy today. I was very, very pleased to talk to an Apple consultant there. He's an Apple employee, not Best Buy. He was very knowledgable and had excellent people skills. No pushing, just lots of information. We discussed all sorts of technical issues, techie to (former) techie.
I bought one of the smaller iPads and have now set it up. Yes, there's a learning curve. I'm used to my Macbook and keyboard. Not sure whether I'll buy a keyboard for the iPad. I need some time to get used to it. I will return to Best Buy, though, because I received such excellent customer service.