What it sounds like he's referring to is some type of sales floor display mode. I don't know about RD's, but there are several electronic devices like TV's, DVD Players, Microwaves and such that the reseller can turn on so when the item is setting on the sales floor it loops through all of its settings and options on the screen. It's just a tool designed to help the product sell while on the sales floor next to the competition, it serves no purpose or use to the end consumer. In fact it causes problems, when I worked as a technical instructor for Sears Service Techs, getting these items out of the "sales mode" was an absolute potential problem I had to cover with all of them in my classes. The end consumer would call all the time complaining that their new TV was just running with a mind of it's own.

Usually what we found is they had purchased a floor model from the store and the store never took it out of display mode, so when they got the TV home and turned it on it would just endless loop through all the features and drive them insane. It usually requires an obscure and anything but obvious sequence of pressing the buttons on the remote to turn it on/off, like holding down the "9", "Volume Up", and then the Power button on the remote all at the same time.

If you're looking at this as a feature you'd want to have in a RD you're wanting to buy I'd have to say that's anything but a feature I'd consider to be of any use in the things daily use and operation. It comes with a nice owners/users manual that explains all the features and settings in sufficient detail, and if you've purchased a new cell phone in the past 3 years and was able to get through figuring out how to use that you'll have no problems getting your detector set up, the options are pretty basic and obvious.

The only reason I could see why you would want this is if you were a reseller and wanted to set one of these up in a display on your sales floor, in that case Escort may have an obscure button sequence you can press to do this, but such things are almost never mentioned in the end consumers user manuals, you'd have to contact the manufacturer directly and (Social Engineering) confirm you're identity by at least telling them you're calling from a local authorized reseller in your area and you want to set this up in a display at your shop. You'd be surprised the information you can get out of a manufacturer when you call them and tell them you're a tech from who ever your authorized sales/service company for them in your area is, vs. the limited info you'll get when you just tell them your Joe Blow the end consumer. I have to do this all the time to get information for my own job when I'm working on something we aren't the local authorized service company for. It's easier to pull off than you think since all they verify is the name of the company you give them, there's no secret codes or passwords they ever challenge you with. I doubt you could use this with Escort to get any good info like schematics faxed/emailed since they do all their own repairs at the factory, but a sales issue like this you may be able to pull off, or at least get a yes or no answer to your question.