Are you unfamiliar with the concepts of predatory pricing and monopolization?
Best Buy ran two parallel websites. Their public site would show better prices. People would come in to the store to buy a product for the price they had seen.
Then the store would say “Sorry, you must have misread the price. The product you thought was $599 is actually $799. Look, I can even show you.” And they would pull up a website and show the customer that the price was indeed the higher one.
Most customers would just accept that they were mistaken. The website, after all, was right there in front of them. And a customer who had already come to the store and was probably feeling a little embarrassed about their mistake would often buy the product even at the higher price than they had expected.
What was eventually discovered was that Best Buy had a second website. This one was only accessible by employees. And it was that website that showed the higher prices. The public website was used to lure customers into the store and then the in-store website was used to raise prices.
They have been turning a profit for years now. You appear to have posted mistakenly about that above.
Yes, actually, I DO expect them to be able to match their own online prices. To the average consumer, the website and the store are both faces of the exact same company. It is completely reasonable to be confused and frustrated when the store insists on selling you the item at twice the price even as you’re showing them the web price on their own company’s website.
It’s one thing to have an “online only” sale on certain things. It’s another to consistently have the same products in stock in-store and online, but at entirely different prices.
Wait, what? There is a new Dresden book out and I missed it? :eek:
I rarely buy books, mostly because I read 2 or 3 a week and our home doesn’t have enough bookshelves. When I do buy a new book, its because I want to support a new author. I always pre-order it so that its sitting at the book store with my name on it on its release date.
I know that this is much more expensive than buying online, or requesting it from the library, but first day sales for new books really help the author’s numbers.
When I buy a book from a brick and motor store, I understand that I’m paying extra for the convenience of getting it in my hands right away. I’m good with that. However, B&N staff don’t really know their stock or their customers. If I ask a B&N clerk about books, they point me in the general direction and never seem to recommend anything.
When I buy a book from our local Mom and Pop store, the clerks tend to be fellow bibliophiles who seem to love their job and will often recommend other books that they think I’d enjoy. I pre-order all of my books from them and honestly, the only reason I go to B&N is because I’m in BFE and need something right away.
When I go to our local library, the lovely library lady who knows me and my taste in books, will ask me how I liked the last one she recommended. If I say that I didn’t like it because there was too much kissy stuff, but the story line was good…she will order up other books that have the same sort of story line, but not so much kissy stuff.
So, for me, library is best, Mom and Pop stores are good…B&N just gets money when its a book emergency and I’m out of town and have nowhere else to go.
I’m all for supporting my local b&m stores, as I have indicated about my musical and photo gear. Convenience has a cost, and I don’t buy my guitar strings or cords or other musical paraphernalia online, though it would be cheaper, because I like the guys at the store, they help me out, answer questions, recommend stuff. It’s super nice that they match online prices for big dollar items such as guitars and amps, but buying a few sets of strings is probably comparable with buying a book.
That said, the convenience of B&N is apparently worth 60% of the online cost. Sorry, but I don’t buy it, no pun intended.
Besides, I enjoy the anticipation of an Amazon box in the mail.
Pfft, I haven’t bothered with B& N since the Starbucks manager (yes I know they are two different companies, I just feel that they are “guilty by association”) threw us out because someone complained about our dolls on the table (I’m a BJD collector).
Not that I shopped there much anyway, I resent having to pay to get better prices, the selection has gone into the toilet, except in manga, I was impressed with that the last time. And I was in line so long, I had read one of the mangas already and was seriously considering putting everything on the table and going home to order online. The only thing that stopped me was them opening a second cash register. Way to do those CS skillz B&N.
Red Laser always tells me the wrong prices. I use it often at Target, and it says the Walmart across the street is lower, but it never is.
There are B&Ns with Starbucks? I thought they all had “B&N Cafes.” I tried to use a Starbucks card there once, because I thought it was a Starbucks. I was informed that B&N Cafes are B&N stores that just happen to serve Starbucks products.
I used to visit a Barnes and Noble cafe when I lived in a suburb with no downtown/coffee shops/hangouts. It was the closest thing to a public gathering space we had. I always cringed when I saw people try to use their Starbucks cards or promotions in the cafe.
“I am sorry, we do not honor Starbucks promotions.”
“But the sign says its a Starbucks…”
“Barnes and Noble proudly serves Starbucks coffees”
“Well not much to be proud of there eh”
This happened, without fail, every day.
Also, the passive-agressive announcement “We would like to remind you that Barnes and Noble Cafe seating is for our customers only…” when there was clearly just one guy there who was camping for the day.
Ahhh the memories. I hope to never go to B&N again as long as I live.
Ahh, you are probably right then, I only went there because it was an easy place to meet an out of state friend.
We both bought drinks
There were TWO empty tables that had bags left on them
we talking quietly
But we were apparently disruptive:smack:
There’s a different dynamic in place for all three entities. Local bookstores and librarians tend to be bibliophiles who got into it because they are bibliophiles; it’s a deliberate choice on their part.
On the other hand, your average big-box retail employee works somewhere between ten to 15 hours a week. Unless the employee is already into electronics or books or whatever, there just isn’t enough time to really get to know the inventory to be able to answer complex questions or make good recommendations. Tack on any assigned tasks and the need to stick to the script that comes down from Corporate, and it’s almost impossible to provide good service. Believe me, employees hate it, too, but it’s a choice between paying the rent and not being able to pay the rent.
That said, shopping at mom-and-pop stores isn’t always a guarantee that you’ll get good service. Some people really love what they do and they’ll bend over backwards. Others… not so much. Where I live, we have some second-generation business owners who took over from Mom and Pop and they keep the business running because there’s a demand for it and because it’s self-sustaining and it beats having to find a real job.
This is interesting because when I was at Target (granted it WAS 4 years ago or so now…) they would tell me to tell customers that we can’t match internet pricing because its always cheaper online because of most of the things stated in this thread: No shipping, warehousing, wholesale pricing etc.
Wonder if they changed because of conversations like this one
Their profits are pretty thin compared to other enterprises of their size and compared to industry competitors like Apple. And you might find that their book sales, which is where they are squeezing publishers, are not the source of that profit. And predatory pricing doesn’t require a net loss in order to be effective in monopolization.
And in the news today—Amazon investors are getting antsy about meager profits — http://www.salon.com/2014/07/25/mutiny_of_the_amazon_shareholders/
Same thing happened to me at Papa Johns. A pizza special was only valid for “online ordering.” So I hung up the phone, ordered it online and it was delivered.