Brian L. Frank for The Wall Street Journal
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Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.
Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.’s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.
Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot.
Mr. Tang’s smartphone reckoning represents a revolution in retailing—what Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Chief Executive Mike Duke has dubbed a “new era of price transparency”—and its arrival is threatening to upend the business models of the biggest store chains in America.
I find lower prices on line all the time.
Animby==wow. I have to believe there is more to the story–as always? Like the advertisements really did telegraph that the goods were counterfeit or faux in some way? Otherwise, your plan, a plan more clever than a clever weasel could devise, is just the ticket.
To that end, the real benefit of buying local is that all the goods/services/products will be locally produced. None of that “mass produced assembly line interchangeable parts” crap a la the industrial revolution. Buying locally means every product is custom made with the loving craft of someone who’s grandfather went to the same trade school your own grandfather went to. These are REAL VALUES I’m talking about now. The benefits are endless to those who really care. Once everyone bought/made things locally, the need for a international or national or even State Wide medium of exchange would vanish and we would all have the benefits of individual bartering in a cash free society. No Federal Reserve, no printing cash in Washington==just good local buying and selling the way the Lord has instructed us all.
Yea Verily. Lots of benefits if you just think about it.
#52. Again, it’s about the local economy. You can pay a small premium now or pay it later. We sell products at about 10% higher than online. Basically covers the cost of state and local taxes which are 9% off the top. None of us are making any real money, but for us, we do it because we like what we do. Some appreciate it, others will argue that the computer they’re looking at they could get online for less. Ex. A $650.00 Thinkpad we are talking approx. $65.00 difference. For that you get local support, warranty in shop service, and product when you want it. Yet still, people will argue about the price, buy online and bring it to me when it fails sometimes demanding same day service.
So my question to you is why would I bend over for that person…..I won’t. It doesnt matter to me that their business depends on it getting fixed TODAY.. Mine depends on local support..it’s a two way street. You don’t give a fuck about my situation, why in hell should I give a rat’s ass about yours?
If the the people in your community are unemployed because everything is made in China, or sold on the internet, who will pay the increase in taxes to support your local police, FD, schools. Amazon doesn’t pay it, I pay it. When I’m out of business…..YOU WILL PAY IT. When we as business owners even try to complain about our taxes being too high, we are chastised by the left and people like bobbo who think any and all taxes are a wonderful thing. Wake the fuck up consumers. We let China destroy our economy with cheap ass slave labor and now you want to do this to your local shop. Fine, I’m almost retired, I made my mark in wise investments (none of which had anything to do with my “employment”), owe no one, and will go back to my island in the sun. But I fear for this country, your kids and grand kids, and the social upheaval and violence that will result in your quest for that “great bargain”.
Bobbo – Just how clever is a weasel? I’ve heard the expression”dumb as a mink.” Minks are weasels, aren’t they? If you’re saying I’m hung like a coat, fine. Hung like a mink? Not so cool. Accuracy notwithstanding.
As for the case I mentioned, I agree. One wonders if there isn’t more to the story. Did he order $150 shoes for $10? A reasonable person would suspect something afoul with prices so low. But the court decision doesn’t seem to refer to anything like that. In fact, it seems he could have paid full price and still have been found culpable.
And doesn’t this happen all the time in the US on Amazon and eBay? You buy a copy of Windows 7 at a good price from an affiliate vendor. You assume it must be an OEM version. Gray but not illegal. It arrives in a hologram-festooned case with a serial number and all. Apparently, at least in the UK, it might be personally delivered with an arrest warrant…
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go stroke my mink.
#62–McCullough==the point is that wishing for things that can’t be done or don’t make any sense is not a realistic position. You can feel sad or rue the causation, but you can’t avoid reality by wishing it wasn’t so.
Make reality your friend. The solutions are in the future, not wishing for a past that never actually existed, or for a past that would not change.
Reality.
I did it just today… browsed at Barnes & Noble but bought at Amazon. It saved me about 30%.
I realize I’m hurting my local “bricks and mortar” stores but 30% is a lot!
If there comes a time we can’t physically browse books, I’ll share in the blame for that.
#65–Greg==Well, I’ll bite: what book did you buy and why if not obvious?
The internet is for small or relatively lightweight items. Sure, buy a 36″ LCD online, but would you have bought a 36″ CRT?
How about a full sized refrigerator, oven, dishwasher… or a set of free weights, a golf cart, lawn mower, a complete dining room set with side table and china cabinet?
