Why we increasingly shop online these days
The other day I decided I wanted one of those kitchen mats that are cushy to stand on. Actually, I wanted two. I use one little rug in front of the sink for when I’m washing dishes, and one in front of my computer because I work standing up due to the effects of my long-ago back and arm injuries. The rugs I have now have seen much, much better days.
So I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to peruse their selections. They’ve got a ton of kitchen stuff; why not a little rug?
But nada. However, one of the women who worked there told me that until recently she’d worked at Home Goods and they had plenty of them. Go there, she said.
So a few days later I made the journey. I couldn’t find anything there, either. But I asked a young man who worked there and he said yes, they had some with the other area rugs, and that they were mostly to be found on the bottom shelf of the section, interspersed with all the other little area rugs.
So I went back to look. The display was chaotic and appeared as though no one had ordered it in a long long time. There were a lot of little rugs, and I had to look through most of them before I found my prize: one of those foamlike “comfort” rugs. In chartreuse. A sort of fake basket-weave chartreuse.
No wonder it was still there. Hideous.
And it immediately occurred to me that this is why brick-and-mortar stores aren’t doing so well these days compared to the internet. And it’s a vicious cycle, because as the stores do worse, they cut back on hiring staff, and therefore they are maintained a lot worse and the staff hardly cares one way or the other.
At least, that was the attitude of the guy who spoke to me. He conveyed the idea that he could barely be bothered to answer my question and point the way, much less go to the rugs and help me find one. And there was no other customer in the store at the time.
Contrast that to what you can find here. I ordinarily like brick-and-mortar stores because I like to see what I’m buying, but in this case I’ll be ordering something online.
Try gym flooring stuff. Readily available from many retailers, probably including Wal-Mart.
You are absolutely correct, and as more online retailers adjust their return & shipping policies to favour “try it before you buy it” brick/mortar stores will continue to fade.
My wife & I have our favourite online stores & go there as needed. We are also less likely to impulse buy that way because of the trip to the post office required to return stuff we don’t like.
I had a few incidents, back in the late 90’s/early 00’s, that soured me to online shopping for the longest time. (One involved Amazon.com and another at CompUSA.com). But, even then, I used online shopping to get those things I absolutely couldn’t find locally (which, for me, means within an hour’s drive). The biggest advantages shopping locally has, and online shopping cannot beat it, is once you bought something, you had it (you didn’t have to wait three to four days for it to arrive in the mail) and if there was something wrong with it, you could take it right back to the store for an exchange or refund. Between the large collection of big chains stores, and quite a few smaller businesses in the area, I could usually find exactly what I was looking for; even some of my more “off the wall” purchases I made locally.
Starting around ’06, a lot of the smaller businesses that I frequented started closing up because of the slowing economy and competition from the big chains; but also quite a few of the big chains closed up or merged with other chains; and the stores that remained started seriously trimming down their selection of goods. In 2011 I had to buy a new nail gun to replace one that had been stolen from me. Previously, the model I was looking for (Paslode Impulse straight nail trim nailer) was available at both The Home Dips—, er Depot and Lowrent, er Lowes, but of the five stores I stopped at, none were to be found; they could order one for me, and I’d have it in about a week. I bought the nail gun on Amazon and limped along on the job for two days until the gun arrived. That was the turning point for me.
Now, I still like buying stuff locally, when I can; but i’ve gotten real weary/sour attitude about the big chains now. Now I’ll go into a store, if I find an item I’m looking for, I’ll check the pice then leave and see if I can get it cheaper online.
KRB
I bought a pair of dress shoes at DSW a few years ago.
I needed to replace them.
Yesterday, I was able to identify them online by brand (Nunn Bush) and model at Amazon. I went to the DSW site they had a similar shoe with 4-7 days delivery and when I called the store to see if I could pick a pair up, they said could order them for me. 4-7 days delivery. If I had driven there I would have heard the same.
Amazon will have them here tomorrow.
As for ordering online:
https://youtu.be/g6ZTmk2NynQ
I really struggle with this. Part of me loathes monster corporations like Amazon almost viscerally, and I loathe the ones that eat all the others up more than the ones that get eaten. And another part of me is very conscious of the fact that the tech giants are in a perfectly plain and straightforward sense enemies to me and much that I hold dear. And then there are all the arguments about local employment etc etc.
And yet…it’s just so damn convenient to shop online. And more than convenient, in some respects it just works better: you can learn more, do more comparisons, etc.
