I believe the topic speaks volume for itself as it is already self explanatory.
This question was born out of a real life experience where a petty trader was publicly harassed by some uniformed security personnels claiming to be some police officers and after some investigations the security personnels claimed that the woman aided some criminal activities as well as some internet fraud simply because she made her private exchanges public and the government as some point also frowns at the use of bitcoin in my country.
Now my worries is that, this singular act has driven alot of fear to some low key bitcoin holders in my neighborhood even myself and there are shops I hope in town that operate physical exchanges.
~Do you think those dealers are safe?
~And what's the fate of physical cryptocurrency exchanges(r) in your country?
Let's discuss
Personally I never used physical locations to buy bitcoin and to be honest I don't think I would ever do it simply because it means that whoever is there in that moment will know you own some crypto. Maybe you bought $10, maybe you bought 1 bitcoin, who knows, in any case others don't know and they may think you own a lot of bitcoin so, government aside, there is also a personal safety issue.
I agree with you and I am the same. I am very uninterested in physical exchanges or any personal transaction regarding crypto. Not only is it unsafe for me, it is also unsafe for the one I am transacting with. Moreover, it is very hard to trust people especially when it comes to financial transactions. I would rather do everything online where I have the means to stay under the radar and keep my identity hidden by being as anonymous as I can. There is still risk doing that but not as much as doing physical transactions and exchanges.