That was the central point to me and the central question is do people who take advantage of BnM service/knowledge AND then buy online (all premeditated) realize they may be forced to buy everything sight unseen if they keep it up? Will they live to regret it? Frankly, I'm afraid they are and they will regret it...but it will be too late.
Another central point IMO. Do folks who criticize BB (or other retailers) service realize they accelerate the demise of service by showrooming?
I don't see it as an extinction, if I may [-]set up a strawman[/-] rephrase your point.
Before the Internet was full of (semi-) trustworthy reviews on everything from socks to TVs I went from store to store comparing items and prices. Sometimes one store would have a display of the exact product I decided upon, but another store had it cheaper, and I went to the cheaper store. I went to used car lots to scope out car models I was more likely to buy from an individual via the newspaper classifieds. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.
There has always been competition. I don't recall having bookstores with embedded coffee shops, lounge chairs and board games where people are implicitly encouraged to hang around and read for free before Barnes & Noble, but I know of no other B&M type of (new retail) bookstore now (university bookstores and used bookstores notwithstanding, although some of those follow the Barnes & Noble model, too). B&N did something seemingly counter-intuitive by encouraging people to lounge around and read their books for free and ruled the B&M book retail world until Amazon.com got going.
And while finding cars for sale from individuals is easier now with the Internet, I bought my last car from Carmax and plan to buy my next one from them. They have a huge selection, built a reputation, and I'd now rather do business with them than try to figure out which individuals are sincere and which are "curbside dealers" who are flipping cars of unknown quality. As long as the price is inline with the benefit. In my last deal I figured I paid a bit more than I would have from an individual, but the loan and paperwork went very smoothly, and I like the no-haggle setup, and I have a better trust factor with them than many individuals.
I used to buy electronics at a store call Best, or a place called MacDuff's I think, and one other place...maybe it was Wards. (And Service Merchandise a time or two...you're welcome.) When Best Buy was new they had better overall pricing, and their no-interest financing was handy. A Best Buy credit card is the only store card I kept and used for an extended period of time, and I did much of my electronics shopping there for years. Later some other places opened up and BB wasn't as competitive, and they did a couple of things to annoy me. So yeah, I'll complain about them. But I will add it's been a few years since I've compared prices and policies there, so maybe they're better now. Nowadays I usually price things at NewEgg and go to Fry's. Sometimes Fry's is cheaper, sometimes I buy there even if it's a bit more, but sometimes it's almost twice as much. Like I say, Fry's is weird and they change prices a lot, but I shop there as long as I can compare. For a while it was all Fry's-or-NewEgg.com for me, but lately I've found deals other places including Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart.
The point I'm failing to illustrate is that things will adapt. I think bookstores are an endangered species...I just don't know if there will remain enough of a demand support retail B&M new-bookstores. But for other items I think enough of a market will remain of people who want to touch, feel and try out before buying. I generally want to try out consumer electronics in the store, and certainly large appliances. (I was going to include clothes, but then again I could probably last quite a while just reordering the same lines of shoes, pants and work shirts I've been wearing.)
I don't know how things will look in 5-10 years. Here are some possibilities that jump to mind:
- Super stores like Wal-Mart and Target absorb any "showroom penalty" and make enough sales from the showroomer traffic to make it worthwhile
- Online retailers open showroom stores; perhaps they sell stock from the stores, or perhaps it's order-only
- Localized or regional truck/van companies cover the retail equivalent of the "last mile" in telephony terms (from the TelCo central office to your house) from the local/regional distribution warehouse and avoid long-haul parcel shipping costs, and I'm thinking these companies are independent and serve several online retailers' warehouses
- Brand names open their own showroom stores. Disney, Microsoft, Apple...these are largely already showrooms for other distribution channels and partnered services. Ikea may already fit this model. This way the brand controls the presentation of their product.
- Only a few big-box B&M retail chains survive, and specialty value-added shops fill in the reduced market for customers who want/need to try out the product and get in-person assistance with it.
- Rampant shilling causes most review sites to become untrustworthy, and there aren't enough trusted sources to cover all products, so consumers shift purchasing back to retailers with solid return policies, brand names that maintain a reliable reputation or stores with knowledgeable and helpful staff
Carmax is a huge place, and while there are three of them in my area, it's a pretty big area and there are probably a couple hundred or more other new/used car dealers in the same area, many of which are closer to me. But I noticed they got a small pad lot and have a remote sales office in a neighborhood distant from their stores. I haven't been inside, but it looks like they'll help you search their stock and even have a small car-hauling rig (looks like it holds 2-4 cars) bring the car to the remote store for inspection and presumably complete the sale onsite if sold. The lot is about as big as an average fast-food lot, an including customer and employee parking there look to be about 15-20 spaces, so I don't imagine they keep any stock sitting on their tiny remote lot. If a (mostly used-) car company can manage to maintain a remote showroom--I'm guessing there's more than one, but I've only noticed the one--I'm guessing new-item retailers and/or brand can manage to do the same if their B&M retail channels falter so much as to impact their meatspace presence.
All that said, I do feel I have some loyalty if there is a value. I value ease of return to a local store with good return policies, especially with bulky and/or expensive items. I can't recall offhand buying an item online if I felt I needed the showroom tryout to make a decision or if I needed advice from the employee, although I may have done so. I live alone, so I have some concerns about parcel delivery during the day when I'm not home. I don't want to leave an expensive item on my front porch, and I don't want to advertise that my house is empty during the day. (But beware of attack cat!)
But lets say (what I think are) your worst fears happen, that rampant showrooming and bargain chasing drives B&M category store chains out of business, and then the hordes of showroomers then invade big-box stores and specialty retailers and start reducing their ability to serve paying customers. At some point the retailers will implement a way to stop the showrooming or enough will go out of business that overall sales will be impacted because buyers don't have the confidence to buy without the showroom experience. After that happens, somebody--the product brands or the online retailers...heck, maybe even a distributor or two--will experiment with their own B&M showrooms to stimulate sales. In this scenario there is probably plenty of empty retail strip-mall, mini-city-mall and traditional indoor mall space available for such showrooms.
I just thought of another possibility: maybe instead of showrooms, a brand or retailer sponsors select homeowners or businesses that then act as localized showrooms. Perhaps Kenmore supplies my house with the latest refrigerator, washer/dryer, gas range and outdoor grill and has me host weekly or monthly product demo parties. Perhaps Black & Decker equips a lawn care team and demonstrates their products by doing lawns on successive blocks. Or maybe it's like some of the specialty bed/vacuum/other home products that offer a free in-home trial.