Why I refuse to support my FLGS

[Mark Chance]

I am uncertain as to whether or not the lack of a sales tax online really ends up providing a discount. In my experience the S/H payed for buying online far exceeds what the average consumer would have payed in sales taxes. Especially when you consider the number of on-line vendors who overreport the weight of the purchase in order to make up some of that 'discounted' price in shipping and handling charges. I buy most of my on-line stuff from eBay and have fell prey to that scam more times than I care to admit.

Caveat emptor is always good advice.

I purchase few game books, but when I do, I either pick up something far below cover price on eBay, which makes shipping less of a concern, or for larger purchases, buy sufficient merchandise from Amazon to have S&H waived.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Usually, the best practice for saving on S&H is to make larger orders spaced out over more time. S&H charges tend to cap out or drop in per unit or per pound price after a certain point...depending on retailer.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I was thinking the same thing but you put it alot nicer than I would have.

...but yeah, what he said...

Personal opinion, remember? If I can't go and find something in a store AT ALL, I feel it's okay.

I'm not saying that ordering online is bad. I'm saying I don't like to do it unless I have to.

Brad

 

[Dristram]

Browsing the store, and buying online.

Saturday I was reminded of one thing that bugs the heck out of me. I had a guy come in my store checking out my board games. I greeted him and asked if he was looking for anything in particular. He said no, that he was just checking out some games he wanted to buy. I said great, just let me know if you need any help. He said he wouldn't, that he be buying them online. And that he wasn't going to pay the retail "ripoff price". I was dumbfounded and in shock. At that moment, I noticed customers at my counter wanting to buy some things, so I had to leave that guy be. He left before I could talk to him again. Okay, so he feels the retail is too high. Fine. But to use a store to check out the product before buying online is just unfair.

Last year I had a customer come in that had only been in a few times before. He always looked at the RPG books for a short time, then left. I always greeted him and and let him know that if he needed any assistance, to just ask. That time, he asked. He said he was looking to start a new campaign and wanted information about FR and what other books would be helpful. He told me the style of his campaign and I spent 30 min. going over the books for him. He thanked me and said he'd have to think about it. He came in about a month later and I asked if he'd decided on which books to get. And he named off about 5 or 6. I asked if he was ready to get them, and he told me that he already purchased them from Amazon. I was pissed! But I kept my cool, and tried to explain to him that if he was going to buy online, that it was unfair to browse the books in my store. He said that I should drop my prices then. I explained why I couldn't, and a light seem to go on in his head. He left. About a week later, he came in, browsed the shelves, and bought some books and asked to special order some others. I special ordered the books for him and had them in the next day. He picked them up two weeks later. Then I didn't see him for a while. He came in last month and had about 5 books to buy. Awesome! I thought. He then presented me an American Express Card, which my CC system doesn't take. He asked when I closed and that he'd be back with a regular CC. It's been over a month. My feeling is he bought them online. My paranoia tells me he knew my system didn't take AmEx and used that excuse to browse my shelves making me think he was going to buy them rom me, not online. We shall see.

These are just two extreme exampes I have. I hear almost weekly from non-regular customers how since discovering internet pricing, they just can't get themselves to buy full retail. My most recent example is a guy who came in starting to get into board games. He mentioned about 4 he was curious about and wondered if there were some reviews he could read. I directed him to boardgamegeek.com. He has since become an online customer

Anyway, I hope those of you who shop online, only browse online as well.

(-Brad
Owner, Gamer's Keepe
Vacaville, CA

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Okay, so he feels the retail is too high. Fine. But to use a store to check out the product before buying online is just unfair.

Indeed, I agree. In fact I would go further and say it is unethical.

I'm not Jewish (in fact I'm Lutheran), but I have grown up in a suburb of Minneapolis that was the regional jewish enclave in Minnesota, so I was exposed to many things Jewish growning up. Oy! the number of bar mitzvah's I attended as a kid. St. Louis Park, home of Al Franken, the Coen brothers, and Thomas Friedman (of the NY Times).

Anyway, I had heard mention of an almost unknown jewish law from the Talmud called The Shopkeeper's Law. It basically says, "[/i]One is not permitted to ask the storekeeper the price of an item if he knows he will not purchase it.[/i]" I have read some extend this to browsing and taking up a shopkeeper's time knowing you will never purchase either, that is, just not asking the price doesn't the browser get off clean. You are actively fooling the shopkeeping and making them waste their time and effort. Time is money. If this is an hourly wage employee, you have practically stolen the portion of the hourly wage from that employee to entertain you.

 

[Tetsubo]

One nightmare I have heard often repeated involves employee theft or colluding with thieves. In an industry with slim margins, theft loss is even more serious. I think the only solutions available are: 1. some sort of surveillance system; or 2. modified profit sharing to give the employee an interest in making sure the store is not ripped off.

Good luck,

pogre

I know of a B&N store that stopped carrying gaming books for that reason, theft. They literally couldn't keep the books on the shelves...

 

[PJ-Mason]

He left before I could talk to him again. Okay, so he feels the retail is too high. Fine. But to use a store to check out the product before buying online is just unfair.

Anyway, I hope those of you who shop online, only browse online as well.

(-Brad
Owner, Gamer's Keepe
Vacaville, CA

That is pretty low. Bizarre, as well. There are numerous places to get reviews and looks at games online.

 

[Jarrod]

Indeed, I agree. In fact I would go further and say it is unethical.

I'm not Jewish (in fact I'm Lutheran), but I have grown up in a suburb of Minneapolis that was the regional jewish enclave in Minnesota, so I was exposed to many things Jewish growning up. Oy! the number of bar mitzvah's I attended as a kid. St. Louis Park, home of Al Franken, the Coen brothers, and Thomas Friedman (of the NY Times).

