Amazon.com Changes The Game

[slade1]

Part of me says "Good". With the advent of the internet age, many bricks and mortar retail stores are simply becoming obsolete. more efficient means of distribution and production are moving into place. This will help create far more liquidity in the market especially in those places that are underserved and can therefore be more subject to less competitive pricing practices.

These retailers are going to end up praying that Amazon leaves the state and stops charging sales tax. Every single one of these retailers was griping about Amazon having this unfair advantage and now the company has effectively beaten them at their own game, given them exactly what they wanted, and now is in a position to absolutely crush them.

Yeah, I'm guilty of buying many items online, but IF the brick and mortar stores can provide quality service they can compete. Online ordering is only for those who can make informed decisions and are willing to accept the generally poor service given by many online retailers. Customer service is a idea many brick and mortar stores are going to have to dust off and use if the want to stay around.

 

[lstdonsldr]

I've had prime for a few years now, its great. The $3.99 overnight with prime is awesome. I've ordered a Bike and TVs and have had them overnighted for $4 just because I could. Love it.

 

[ewheeley]

Consumer reviews is the answer.

That said: When I shop Best Buy I read the customer reviews and then immediately go read the customer reviews of the same product at Amazon. Usually there isn't much of a disconnect but occasionally there is in which case I accept the Amazon consensus. I can't prove it but my gut tells me that BB kills not so good reviews of product they really want to move.

Quite the opposite. Our worst reviewed products, Westinghouse TVs, are the "hot buys." From experience, customer reviews only go so far. You'll find that arrogance plays a major role in reviewing products. A dumb, wealthy customer with a shady salesman will spend $3000 on a subpar Samsung and then go online to say that it's a great TV "if you can afford it." If someone ever mentions your ability to afford something, disregard it. I prefer CNET reviews and my own experience. I take pride in not selling Samsungs or Westinghouses.

 

[HMFIC]

Be careful on reviews unless there is a significant amount of them to offset any paid type reviewing...

 

[Viper16]

My only beef with Best Buy is there is no local competition for them anymore, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Mom & Pop Stores have all left. Best Buy knows this and attempts to make advantage of it by making more profit. Just look at when blu-ray movies were first new, they had little competition until Target and Wal-Mart started stocking. Best Buy would try and charge $29.99-35.00 per disc. When Target and Wal-Mart started putting $22-25.00 or something like that, then Best Buy dropped a little bit to become closer in the competition. This pretty much goes for a lot of their merchandise in their stores.

And if the model isn't flying off the shelves...a lot of times they have older models, while the online e-tailers have the latest models with all the new features and sometimes for less than what Best Buy is charging for the 1-2 year old model.

I was looking at some PolkAudio speakers and went down to Best Buy, found out they had the model below the one I was looking at, and I looked at the price and it was the same price as the model I originally was looking for. The staff of people there suck and a lot of them, not all, really have no clue as to what the hell they are talking about.

Unfortunately, Best Buy uses an online application process with a pre-set list of questions asking about your personality and abilities to communicate with customers, with no questions on technology or knowledge of product. The computer then calculates the % of answers that match what Best Buy criteria is, and then you may get to have a physical interview with the manager.

Let's face it, brick and mortar stores outside of grocery stores, will never be able to be as low priced as the larger online e-tailers can be. It is all about quantity of sales and high turnaround of product with very low overhead that is causing the low prices.

 

[HackerF15E]

My only beef with Best Buy is there is no local competition for them anymore, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Mom & Pop Stores have all left.

I did see the irony when the guy from Best Buy was aching that Amazon was taking away a piece of his pie. Pot to kettle -- you're black!

 

[mons meg]

Maybe it's my libertarian sensibilities messing with me, but The State of OK has never made a compelling case as to why they deserve to be able to collect taxes on out of state purchases.

 

[Nighthawk]

It can be a money maker for brick and mortar stores. Which I and many other have considered.

First you shut down your brick and mortar store, not being open to the public any more.
Move it all to your warehouse, or garage depending on how big your business is.
Fire all employees, except your self.
If you have not already, create a killer web site where people can order on line.
Pay the extra to advertize with some of the big magazines, and other web sites.
Work out with UPS and others a pick up zone at you location.
Purchase packing material.
Start working easy hours with the orders that come in and packing and shipping.

1. You now do not have to pay the money for rent, elect, water, sewer, personal property tax etc.
2. You now do not have to deal with people handling, playing with, dry firing, racking back the slide, or even taking apart and new weapon saying this is a good deal and not purchasing.
3. You do not have to worry about shop lifters.
4. You do not have to pay employees, fill out forms, and worry about employee theft.
5. You do not have to deal with the public, other than on line. Or the ones that want to just talk and purchases nothing.
6. you are open 24 hours, if you are at you computer or not.
7. Many stores do not even keep an inventory, if you order something, it is drop shipped from the manufactuer or distributor, less out of pocket expense in inventory. The customer may have to wait, but hell who cares, you have their money, and don't have to use yours.
8. You can sell seconds or blems for a new price, because the customer does not see the product until they get it, and you can make it hard to get a refund, making that customer jump through many hoops, you have their money, let them work to get it back.

Yes many stores consider this every day, and many are making the switch.

Wouldn’t it be nice to drive down the street and not see any retail shops any more, just fast food, barber shops, and gas stations. We could all stay home, eat, watch TV communicate with others and order off the internet. The streets will look like some of these small towns that have lost all their stores to thrift shops. But that is cool, because you do not have to leave your home anymore to see it.

This would also be a good thing for our Gov. Making their job easer, they would be able to track us and know where we are at all times. They do with several of us already, posting how we feel, where we go, what we are going to purchase on face book.

What a great idea, if they only knew this is what it would turn out to be when the internet was created, they would have been looking at it as a cash cow.

So when you see one brick and motor store after another, going out of business, and you had a part in it, you should jump up and down saying hooray for the home team, another one bits the dust, hell who needs them!

MF

 

[Werewolf]

^^^^^^^
Sarcasm - Right?

Except there was a whole lot of truth hidden within that sarcasm.

Efficiencies of scale are a reality.
Screw Brick and mortar.

Think of all the parks, recreation centers etc that could be built or that could replace current brick and mortar type hard product retail businesses if they just went away. Imagine - going online - buying a car and having it delivered to your home the next day.

The world is changing. The country is changing. As someone smarter than me once said, "the only real constant is change".

When the winds of change blow strong the flexible will survive - the rest will break.

 

[Viper16]

Let's face it, a lot of these brick and mortar's have done it to themselves in one form or another. Best Buy marking up items 150-200%, pushy salesman, poor customer service, and corporate attitudes. Herd people in, herd people out, no relationship building or care in the world other than profits.