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kickass69
join:2002-06-03
Lake Hopatcong, NJ

kickass69

Member

Store Combats Showrooming With $5 "Just Looking" Fee

If any American store tries this, they'll officially bury themselves.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 "Just Looking" F

Do they think this will either

A) Generate revenue by offering a browsing service where people anxiously pay to have a hands-on experience with something they are going to buy somewhere else (where it is obviously cheaper)

B) Generate additional sales by encouraging people to make a purchase since they have already paid $5 anyway

C) Reduce expenditures on labor for floor cleaning, shelf straightening, breakage, theft, etc. since no one will come into the store anymore.

I guess C is a legitimate option (the other two are fantasy) but at some point you have to realize it was a bad business decision to open a storefront for a product line that people don't buy in stores. This seems to be an increasing trend, using brute force to push a business model rather than adapting. My only question is If I go in and browse and run out without paying the $5, have I 'stolen' anything?
ilianame
join:2002-06-05
Burnaby, BC

ilianame

Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 "Just Looking" F

While the idea seems somewhat absurd at the moment,
think about it from the gas stations perspective.

Only a few decades ago, dropping by a gas station would net a full tank of gas, washed windshield, topped up fluids, pumped up tires and a smile, all with out getting out of the car.

Nowadays, gas stations will charge extra for "full service", which typically ends up as a fill up, and no more, unless you pester the attendant for the windshield/top up/pump up/smile.

Essentially, businesses have given out quite a bit of service in the past, because for one or the other reason it was normal. However in recent times, a certain push for profits have really distilled the "service" industry, and it got reoriented to "fulfilling the minimal required work, to earn the maximum potential profit".

This line of "social rules" can be traced to anything and everything, it's the new standard. The only real question is Why?

meeeeeeeeee
join:2003-07-13
Newburgh, NY

meeeeeeeeee to kickass69

Member

to kickass69

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 Just Looking Fee

I think I would starve before spending one, thin DIME in a store with such an obnoxious attitude.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 Just Looking Fee

Obnoxious attitude like knowingly window shopping a store with no intention of purchasing anything?

meeeeeeeeee
join:2003-07-13
Newburgh, NY

meeeeeeeeee

Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 Just Looking Fee

There are many times I will browse a store with no real intention of buying anything and wind up spending a significant amount on things I "discover". I usually wind up discussing my "finds" with friends with similar tastes which increases the business' sales even more. If they don't want me in their store, I will happily oblige them and spend my money elsewhere. Yes, THEIR attitude is obnoxious. Perhaps they should seal the store closed and install a teller window through which cash and merchandise can be passed.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 Just Looking Fee

That's what makes choice great. If you're so offended, you have a choice not to shop in the store. I don't believe charging an entrance fee to a retail store is a viable option for most (although it does work for the likes of Sams and Costco), but the B&M retailers do need to change something.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua to kickass69

Premium Member

to kickass69

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 "Just Looking" F

I wonder how long this is going to last.
Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT

Rekrul to kickass69

Member

to kickass69
On the one hand, I can sympathize with stores where people come in to look and then they buy the product elsewhere for less, but on the other hand, they're doing it to themselves.

When I was in the market for a graphics card recently, I looked in Best Buy and the salesman recommended a particular card that was on sale for $100. When I looked online, I found that I could get the same card, with double the memory for $76 delivered. If the difference had only bee $5-10, I would have bought it in the store just to have it instantly and be able to easily return it if I had problems, but $24 is a fairly large difference.

I needed a SATA cable a while back. Best Buy wanted $30 for a 12-18 inch one! Radio Shack wanted about $20. I ended up going to a small computer store and paying about $6 for one.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer to kickass69

Premium Member

to kickass69
You know... every time I see this in the list of posts I have to do a double take. I keep misreading it as "Store Combats Shrooming With $5 'Just Looking' Fee"

Hahaha

kickass69
join:2002-06-03
Lake Hopatcong, NJ

kickass69

Member

Re: Store Combats Showrooming With $5 "Just Looking" F

Atleast we know what 4/20 for you will be like.

meeeeeeeeee
join:2003-07-13
Newburgh, NY

meeeeeeeeee to CXM_Splicer

Member

to CXM_Splicer
said by CXM_Splicer:

You know... every time I see this in the list of posts I have to do a double take. I keep misreading it as "Store Combats Shrooming With $5 'Just Looking' Fee"

Hahaha

The owner of this store must have gotten some really BAD shrooms before coming up with this bright idea lol. Oh well.... not everyone is destined to be a success in business.

YukonHawk
join:2001-01-07
Patterson, NY

YukonHawk

Member

FIOS is just....

around the corner from where I live. As a matter of you can still see the roll of fiber gathered up on the pole begging to be stretched out to our community. Just to have the competition alone would be worth it. Somehow though it's never going to happen.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: FIOS is just....

said by YukonHawk:

Somehow though it's never going to happen.

Wait a couple more years until the CAPEX for LTE is wrapped up.

YukonHawk
join:2001-01-07
Patterson, NY

YukonHawk

Member

Re: FIOS is just....

I never thought of that. Makes sense since then they could allocate the resources from CAPEX for LTE back to FIOS deployment.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx to YukonHawk

Member

to YukonHawk
We have both FiOS and Cablevision cable TV service and competition has done nothing. What we have is an entrenched duopoly. About the best you can do is play them off on triple-play packages by switching between carriers every year but that becomes troublesome.

FiOS considers itself to be a superior service and as such, does not compete on price. About the only thing competition has done is prevent usage caps. However, the first one to blink will most likely cause the other to implement caps too.