Anyway, I had heard mention of an almost unknown jewish law from the Talmud called The Shopkeeper's Law. It basically says, "[/i]One is not permitted to ask the storekeeper the price of an item if he knows he will not purchase it.[/i]" I have read some extend this to browsing and taking up a shopkeeper's time knowing you will never purchase either, that is, just not asking the price doesn't the browser get off clean. You are actively fooling the shopkeeping and making them waste their time and effort. Time is money. If this is an hourly wage employee, you have practically stolen the portion of the hourly wage from that employee to entertain you.

It is completely unethical. You're using false pretenses to waste someone's time. Even if you come in and say "no, I don't need help", you're inflicting wear on materials and taking up space.

I love the Shopkeeper's Law. It's a great example of the sorts of things that a bunch of educated people (the rabbis) with a reputation for scholarship will create and write down. It's only polite, but I love that it's _written down_.

And another vote on the "that's just lame". Lame lame lame lame lame.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Saturday I was reminded of one thing that bugs the heck out of me. I had a guy come in my store checking out my board games. I greeted him and asked if he was looking for anything in particular. He said no, that he was just checking out some games he wanted to buy. I said great, just let me know if you need any help. He said he wouldn't, that he be buying them online. And that he wasn't going to pay the retail "ripoff price". I was dumbfounded and in shock. At that moment, I noticed customers at my counter wanting to buy some things, so I had to leave that guy be. He left before I could talk to him again. Okay, so he feels the retail is too high. Fine. But to use a store to check out the product before buying online is just unfair.

Anyway, I hope those of you who shop online, only browse online as well.

(-Brad
Owner, Gamer's Keepe
Vacaville, CA

I cannot say that I'm 100% free of doing this, but usually that is because I went to the store with some other intent, saw something interesting that I could not purchase that day, and sometime later ordered it online. Most of the time if I go into a store, I walk out with what I went there for, unless once I see it I realize it isn't what I needed. Of course I'm one of those silly people that thinks supporting a store that carries products I like is a good thing. As I've said in ealier posts, I have no problem buying things online and do it a decent amount, but I like being able to shop in a store and, in my opinion, buying from the store who is giving me what I want is the right thing to do - as long as the place treats me well and charges fair prices.

 

[TheYeti1775]

The biggest issue from reading all 11 pages, is pricing.

You have a couple of camps of thought here.
1. Save at any cost.
2. Browse the store, buy online.
3. Save but if only $1-2 difference most likely buy it in the store.
4. Store only, because no credit card for online purchasing.
5. Store only.
6. No Store local.
7. Local Store is terrible.
8. Savings to great to pass.

Camp 1 - Maybe they can't afford to buy every supplement at full price. But guess what they can afford 2 for the price of one. For those in this camp it is too hard to ignore the $12-15 savings on the overall cost. Can you blame them, figure the 'target' consumer for this product is 12-30. So either the parent is buying or the consumer is just starting life and paying their own way. Anyone that's been to college or in the Military knows the Raman Diet and that it goes good when cooked in beer.

Camp 2 - Considered the storekeeps nightmare. But I present this, would you not go around to several different dealerships to buy your car? What is Dealer One, had a car you wanted. So does Dealer Two. Dealer One has a track to try the car out on, Two only has around the block. Dealer One has free coffe and doughnuts, with other car lovers to talk with. Dealer Two doesn't. Dealer One is 10 miles further down the road than Dealer Two. Dealer One charges $5,000 more for the same vehicle. Which one are you shoping at, even though you browsed both.
Yes it is low, as far as taking up your time. But guess what, he probably did buy the books online. Because he had them in hand, and your store didn't take that credit card (personnally I prefer to use cash). So he gets home and comes to the realization, he doesn't need them right away. And Amazon will take his card, so order them online. Forget about having to get back up and drive into town to pay more.

Camp 3 - This is the camp I fall into. If I'm at the store, they have what I want and when I want it, I will most likely buy it. Most of those in this camp are impluse buyers. If there is only a dollar or two, and I'm already in the shop, heck why not.

Camp 4 - This camp is two parts.
Part 1: This will be your younger crowd. They save and pinch their money worse than Camp 1. Generally they will only be buying "core" books and not many of your extra goodies.
Part 2: This will just be people that don't have Credit Cards for numerous reasons. They will frugally shop but they will buy, just not much. Generally they have already done the research on what they are buying as well, or it is a complete impluse buy.

Camp 5 - These are the LGS dream, they are loyal unquestioningly. They only buy from the store for various reasons.

Camp 6 - Easily explained why they go online.

Camp 7 - LGS is terrible. A lot of stores fall into this category unfortunately. It could be crowded (no space to move in, not because of people), the staff could just plain suck. It could be any number of factors. It could because of the smelly fat guy at the register sleeping half the time your in the store (Those that live near me, will probably know the store I talk about on that one.).

Camp 8 - Then that leaves the too good of a deal crowd. I'm sure like me numerous individuals balked at the $100 price tag on WLD. Guess what the games stores still sell it for $100, Amazon has it marked at $60. Sorry $40 isn't worth it to me, for that I could order 2 other books off Amazon. And if I'm a member of their program it puts me that much closer to those free $$$ on Amazon.

So all and all, I have one real question for you LGS owners.
If Amazon can sell it for $15 less, what's to stop you from buying 10 copies from them and selling them for $5 more? He!! use their free shipping, you get to offer a savings off the cover price and still get to make that small margin.