My friend’s family owned a small diner and I thought their weekend hours were brilliant. Open all day Saturday until about midnight or 1 AM (depending on business) and then staying on Sundays until about 2 PM so they get the church crowd and then still have most of the day to themselves.
It’s not just small shops that do this. Bank branches are the worst offenders. Who exactly are bank branches opening for? The unemployed? And when you finally take time off work to get to the branch (some things you cannot do online, but only at a branch) you find out they open late for “staff training”. What the fuck? It’s like these cretins are stuck in the 1940s.
shrugs
I bank at Wells Fargo, and any branches around here that are in a grocery store (WF seems to have partnered with Tom Thumb) are open on Saturdays until midafternoon.
My bank is a mediumish bank in Western & Southern PA and parts of Ohio, WV and the like. Even the branch closest to me has Saturday hours. But I think most people don’t got in to the bank, but rather just do direct deposit and use the ATM and go in maybe twice to get a loan. I never see people actually in the bank (unless they’re getting a loan) whereas the line to the drive up ATM is always 5 cars long.
Wow, a lot of folks got pretty fired up over my comments about buying an expensive camera.
Look, the wife drags me out to places all the time, and if I happen to be wandering around and see a local store that might sell the product I’m interested in, forgive me for not doing a careful analysis of “am I going to eventually buy this online, because if so, I better not waste 5 minutes of the shopkeeper’s time who is otherwise sitting there looking bored”. With any large purchase (like the aforementioned camera), I will usually not make an on-the-spot decision. I want to physically handle the products, get a quick side by side comparison, and opinion of an expert, and seriously, I want maybe 5-10 minutes of their time. I seldomly expect to buy the product right there and then, but the salesman can try to convince me otherwise. On rare occassions, they are actually successful. The attitude that I have somehow committed a crime by walking into the store if I might eventually purchase online, however, is exactly why the independents are having problems. Shitty attitude = guaranteed no sale. If I see the store is busy, I probably wouldn’t bother to step in anyway. If you’re just sitting there, you look like you’re available to spend five minutes with me.
I could do research online as well, but like anything on the Web, you have to take a lot of advice with a grain of salt. Plenty of so-called ‘independent’ sites have an agenda or slant towards or away from different products, and I hate having to worry about that. I’d rather spend five minutes in a back and forth discussion with a person and see what they might recommend between three different models. If they prominently feature brand X and all they talk about is brand X, in that context, I can tell they too are biased. That’s not always as easy to tell in an online forum setting.
Yarster I was just coming back to say something similar to what you said.
Pre-internet people would shop around too. If you talked to several sales people at different stores, only the selling agent ever benefited. This freedom of the consumer doesnt need to excuse itself to the merchant. It is up to the merchant to make sure they are the ones that make the sale.
If all other things are equal, I am willing to spend a little extra for the gift of someones expertise and/or convenience.
For example, I’ll probably never buy a desktop computer again because lack of options caused me to learn to do it myself.
The small shopkeepers should LOVE the guys who come in with intentions to buy online or at a box store or anywhere else. At least you are getting a chance with them!!!
Look at it this way: Let’s say 100 people are going to buy a product online no matter what each week. If those 100 people just looked at stuff online and bought them, you get 0 sales. If just half of those people come into your store to “waste your time” a good salesman can close 5-10% of them. That is at least 10 extra customers and sales per month.
The regulars and the ones who are going to buy local already…those keep your doors open, but the people who come in with no intention of buying are your goldmines! These are customers you have no business getting a sale from because they were going to buy online.
That’s a pretty good point. It’s not like most specialty stores have a line out the door of people waiting to ask questions; what the hell else were you going to be doing with your time?