Customer
Truth be told… there were times when I went to Borders Books, and I looked at the books on the shelves… and if I saw a book that was expensive, I’d simply go home and buy it from Amazon where it was cheaper. HOWEVER… often times, the books at Borders were mussed up in some way… a torn cover or a dinged corner or something.
BUT I wouldn’t take up a clerk’s time with questions and then go buy it at Cheap Joe’s online. THAT would be way wrong.
I work at a college bookstore. We get Wot-Bos all the time! So frustrating… Worst bit is that now, with mobile internet so accessible, we’ll have someone checking the prices online while we’re trying to show them the books!
being in retail, i’m certain this has happened to me far more times than i care to count. as far as online purchases go, though, the only ones i’ve ever made have been those which i was absolutely certain i could not get the item any other way (lilke the five tv sections from the san francisco examiner that were published back in the early 60’s- it’s one of my weirder hobbies)
My sister and I go to B&N specifically for the purpose of finding books we want to get at the library. 😛 We’d probably buy more often, but we’re broke. 90% of the books I own were gifts.
I usually buy online because my town has ONE book store and it usually results in me grumbling and winding up online, anyway.
…and now I’m off to learn the difference between hot pressed and cold pressed paper (you’d think working in a print shop for almost 4 years would imbue me with knowledge, but no luck yet).
While I research and buy online without guilt, I nonetheless make a point of also buying frequently from local brick and mortar businesses, even when I can get it cheaper online. Times are hard enough that spending the extra few bucks at the neighborhood store is worth it.
Alexis… (Hi Ho! and welcome to the comments)… you know exactly what I’m sayin’… and what you described is poor form, bad “Eddy-Kate” and just plain rude. Next time somebody does this… you call them a WOT-BO! It could be a verb, too… “Hey, stop WOT-BOin’ me!”
Firedome… Yah, being WOT-BO’d is one of those facts of retail now. It’s like you always have a BIG competitor… dah, dah, dah… the internest. (a little bird told me to buy it here… on it’s-cheeper-here.com)… sorry- little birdie humor.
Chug… Libraries are AWESOME… and I love it when they have book sales.
Joe… I think that almost all non-big-cities are afflicted with this syndrome: One or no book stores. Sad.
Pete… I LOVE researching online. I live in Google images. Sigh… that’s why I love Pinterest. I collect images (and yes, I have a Tiki Board) and store them there. It helps with research. Anyhoo, yah… research online… try to buy it local, if can’t go back online… (right, Firedome?)
There are some businesses that just DO IT RIGHT… friendly service, helpful staff, and sincere Mommy-Poppyness. They deserve my business. (Sometimes I sneak them into the toon… hee hee.)
Off-shoring or on-shoring (“made in …”)?
Buying from local stores with local employees or websites somewhere else?
Discounts are irresistible? Convenience is expensive?
Employee unions destroy jobs? Economic recovery depends on folks spending more?
Apple Computer currently is sitting on $98 billion in cash, after expenses, bonuses, etc.
I wonder what the topics of the next GOP debate will be…
…more retail, more off-shoring, lower taxes, less government, drill baby drill.
brig… What’s pinterest? Anything like flickr? Similar images?
stick… it’s an online image-holding site that is more fun. You can look at other people’s “pin-ups” and put them up on your board… think of a virtual bulletin board… you can have as many subject boards as you want and you can pin up as many images as you want… and it stays there for as long as that image is on the internet. It’s quite nice.
The worst thing is when they practically rub it in your face, “Well, I’M just going to go buy it on-line”, like you’ve just failed them in every way, and now, with their supreme cunning, they’re going to go discover a brilliant new way to get their stuff cheaper (because no one else has ever thought of using Amazon).
Yeah…I used to do a little retailin’, too.
I got an idea, DADA…. let’s all gang up on those rotten WOT-BOs and GET ‘EM! YAH! Who’s with me??? I say, WHO’s with me!??
Uh, brig… Hmm.
Doesn’t wasting a store’s time include lookie-loo-ing? I mean, why’s it open? To sell.
What’s that biblical line?? Let he (or she) who’s without sin throw the first stone.
There’ll be no one left to gang up on the everyone who likely shopped for a better deal.
Well, maybe those who are either too young to know, or too old to care, about the internet can do some ganging up, but they won’t likely put up much of a fight.
Ya missed the point a little… When you go to a store and take up a clerk’s time with questions and then go home and buy it online… that’s a WOT-BO. The customer has wasted the helpful clerk’s time. No sale.
Yeh, I guess I did sort of miss that point.
I was thinking more about the store’s point of view towards WOT…BO’s.
Gotta support the local shops! But I do loathe the customers that suck all your time. Watch out for the couples looking for wedding invitations!
It’s not just retail, BTW. If you call your cable/satellite/whatever provider, tie up that phone rep for an hour discussing services … then tell them you will call back after you think about it, then you just ruined someone’s day. They are likely graded on their time spent on the phone and, in most cases, the amount of sales they make per period. You just made that poor rep jack up their call time average without at least giving them the sales for their quota.
You call back later, and some other rep who did virtually nothing to earn that sale gets the credit. I called those calls “kicking the tires” calls … and I loathed them. I like helping people, but I also had to keep my stats up if I wanted to get promoted. (which I did, yes, sales not nearly the issue with me anymore, hehehe).
The solution? Either go ahead and schedule an install, but schedule it way out so you have time to change your mind … or when the rep offers to call you back later, take their offer. And don’t do like some did to me, take the offer for a callback then before our scheduled time for me to call them, they call in and talk to someone else. >.< They call you back and you've changed your mind, fine – but at least give them the shot, too much to ask?