They apparently have a adequate number of customers that cant be bothered to do it themselves or can't do math.
"Showrooming" Whaddya Think?
- Thread starter Midpack
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They apparently have a adequate number of customers that cant be bothered to do it themselves or can't do math.
OP
OP
Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Brick-n-mortar is at an unavoidable (cost) disadvantage, that will kill them off in many retail sectors. In some cases, poor service may be a result of the cost disadvantage they face. That could reduce costs (or at least slow cost increases) for consumers. Showrooming, a questionable practice, is hastening the demise of brick-n-mortar retailers. Consumers won't miss the brick-n-mortar option in some sectors, but in some cases consumers will unwittingly kill off brick-n-mortar in other sectors where they remain desirable - but they'll be gone. Not sure how that will ultimately be reconciled, maybe remote sources via phone/chat/websites. The landscape is going to change more quickly than many people realize IMO...
Katsmeow
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Well, it depends. I've had a few recent online experiences that were actually very easy to deal with.
I ordered a headset on Amazon and the return was very easy and at their cost. Just filled out the form, printed out a UPS sticker and drove down the UPS and sent it in. Very easy.
Another time I sold a phone on Amazon (you can sell your used electronics and get an Amazon gift card). I sold 2 at one time and quickly got my credit on one but on the other it said I never sent the phone. Well, they were sent in the same package so if they had one they had the other. I wrote in, expecting a big argument (we are talking about something that was fairly expensive) but they immediately gave me a credit. No issue at all.
Recently I bought a notebook from Falcon Northwest and had it custom painted at an extra charge of about $350. When it arrived the paint color was not remotely close to how it looked on their website (basically with heavy photographing lights on it it was beautiful but in a normal room it looked black). I complained they agreed to replace the case with a different color. I did have to pay shipping back to them but they switched out the case and overnighted the computer back to me. Very fast and very good customer service.
On the other hand, when Best Buy recently fried and ruined my almost new SSD drive due to their error when doing some work on another computer they wanted to argue about replacing it. They did end up replacing it eventually but the experience was so bad DH said he would never buy another thing at Best Buy unless he had to.
I'm one of those who will pay a slight premium to buy now at the bricks and mortar store. But last night I was shopping for a new gaming mouse. Amazon had the mouse at a good price. I looked to see if the local Best buy had it in stock and they did. But it was a 26% price premium. I order it from Amazon.
I do wish there was just a product showcase for everything that, say, Amazon sold. Since there is often an advantage in seeing the actual item. But, except for clothes, the advantage is often not so great that I'm willing to pay a substantial mark up to get to see it. I would rather have the lower prices. I really think that electronics stores are going to find it very, very hard to survive as people don't need to physical try on electronics like they do with clothes. Even clothes are going more online with easy returns.
ShortInSeattle
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Nords said:
Agreed.
Twice in the last month I tried unsuccessfully to shop local.
1. Went to the Microsoft store to try out the new Windows 8 touchscreen I wanted. Excellent machine, but it was more of a showroom situation. They had no stock and told me to order it directly from Dell.
2. Went to Cartridge-world to return a year's worth of empty toner cartridges for recycling. That went great, but they didn't carry the toner for my printer because they couldn't beat online prices. So I went to Amazon.com
There are some bright spots when it comes to brick vs. digital. I just downloaded the Kobo e-reader software to my iPad. Because I signed up through our local mom-and-pop bookstore, they get referral fees for every eBook I purchase.
SIS
KM
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Agreed. This is the primary reason I still prefer to buy from a brick-and-mortar store - return of a defective item. Although you can also do that with online places.....imo it is just too much hassle.
With that said, I have ordered from Amazon and a few other places from time to time when it made sense. But I prefer to do it if there is a local store nearby I can deal with if there are issues (ie BB, Walmart, Staples...)
I am recapping some thoughts from one of my blogs from the year 2000... Re: Showrooms.
In the early 1980's I was involved in a think tank study of retailing for the future. One of the major parts of the study was analysis of the Walmart warehousing/JIT strategy. (Circling a metro area then minimal stock daily replacement).
