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

[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.