Books, for instance. I’d really rather support my local independent bookstore. But almost nothing that I want is going to be in stock there, so it’s a special order, which means two trips to the store. And I’m not sure the profit on my purchase is even worth the trouble to them. When I finally made up my mind which Dante translation I wanted to buy a few months ago–after a lot of comparison at Amazon–I took the ISBNs to the bookstore to order them. It was obvious that the guy behind the counter didn’t know who Dante was. :-/
It is so easy to find what you want. While looking, you can find all sorts of stuff you didn’t know was out there.
I prefer, at least philosophically, local shopping. But I hate shopping. Now what? The last item of clothing I voluntarily purchased was when my belt broke when I was in–following spouse through–the men’s department of Penneys. If it had been four hours later, Amazon would probably have been about as quick.
neo’s experience with the clerk who couldn’t be bothered has two aspects; she is turned off and she’ll probably tell some of her friends.
There should be some kind of personality test for those dealing with the public. Introverts can stock shelves or unload the trucks.
My lengthy anecdote:
Place: My small home ‘city’ (population; approx. 15,000)
When: 2006 (well into the Age of Amazon)
We finally got our own brick and mortar book store; We used to have two of them (B. Dalton and Waldenbooks) in the Ante-Internetium but a third competitor (Lauriats) moved in to the mall they shared on the condition that the Mall evict the two existing stores. Once it had no competition, it raised prices and soon found itself with out customers. not long after, no book stores within 45 minutes’ drive. But I digress.
The new brick and mortar store, a proud member of the organization Independent Booksellers was run by a husband and wife who I got to know somewhat as I tried to become a regular, loyal customer. I dearly wanted my local store to succeed.
The husband and wife were former NYU Literature majors (one even taught there for a time. Their store had an impressive Children’s Section (50% of the retail space), a large “Literary” Fiction section (40% of retail space and yes, those sneer quotes reveal my contempt), a History and Current Events section (5% of Retail Space), Mystery (4.5% Retail Space), Science Fiction (.5% Retail Space; basically two shelves with room for about 40 separate titles).
I would often peruse the store and being a Science Fiction Nerd, make a beeline to my two meager shelves, to find if full of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein. With a sprinkling of Philip K. Dick. And that’s its, usually.
The owners chose to limit themselves to that selection. Which is fine; almost entirely good stuff. But its old, or more specifically, not new. Not a fresh release amongst the two shelves, usually. On a couple of occasions I was able to find a newer book but usually, I left empty handed or with a gift for my nephew.
Two interactions with the store owners stand out to me:
1) The Husband: “You find anything interesting today?” (hinting that I often leave empty handed)
Me: “No. I wish you carried more Science Fiction, more new releases. That stuff is good but I read it all in High School.”
The Husband: “Science Fiction is soooo retrograde, sooo unnecessary.”
I left and didn’t return for months. Then:
Me: “Do you have the new book by XXXXXX?”
The Wife: “No, sorry. But we can order it for you!”
Me: “I can order them on Amazon.”
The Wife; “But you want to support us.”
Me: ‘I do. But you guys refuse to carry what I like to read. And your husband called my favorite genre ‘retrograde’ and unnecessary.”
The Wife: “But he’s kind of got a point.”
I left and never returned. It was closed by the next year. The Husband wrote an angry, novel-length diatribe to the local paper (published in the Editorial Section and endorsed by the Editors) that blamed our entire city for their demise. It was all our fault.
I have a feeling that our story is not unique. I’m not saying he should have (or even could have) catered to everyone. But really? to be so dismissive of would be customers? Customers who want the store to succeed?
I for many years frequented one small bookstore in particular, as well as the library, and a delicatessen and grocery store within walkin distance, but life circumstances change. As I’ve become less mobile, I’ve turned to shopping online.
I do recreational shopping at the thrift stores (clothes ‘n’ stuff) and used bookstores. If I want something new: Ross and Tuesday Morning, but they aren’t as cheap as they used to be, and it’s hit and miss for standard items.
Dollar Store and Big Lots are what Woolsworth and the other dime stores used to be.
My grocery stores carry so much, I seldom even have to go to Wal-mart or Target.
Independent boutique stores are for “tourist” browsing and Christmas.
The Spousal Unit shops on-line because of getting exactly what is wanted at a good price (books, tools, sporting goods that go bang).
Everybody is happy.
I dislike shopping. Waaay back in the (pre Amazon) day, I would do my Christmas shopping via catalog. Do you remember the Speigel’s catalog? More expensive than shopping the Christmas sales, but a heckuva’ lot less stressful.
I shop locally, within 50 miles. There are items that I buy on line, but this is rare, Everyon is free to shop where they desire.
Extremely high local area rents make it impossible to operate a book
store anywhere around my home.
Amazon has killed the ‘turns’ that any book retailer requires to hold open their doors.
Even our library is pathetic.