In essence, the blog looked to a future of central random access warehousing for all businesses in the skeletal remains of the Malls of today. This accomplishes economies of scale... offering not only major retailers, but at the ultimate efficiency of allowing manufacturers direct access to their customers.
At the time, the concept was "store within a store".
Think the strategy of Service Merchandise, on a giant scale. if you have ever been to a convention center for specialty items, such a elecronics, auto, boats, household goods, sporting goods, this is the model. Instead of stocking multiples of an item, one... Instead of one or two thousand stores each stocking a one to six months supply of an item, 70 mega warehouses, servicing retail store clusters.
Instead of wasted man hours of stocking, displaying and managing a one store inventory of $10 million, an inventory of $1 million, or even $500 thousand.
Savings at every level... manufacturing, transportation, Inventory, rent, management, training, display, spoilage etc. And of course savings at the customer level, not to mention the convenience of see, touch and compare. Possibly 500 to 1,000 or more "showrooms", in the space of a 100 unit Mall.
This does not even begin to address the effect on the economy. Energy, infrastructure, even government oversight and regulation.
A manufacturer can become a retailer.Middlemen are eliminated at every step in the chain.
If you were designing a more efficient structure for 300+ million consumers, how would you do it?
In the early 1980's I was involved in a think tank study of retailing for the future. One of the major parts of the study was analysis of the Walmart warehousing/JIT strategy. (Circling a metro area then minimal stock daily replacement).
In essence, the blog looked to a future of central random access warehousing for all businesses in the skeletal remains of the Malls of today. This accomplishes economies of scale... offering not only major retailers, but at the ultimate efficiency of allowing manufacturers direct access to their customers.
At the time, the concept was "store within a store".
Think the strategy of Service Merchandise, on a giant scale. if you have ever been to a convention center for specialty items, such a elecronics, auto, boats, household goods, sporting goods, this is the model. Instead of stocking multiples of an item, one... Instead of one or two thousand stores each stocking a one to six months supply of an item, 70 mega warehouses, servicing retail store clusters.
Instead of wasted man hours of stocking, displaying and managing a one store inventory of $10 million, an inventory of $1 million, or even $500 thousand.
Savings at every level... manufacturing, transportation, Inventory, rent, management, training, display, spoilage etc. And of course savings at the customer level, not to mention the convenience of see, touch and compare. Possibly 500 to 1,000 or more "showrooms", in the space of a 100 unit Mall.
This does not even begin to address the effect on the economy. Energy, infrastructure, even government oversight and regulation.
A manufacturer can become a retailer.Middlemen are eliminated at every step in the chain.
If you were designing a more efficient structure for 300+ million consumers, how would you do it?
OP
OP
Midpack
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
First Circuit City, will Best Buy follow? Article says Radio Shack & Game Stop are on the ropes too.
Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco and EBay for consumer electronics, sound good? Or will showrooming kill off all the brick-n-mortar options? Last time I looked, WalMart, Target & Costco didn't have any of the "good stuff" in consumer electronics, mostly the cheaper and off-brand televisions, computers, etc. - but maybe I'm out of date.
Best Buy: Is This the Last Public Gasp? - Forbes
Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco and EBay for consumer electronics, sound good? Or will showrooming kill off all the brick-n-mortar options? Last time I looked, WalMart, Target & Costco didn't have any of the "good stuff" in consumer electronics, mostly the cheaper and off-brand televisions, computers, etc. - but maybe I'm out of date.
Best Buy: Is This the Last Public Gasp? - Forbes
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audreyh1
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Honestly, I've really wondered how Radio Shack has stayed in business all these years......
Katsmeow
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I think Best Buy is in a tough place. The only thing it has going for it is the get it today factor and perhaps seeing something in person. But really the seeing something in person part of this is very overblown for electronics. I want to see clothing in person. I'm OK buying my monitor sight unseen.
The article is sort of laughable in that the best defense it gives of Best Buy is knowledgeable sales staff when, frankly, I find them mediocre at best. For just about anything I want to buy I do online research and usually find a forum where people run rings around the sales staff at any store.
