commerce

[cellio]

I needed a fairly long ethernet cable to run to the TV room, and we failed at making our own so I decided to just buy one. Amazon has 50' cables for $6-10, but I wanted it today (new TiVo, for which "wireless" on the feature list apparently really meant "wireless-capable, if you get a peripheral", fooey).

I went to Best Buy, where their price was $36. We had roughly the following conversation:

Me: You price-match, right?
Rep 1: Yup.
Me: (shows Amazon listing for exact same cable)
Rep 1: This doesn't ship directly from Amazon; that doesn't count.

Me: I'm prepared to pay a little more to get it locally today, but I can't really bring myself to pay more than three times their price. Is there anything you can do for me?

Rep 1: Nope.
Rep 2: (walking by) Um, let me see what I can do. (I follow Rep 2 to a different desk.)

He gave it to me for $10.

It occurs to me to wonder now if I'm part of the problem for brick-and-mortar stores. On the other hand, if their price had been $15 (a 50% markup) I probably would have just paid it.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

That first rep is an idiot.

I had the opposite experience, where a rep at the local Best Buy said "if you have a smartphone, you should pricematch on that item". Saved me money.

He said "we sort of want you to come here first: if you become a loyal customer, you'll allow us to compete with places like Amazon".

Of course, given their anti-customer debauchery over Hachette and publishing, I'm inclined to NOT do business with Amazon anyway. They are treating customers like pawns while they fight with a supplier, and I will not be their patsy.

[mbarr.livejournal.com]

Monoprice is a good option for that stuff. It's direct, and they may price match.

For us, with baby stuff, if the local store is close we use local. When it was 36 vs 24 on amazon, wel... Amazon won..

[cellio]

Haven't heard of Monoprice. Thanks for the tip.

[alienor.livejournal.com]

We had a hard time finding an item in their store that we had priced on Best Buy's own website (an HDMI to VGA converter for the nephew's raspberry pi). The website showed a converter for $20 when we could only find converters priced at $70. I asked a sales dude about it, and it was apparently the same converter, just priced differently (they priced matched it for us).

Sometimes they are their own problem.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer to buy from small, local suppliers who treat me like someone they value; I'm prepared to pay extra to support that kind of shopping experience.

But given a choice between faceless monolith on the internet and faceless monolith on the High Street (or more likely, at an out-of-town shopping mall) - well, I don't feel much loyalty to either of those...

[devreux.livejournal.com]

Ditto this! Also, I love your icon.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thanks - it's a steamroller that turns up at local steam events.

[cellio]

Yeah, if I could have bought it from Joe's House of Peripherals, family-owned since whenever, I would have.

[dsrtao]

BestBuy's problems vastly exceed mere competition from BigSouthAmericanRiverCo, and how they treat their customers is a large part of that.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Rep 1: This doesn't ship directly from Amazon; that doesn't count.

This makes no sense at all. All not shipping from Amazon does is change who they're pricematching with.

I am also willing to pay extra for "get it right now" as well as "can handle it before I buy it" and sometimes for "is officially supported," all of which Amazon has difficulty providing. Though Bezos is apparently working really hard at that first one. (You've seen the mini-heli-drone delivery project video?)

[cellio]

Yes, "can handle it before I buy it" is important sometimes. I much prefer to shop for clothing that way, and anything where precision in color matters. Doesn't always work, alas.

(Yes, I've seen the video.)