Hi John,
While I essentially support your position, and tend to buy locally wherever
possible, regardless of the product, it's sometimes hard or economically
difficult to do that.
For example, before I bought my DS I called several stores in the area,
including Reeds, Gasser's, Sarbers, Calumet. For whatever reason, none of
the stores had the camera. K&S down near where Godfrey is may have had it,
I don't recall, but it's a long way to go and not exactly local. When I
called Reed's, the sales person I spoke with told me the camera was
scheduled to be in the store the following week. The guy took my
name/number and promised to call me when it was in stock. Guess what? I
never heard from him again. As it turned out, I ended up buying two istDS
cameras on line, as well as a few accessories, like cards and a card case.
If the camera did come in, Reed's could have made a couple of camera sales,
and maybe sold a couple of SD cards as well.
In addition, many camera stores employ poorly trained staff. If you recall
my example of yesterday, a "sales person" at Sarbers didn't know what Tri-X
was when I asked for a few rolls. That's not to say all sales people at
all stores are poorly trained and lack knowledge, but I've encountered the
problem often enough that I found myself limited in which stores I could
patronize to get good, reliable information, and, within those stores, had
to be selective about who I dealt with. Even at Reed's, which, for the
most part had better educated staff, I got misinformation and bullshit
responses to my questions, didn't get phone calls returned as promised, and
found people who were clueless about certain products or services. In
fact, you were the most knowledgeable and helpful person I dealt with when
it came to answering my questions. Unfortunately, I'd already bought my
gear elsewhere.
Buying on line has usually been a simple and easy proposition. I know
beforehand if stock is available, I know when to expect the merchandise,
and it's delivered right to my door. The downside are, of course, the
things that you mentioned, and it often troubles me to some degree that I
have to buy on line. Sometimes it's a matter of purely price - I can get,
for example, a certain SD card for $20.00 at Newegg.com I'll walk into a
local store, not have the selection that's available on line, and not even
be able to get such basic information about the cards that are in stock,
such as the speed rating of the card, and will be asked to pay a premium
price for the "convenience and service."
I think that buying locally has, from the consumer's POV, a number of
problems and issues that have to be addressed before I'd be comfortable to
always support my local camera store. What's interesting, as we discussed
yesterday, is that some stores are staffed by more knowledgeable people,
carry a broader range of products, and offer better prices than other
stores. Those are the places that will ultimately get my business
As for the "big box stores," well, I hate 'em for any number of reasons,
which I won't go into here and now. Unfortunately, many communities
welcome them, and even provide incentives so they will come into the
community. Soon afterwards, the smaller, local business start
disappearing, or cutting back staff or hours. Pretty soon there are fewer
and fewer, and sometimes no more, smaller local stores to do business with.
The problem stems, I think, from greed. People consider saving money in
the short run (as when making a purchase) more important than what benefits
the community as a whole in the long run, such as tax revenues that support
schools and road repair and fire and emergency services. Yet everyone, it
seems, complains about the poor state that the schools are in, and how bad
the roads are, and so on.
Shel
> [Original Message]
> From: John Celio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <pdml@pdml.net>
> Date: 10/25/2006 12:39:52 PM
> Subject: Support your Local Camera Shop (was: Re: Price of K10D in Oz)
>
> The photographic industry needs your support right now, and I'd like to
take
> a moment to convince anyone who is willing to listen why you're better
off
> buying from local camera shops than internet sites or big box stores.
>
>
> When you buy something from a local store, there are two major advantages
> for your community (this is from a US point of view, so things may be
> slightly different elsewhere). First, your money is supporting local
> businesses and jobs, and it stays local. It doesn't go to some corporate
> headquarters on the other side of the country. Second, the taxes you pay
> support your local municipalities, such as schools and fire stations.
> Buying online does not support any of these services, which you may need
> some day.
>
> Buying local can also be more convenient in the event you need any sort
of
> customer service. The fact that you can talk to someone face to face
means
> you can usually get your problem solved in a more timely manner. At the
> very least, having a local specialty shop to go to usually means a large
> portion of the staff knows what they're talking about, and since they
want
> to keep you as a customer they will usually do what it takes to make you
> happy (managers especially).
>
> Big box stores (by which I mean places like Fry's, Best Buy, Wal*Mart,
etc)
> and internet stores don't care about the customer; they usually care more
> about sales volume. Their prices are low because they move so many items
> they don't need a large profit margin on most things. Their prices are
also
> low because their staff is often not as knowledgeable about the products
> they sell as staff are at specialty shops, like the one I used to work
at.
> In other words, the box stores tend to hire cheap labor.
>
> A lot of internet stores sell low-quality accessories at high markups
> because they know the customer won't know what they're getting till it
> arrives in the mail ("it comes with a memory card? great!"). I know a
lot
> of PDML members probably wouldn't fall for that, but it something a lot
of
> everyday buyers have no clue about.
>
>
> There are plenty more reasons for shopping at local stores and specialty
> shops, but suffice to say, if you want local camera shops to exist AT ALL
in
> the future, please consider buying from them in the present. Yes, you'll
> probably pay a little more, but it's worth it in the long run.
>
> Isn't it?
>
> John Celio
> (if it weren't for so many people buying online and at big box stores,
I'd
> probably still be working at Reed's)
>
> --
>
> http://www.neovenator.com
>
> AIM: Neopifex
>
> "Hey, I'm an artist. I can do whatever I want and pretend I'm making a
> statement."
>
>
>
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