How / where do I buy a laptop these days?

Check out reviews of interest on Amazon and then price compare with your local Best Buy. The obvious main issue are your requirements aka how it will be used.

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There are two routes you should go, given that your satisfaction is going to likely be controlled by two things, the screen and the keyboard. First, go to Best Buy and start looking at the screens and typing on the keyboards. You'll figure out rather quickly which ones are non starters because of the screen/keyboard (too reflective of a screen, too mushy of a keyboard, etc.)

Make a note of what kind of screens you don't like (read the technical jargon off the tag) and which brands/lines have keyboards you dislike (a Lenovo may have the following lines, ThinkPad, IdeaPad, Yoga, Legion, Slim, Loq, and ThinkBook, for instance.)

Go to the brand's website, and look for deals on the model lines you like and compare them to what you've touched at Best Buy. My last three? laptops have come from Lenovo.com, and all were on 20%+ off for one reason or another. It will take longer than it will purchasing from BB, but I was also super picky about getting an UltraBook with discrete graphics etc.

It's easy to get roped into thinking you need a $1500+ laptop. I've never spent more than about $1200 after tax, and my use case was always far more involved than yours is.

Check out Lenovo site. Usually has sales. Got my Thinkpad on there on clearance for a great price.

My two cents as I have had regrets and stuff:
Bang for buck: Intel 1220p powered cheapo for under $300 new. Check slickdeals and you may need to upgrade ram for $20.
Things you’ll need to pay for: Decent battery, gaming or AI capable IGPU, thunderbolt or usb4 w/ DisplayPort and PD connectivity.
If I were to do it all over again, I’d get an 8th-10th gen enterprise class elite book, thinkpad, or latitude with multiple TB3 ports, used on eBay for like $150 w/ 16g ram. Docking a laptop without thunderbolt is just annoying.
Honestly it might be a bad time to buy as the new core ultra stuff with 40 TOPS NPUs may or may not be the future and is way too high right now.

I took a look at rtings....

Knowing what you want the laptop for is half the battle and narrows down your choices considerably.

Then as others pointed out, you can't beat seeing the laptops in person to assess screen and keyboard.

After that it comes down to price and your budget.

I ended up finding exactly what I wanted on Amazon, a Lenovo Ideapad Pro


Here is a link to rtings: LINK to rtings.com

I've had good luck buying referbs/returned Dell Latitudes from the Dell outlet. Purchased 3 over the last 7 or 8 years and they're all still running.

There is a 3 year warranty on the 7000 series I've purchased.

For one, it’s an i7 from four generations ago.
Battery, screen, and connectivity are bottom of barrel also. This was a $600 machine in 2021(on sale).

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referbs/returned Dell Latitudes from the Dell outlet.

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I recommend this as well.