Brick and mortar stores cannot afford to stock everything – not even the biggest of the big that have dramatic economies of scale. So they (someone) has to decide what they will stock. The gap between what they decide to stock and what the consumer wants is the one into which Amazon and other on-line retailers stepped.
There is no significant cost to the on-line folks to stock everything that is made and available. The cost to the consumer of shopping on-line is the delay in getting the item from order to delivery. The opportunity cost of driving around to multiple stores to, maybe, find what you want more than offsets the cost of delay, for most things.
I shop almost exclusively on-line and couldn’t be happier.
I try to buy locally to support small business and our community’s economy. Unfortunately, the rise of the big chain stores killed most of the retailers in our town. Then the big box stores arrived, killing the rest — and even some of the smaller chain stores.
Now, for vitually everything but groceries and some hardware, I must either drive 30-odd miles to a neighboring county (factor that into the cost of goods), buy from the limited selection at one of the recently arrived box stores that’s swallowed up farm land on the outskirts of town, or buy online.
Online wins more often than not, especially with Amazon’s quick delivery and easy return policies.
I’m retired now but I worked retail for nearly all of my working life. Everything from entry basic level floor associate to managerial. I know how things ‘ought’ to be and can be quite patient if circumstances warrant it, but am a total unreasonable (b)itch if clerks are standing around gossiping while I am waiting. If the floor looks like it hasn’t been visited by a mop in weeks and the merchandise is scattered hither and yon, I am right back out the door. Add to that, the town I settled in boasts less than 5,000 souls. My options are small to none, read that a tiny WalMart here or a 45 minute drive minimum. I’ve been an online shopper since the mid 90’s. I do nearly all shopping there. I can find what I want at any hour of the day I choose to look for it, I devour customer comments and reviews. Tossing out, of course, some of the top ones as well as some of the lowest ones as well. Great information is to be found there, in the wisdom of my fellow consumers. Convienent, you bet. As a senior these days, I was finding it a chore to lug a 35-50 pound bag of dog food out of the store, into the car, once home out of the car and into the house. Since I am a Prime member, I pay no shipping, it is here in two days and the nice UPS man carries it into the house for me! What’s not to love with that? 🙂 My neighbor prefers Chewy, also free shipping and there are others. I have never yet encountered a simgle problem with a return to Amazon. Their service is always pleasant, helpful and willing to accomodate most any resolution you are looking for. To me, from where I sit, online retailers WANT your business, are happy to please you, have time to answer questions and never have messy aisles. At least that I need see. As I former retailer, here in September, I am beginning to tremble already at thoughts of Christmas! But relax, knowing I will never have to see the inside of any store or ever fight for that parking space!
I ordered two more bookcases from Amazon or an affiliate (I forget). When they arrived they were in two packages that weighed about 100 pounds, each. After a day or so trying to wrestle them around, I gave up and used the return policy of Amazon. The UPS guy picked them up two days later and agreed with me that they weighed a ton.
We then went to a local furniture store here in Tucson and bought two bookcases that cost about twice what the online ones did but these are assembled.
That was two weeks ago and we are still waiting. They did cash our check for the full amount, though.
BUT – you have to watch out for the SMELL of some of these “comfort mats”. I bought one from a well-known
big-box store, and didn’t notice anything amiss till I got it home. OMG! it stinks to high heaven. Obviously the
stores have much better ventilation than my house does.
Each time I walk into the kitchen I wonder -first- “WHAT is that smell?” and -second- “Do you suppose it will EVER go away?”
(Every so often I wonder if China is deliberately shipping back to us the toxic waste generated by our outsourced manufacturing.)
> “Science Fiction is soooo retrograde, sooo unnecessary.”
Judging by used bookstores, westerns and romance are the biggies, although westerns may be in decline. Bet they didn’t carry many of those either.
Other self-inflicted wounds of brick-and-mortar stores:
1–while online sellers are optimizing the checkout experience, physical stores are slowing it down with ‘loyalty numbers’, coupons,and highly scripted things that the clerk is required to say.
2–inability to get any info by telephone, long voicemail trees followed by human who is required to speak in scripted manner
3–in some places, absolutely awful music
WRT awful music. There is not much secular Christmas music and to hear the same eight or nine songs over and over while shopping is annoying. Must be tough for the employees after a while.
chuck,
Those are likely on target. But it should be noted this store carried none of either genre. Westerns aren’t my thing but 60% of the women in my life read the romance genre on a regular basis.
It seems stupid to not cater to them.
Neo, “the attitude of the guy who spoke to me” has zip to do with compensation. He is employed, after all, to do a job; helping a customer, in your case.