Even the small stuff will find a niche locally. Most people I know are impatient as hell. They won’t wait a week for delivery, they want it now, or tomorrow. Who here would buy a new toaster, or coffee machine online if yours just broke?
Books and electronics, repair parts and a few other odds and ends are moving online. That’s about it. I bet that most other items will just be sold in land based stores. The risk, wait, cost savings just isn’t worth the effort.
Times are a changing… but not that much.
BTW, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the posts here. A few posts gave me a much needed laugh. Specifically #39 Bobbo “… but why should I?” (yea verily!) and #63 Animby… if you were hung like a coat, I imagine your balls would be 10″ from the floor.
#62
You can pay a small premium now or pay it later.
That’s a false dichotomy. It is simply not true that buying via the internet will always, or even often, be more expensive than buying from a brick-and-mortar even in the long run. I can only think of one, perhaps two instances in 20+ years of buying via the Internet or catalog where buying locally instead of via Internet/catalog would have been better because of support. Some purchases are obviously better done locally (e.g. refrigerator). I’m taking about purchases where I had a choice. If you know exactly what you want, it is often cheaper, even in the long run, to buy via the Internet.
Local technical support is definitely one of those items that people should consider when buying equipment. Since I have no need for tech support on most electronic equipment, this is rarely a factor for me.
You have mentioned another issue: State taxes. CA and municipal taxes are high enough that buying from a site that will not charge you local taxes can represent a substantial savings. Welcome to competition. Individuals are choosing where to buy their wares based on whether the marginal benefit exceeds the marginal cost. Taxes increase the marginal cost and therefore make buying across the internet more compelling. Suppose that $650 ThinkPad cost $900 at a brick-and-mortar when you include taxes and such. Is that $250 now worth the additional cost? Obviously there is some price-point where the local support benefit does not exceed the brick-and-mortar markup.
#69 Thomas said, “State taxes. CA and municipal taxes are high enough that buying from a site that will not charge you local taxes can represent a substantial savings.”
From State Board of Equalization pub 79b:
Many individuals and businesses in California buy items from out-of-state retailers that are not required or authorized to collect California tax. If you make such a purchase and then use, give away, store, or otherwise consume the item in California, you may owe California use tax. This is true whether you order the item over the Internet, by telephone, or by mail. The use tax rate for any California location is the same as the sales tax rate.
(I don’t know anyone who does)
Price checking is so 2009. This mobile app is just crazy.
#70
Check. Just because the loony CA politicians make a law doesn’t mean it’s enforceable.
# 68 Skeptic said, “…if you were hung like a coat…”
Actually, more like a trench coat and they drag.
# 71 foobar said,”This mobile app is just crazy.”
Amazing tech but, other than a street sign or maybe a menu, what would you use it for? Planning to stand there writing out cue cards to communicate with a foreigner?
#63–Animby==you ask “Just how clever is a weasel?” /// Very clever as Black Adder often points out to Balderick. Also as Monty Python showed in several sketches with the Weasel Brothers, Solicitors at the Bar.
Sorry to go pop culture on you, but I needed relief. Dare I say: PPFFOWARII ? ((Pop, Pop, Fizz, Fizz-Oh what a relief it is!))
Oh, Bobbo. Of course they are clever. They can weasel out of almost any predicament.
(I own all of BA and MP and, sadly, well remember the commercial PPFFetc.)
Animby–well then I’m flummoxed. If you know the answer why ask the question? Kinda makes you look dumb as a mink?
I will assume you know THAT expression got going because (supposedly) when their coats turn white in the winter time they are so obsessed to keep it spotlessly white that they will not jump thru a muddle creek to escape a predator.
But in your refusal to admit to any lack of knowledge even when asking a question, I will assume you already knew that too.
Ha, ha. Heal thyself.
It’s expected that in a few years there will be internet taxes so the margins between B&M retailers and internet retailers will be smaller.
Say Animby–as you are “on my mind” I thought of you when reading this:
http://atlantic-books.co.uk/our_books/browse_catalogue.asp?edition=2284
The author says that our unique ability to point our finger has directed our evolution. He’s a doc, poet, novelist, and philosopher. You two have much in common, or at least two out of four? Not bad.
Hey Webmaster—why can’t you get links to work?
for most links one has to remove the www. in order for the link to work but on the above link you get a fail doing that. for the above link, one can only copy and paste the web address in order to get to the site.
So much for standards?
http://www.atlantic-books.co.uk/our_books/browse_catalogue.asp?edition=2284
[It's the stupid WordPress software. - ed.]