I was alerted to this whole sordid affair by one little Tweet, which linked to a short blog post with the catchy subject “Amazon redefines the dick move”.
The blog post speaks to two dick moves, really:
1. Amazon is now a supporter the Main Street Fairness act, having reversed its position. I ranted on this topic previously, and I’ll touch on Amazon’s role reversal in a future post. But this is not the dick move I want to talk about today.
2. Amazon recently encouraged shoppers to go into other businesses, scan prices there, then leave and buy the item on Amazon and save up to $15. You can Google “Amazon price check” and come up with dozens of articles full of righteous indignation. This is the dick move I want to talk about.
Let me begin by saying that I think Amazon is brilliant. I am an Amazon customer, and quite often at that. I probably won’t boycott Amazon over this, it’s simply not practical. And perhaps most importantly, as terrible as their inducement was, the real culprits here are consumers. Period. If you behaved the way Amazon wanted you to behave with this promotion, then you are a dick, plain and simple. Amazon was simply the serpent offering you the forbidden fruit.
The sin I define as channel surfing is pretty easy to describe, and it’s basically the case where a consumer shops in one channel (brick-and-mortar store, usually), then consumates the purchase in a different, less expensive channel (an online only retailer, usually). There are degrees of it, and to be fair, I don’t lump all of them together. If you accidentally and casually encounter a product, take a glance, then go away and later decide to buy it, searching for the best price along the way, that’s one thing. I’m talking about a more egregious behavior, one that in your heart of hearts, you know is wrong: Shopper wants to see a product. Sets out deliberately to see a specific thing. Want to touch it, feel it, see it work. Wants to ask lots of questions of somebody who knows a lot about the product. The leaves and searches for the absolute lowest price that can be obtained, usually with an internet retailer.
That, my friends, is really just theft of services.
The merchant you visited has a physical store that costs money. They have employees to help you, none of whom are volunteering their time. They have their working capital invested in the inventory you lay your grubby mitts upon. The price they charge for the item has all those costs built into it, which is why it’s higher than the retailer who takes your money and has the product drop shipped to you.
So ask yourself, are you this kind of shopper? We see them occasionally, usually with big ticket brewers and grinders. Waste an hour of my time, have me demo a machine that I’ll no longer be able to sell as new, then go buy it online for $20 less. As if my space, time and working capital weren’t worth $20. If you do this, there’s a special place in hell for you.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against bargain shopping. If you want a low price, by all means, avail yourself of the online shopping options. But be intellectually honest about it. Be courageous and buy the thing sight-unseen. Pick a retailer that offers a return policy you like, if you really want that kind of insurance. But please don’t unfairly waste the time and resources of a business that has made a real investment in satisfying your need for tangible products and information. Because it’s just not fair, plain and simple.
I can’t agree enough. The additional benefit of using local outlets is service after the sale. I’ve bored Jim a lot with coffee questions, but don’t feel too bad because I try to send him customers and Continue to buy from him. Can’t get that from Amazon
Steve – always a pleasure!
I would agree in some cases, but I’ve also run into the opposite – I’ve been known to walk around a store looking for something I’m trying to buy “Same Day”, reading Amazon reviews on my phone to see if what they have is any good.
I also recently used Newegg to verify that a RAM upgrade would work in my Mac, and then bought it from a local shop (for about the same price – Central Computer, not Frys, and good service – they were willing to hold their only one of the 16GB kit I was looking for)
I would say I probably use online reviews to buy products locally more than I use local advice to buy something online (generally, online for me is something I can’t get locally from a reasonable store / location / etc. But if you have to special order it, I’d generally rather do the special order myself. If you have it in stock, I’m all for buying locally.)
Simon – to my way of thinking, you are a model customer, in a good way. Hope the west coast knows how fortunate they are to have you.
I may be a model customer, but I’m only a model customer if the local retailer doesn’t suck.
For example, I enjoy photography. I would really like to have a GOOD local source for lenses, filters, accessories, etc. However, I’ve been disappointed with every attempt to buy locally (on both coasts!), so I’ve always gone back to ordering from B&H (who is not the cheapest, but they have great service, useful info, and staff who can answer questions usefully).
For a recent example – I bought a lens and filter from a local retailer. The lens was fine, same price as B&H, vaguely special order (pre-sale of one that’s on order – hard to get item). However, the only filter they had in the correct size (I put a UV filter on all my lenses – protect it from the inevitable sea spray, user error, kid fingerprints, etc) was a brand I didn’t recognize. They were very insistent, despite the suspiciously low price, that it was equivalent to Hoya or B+W (no point in buying good glass and putting a lousy filter on it). The filter was HORRIBLE – we’re talking lens flare from a small desk lamp sort of horrible (coating? what coating?), and they don’t take returns.
If you say “We don’t have a good xyz but can order one”, that’s okay. If you say “We don’t have a good xyz, but you could order one from there”, that’s okay. But don’t sell me something crappy and tell me it’s equivalent to something good – I won’t be back.
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