It has much to do with culture, local culture. I will not be the first to say the conduct of native Bostonians is quite similar to NY Yankees. Which invented rudeness?
It doesn’t happen down here, regardless of store or pay. We have supermarket bag ‘boys’ (men, really) run to the back of the store to get that one item I forgot and realized only when checking out. No tip, ever. Mere civility and doing a good job, whether black or white.
It’s da Kultcha!
Frog:
First of all, what on earth makes you think this happened in Boston?
Second, plenty of salespeople all over New England are exceptionally pleasant and helpful.
Over the last couple of years, I have become more suspicious of Amazon, and try to buy things elsewhere. I don’t like the idea of one company having so much power.
Some retailers are still able to hold their own. Best Buy is good for electronics, movies, etc. Bull Moose is a regional New England chain that is great for books, movies, and CDs. And then LL Bean is in a class by itself.
I simply do not understand how some places can offer free shipping even on very heavy items. Other stuff you just can’t get online, such as quality lumber or good marine hardware.
In order to be competitive, physical shops have to have experts.
I once went to a radio shack and asked for a bread board. The counter guy laughed, so I had to ask him again since he seemed to think it was a joke. He said “a board to cut bread on?” and I understood why he was laughing.
No, bread boards in the electronic sense are pre soldered electronic boards that pins can be set into to create customized DC/AC circuits. This is used for testing purposes and learning. Generators, light bulbs, resistors, capacitors can all be custom fit on a bread board by hand.
An expert is priced out of that job slot, because his expertise is too valuable in the world to be sitting around waiting for people to answer their questions.
The potential work around is to give counter workers at these shops greater share in the business. Have them handle multiple tasks. Have them learn online about various things from QA boards, when there is nobody around. In fact, center an online board around centralized and localized shops, so that people going online will be redirected to an expert in their GPS location, who they can physically go to for offline meetups and to pick up items.
This hybrid system would be able to combine the best of both worlds.
Unfortunately, the orthodox method is fading away, because people are not that stupid. They know the difference between the Online Experts and the Offline grunts working at counters.
The advantage of the internet is that one Online Expert can create content and answer the questions of thousands or millions of people, with just an Ebay item listing.
Shops are limited to the physical manpower pool available to them. Online, there are geniuses and other experts providing high level content. Even if no genius lives in your neighborhood, there’s somebody in South Africa. And they often do this by creating videos or other content in their spare time. They are not paid to do this, because they are paid much higher than whatever time spent on answering questions would be. They have to “volunteer” to do it, and few hires volunteers for their counter work.
As for rugs, I prefer the Japanese method of keeping places clean. Pour gravel rocks unto soil, no lawn mower needed. Have an entrance where one changes shoes to house shoes. Make everything into flat hardwood panel flooring, so they can be easily cleaned and dusted.
No need for carpets or vacuum cleaners.
Learn to walk barefoot on internal flooring, comfort comes from martial arts steps.
I once talked to a phone rep at McMaster-Carr when I was placing an order. The guy knew where I worked (one state over) and asked if Maria was still there. I said yes, in the office next to me.
He said to say hi.
I told her and asked how she knew him.
They both worked as engineers together at another place.
I asked her why he would take a phone rep position and she laughed.
She said they make 80K (a few years ago), golden benefits and send your kids to college.
Expert knowledge base.
Neo:
Why, you live in or near Boston and you went to BBBeyond for a kitchen floor mat, so I don’t think you drove to Charleston or even Charlestown.
Second, the fact that there are plenty of friendly salespeople all over New England does not indicate or prove a majority are so. Your specific bitch was about brick-and-mortar stores [plural] and, based on one encounter, you generalized about their personnel in your area and explained your view of the economic reasons for the decline in service quality (Lower sales -> lower pay and fewer jobs -> lower quality of service). I have encountered a lot of snotty New Englanders on their home turf or elsewhere.
I repeat, It’s da Kulcha!
Which is also manifest in the area’s politics, local and at state and Federal levels. Dodd and Frank come to mind.
Frog:
You are making unwarranted assumptions about where I live. I have said I live in New England, period. Other than that, you have no idea where I live.
The vast majority of salespeople here are quite pleasant, and that’s true all over New England.
Amazon does not have a monopoly on the supply from the producers. They have “partnerships”. Meaning, companies like Plant Therapy can still ship their own stuff, in parallel with using Amazon as an extra warehouse and distribution center.
That was two weeks ago and we are still waiting. They did cash our check for the full amount, though.
They have to pay the person that assembles it, most likely.
This is a customer service, than some people don’t like spending time assembling things as it requires learning a different skill set that is only temporarily useful.
It’s a service that is used with bicycles bought online. Assembled or partially assembled, etc.