It is fun to just go in and window shop a bit and be able to impulsively buy something and take it home that day. However, that isn't good for the budget so I tend to avoid doing that in any event.
I'm pretty much OK using places like Amazon and newegg from the comfort of home....
The article is sort of laughable in that the best defense it gives of Best Buy is knowledgeable sales staff when, frankly, I find them mediocre at best. For just about anything I want to buy I do online research and usually find a forum where people run rings around the sales staff at any store.
It is fun to just go in and window shop a bit and be able to impulsively buy something and take it home that day. However, that isn't good for the budget so I tend to avoid doing that in any event.
I'm pretty much OK using places like Amazon and newegg from the comfort of home....
rbmrtn
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And they don't have much with "get it today". I've ordered from newegg and sometimes get it the next day with standard shipping. Amazon a lot of times 2-3 days with standard shipping.
easysurfer
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As a consumer, the three most powerful words: I'm just browsing 
W2R
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A lot of the old fashioned attitudes such as "the customer is always right" that seem to have been dropped in our lifetimes, could have saved some of these bricks and mortar stores, IMO. People will pay for expertise and service, but only if they actually get it.
MooreBonds
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+1 on all of the above....I'm somewhat skeptical by nature, and have no assurance that the random sales associate that is waiting on me knows a hill of beans about the answer to my question - either biased by prospect of a commission, just a half-assed attitude, or enjoys saying anything in response to any situation and doesn't care of it's the truth or not.
Me too. I've shopped there a number of times over the past couple of years, but always <$10 for a connector or cable. Not a lot of people in the store, and quite a bit of floor space dedicated to cell phones.
You're not the only one! (Note: From The Onion)
Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business
(in part--also contains "the CEO's" theories on how the chain survives.)
I got great service the other day from Alex at our Best Buy Mobile store. My Virgin Mobile Paylo phone was acting up and I had the "replace it for any reason" warranty. I ended up with a new phone, another 2 year warranty, everything moved from the old phone to the new phone and a gift card with $30 in refunds. The replacement phone was less expensive so I got a phone credit and a warrarnty credit.
photoguy
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Does anybody know how Fry's is doing in comparison to BestBuy? They are similar but I guess Fry's caters a little more to the hobbyist. I often go to Fry's to pick up hard drives for backup purposes (I must have something like 20TB of drives) and their prices are often as good as online (sometimes better).
audreyh1
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Hilarious! Thanks for sharing.
yakers
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Yeah, when Frys puts something on sale its often better than the internet. Now service, they are about as bad as you can get. When they started they used to have one person in each department who actually knew what they were doing. I remember talking to the RAM guy for my Powerbook 180, dating myself. Now I am not sure anyone understands anything. Fortunately when I had a problem with a WD passport hard disk I was preparing to deal with Frys service (could I even find the sales receipt?) I went on the WD website and by serial number determined it was under warranty and got a RMA and sent it in to WD.
I do pay extra for tools at Sears because of their quality and return policy even though Harbor Freight has better prices for lesser quality stuff.
Hey, I go in there at least once a month and ask the clerks to show me their latest MOSFETs. Then I ask them to help me find a one-farad capacitor, which is always good for a few laughs...
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photoguy
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Thankfully the internet has given me an extra hobby of researching everything to death before buying any product more $50.
HighRoller
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ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I rarely go inside a Best Buy, but within the past year, for a couple items I searched for, Best Buy had the best price. In one case, I had to do the 'ship to store' thing, and pick it up a few days later. Most recently, I was buying a computer speaker system as a gift (to be used with a TV and/or iPod), and after reading a ton of reviews the unit I was considering was priced lowest at Best Buy, I could go in and listen to it (they had one as a demo), and the sales guy was super helpful. So I bought it and tested it out at home, so I could take it back if any problems showed, rather than saddle the giftee with that - all was fine.
It's pretty rare I find someone priced lower than Amazon, and I check most times, but Best Buy has beat them from time-to-time. Occasionally I'll find overstock.com, buy.com, or newegg to be cheaper than Amazon also.
-ERD50
