Ok, here's my 2 cents.
As was stated earlier, we need brick and mortar stores. But at what cost?
A few years ago I was looking to upgrade my stereo and went to the local store that had helped me in the past (decades ago). The salesman was very knowledgeable and very personable. And of course offered some excellent opinions/ideas.
I left the store with a new plan and wanted to spend some time thinking it through.
Fast forward a month or two, my wife and I were in Best Buy looking for a laptop and I went over to the Magnolia center to look around. They had a McIntosh C50 on sale as they were replacing it with a C52 and they had an incredible price on it. I called the local store to see if they had anything similar going on and they said nope.
So I bought the one at Best Buy.
Fast forward three or four months and we were back in the same Best Buy and I went over to say hello and ended up talking cars for a while. The manager asked how I was doing with my search and I told him I was scouring the want ads looking for a used set of MC601's..... He then asked how much I was willing to pay for a used set and when I told him he offered me a new set for very close to what I was looking to pay for used. So, of course, I took him up on his offer but not before calling the local store to see what they could do.
As a few have stated, some of us work with limited resources. And some of us just want to not be taken advantage of. I do buy stuff at the local store even when I realize it can be bought elsewhere cheaper. I don't mind paying extra to keep the local store in business. But I won't spend thousands of dollars to do so.
As was stated earlier, we need brick and mortar stores. But at what cost?
A few years ago I was looking to upgrade my stereo and went to the local store that had helped me in the past (decades ago). The salesman was very knowledgeable and very personable. And of course offered some excellent opinions/ideas.
I left the store with a new plan and wanted to spend some time thinking it through.
Fast forward a month or two, my wife and I were in Best Buy looking for a laptop and I went over to the Magnolia center to look around. They had a McIntosh C50 on sale as they were replacing it with a C52 and they had an incredible price on it. I called the local store to see if they had anything similar going on and they said nope.
So I bought the one at Best Buy.
Fast forward three or four months and we were back in the same Best Buy and I went over to say hello and ended up talking cars for a while. The manager asked how I was doing with my search and I told him I was scouring the want ads looking for a used set of MC601's..... He then asked how much I was willing to pay for a used set and when I told him he offered me a new set for very close to what I was looking to pay for used. So, of course, I took him up on his offer but not before calling the local store to see what they could do.
As a few have stated, some of us work with limited resources. And some of us just want to not be taken advantage of. I do buy stuff at the local store even when I realize it can be bought elsewhere cheaper. I don't mind paying extra to keep the local store in business. But I won't spend thousands of dollars to do so.