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I went into a store owned by Jews to buy an item, it rang up at $30.00. I told the owner that Amazon sells it for $18.00!! She said, okay, I’ll give it to you for $20.00!!!
When I complained that I would like it for $18.00 she started yelling that I should buy on Amazon and bankrupt all the local stores!!! What an attitude!
I feel that if a person has a price from an online store, than a local one should match it. What does the CR feel?
Stores have the right to set their own pricing policies. If someone doesn’t like it their only option is to shop elsewhere.
But a store does not have a right to be nasty.
…..which is why I shop on Amazon.
FUNNYBONE – Are you saying that the same store sells the same item in their local store and through Amazon? I found that with an AC with one price in their local store, on their website and for less on Amazaon shipped by the same store.
It was wrong of her to yell at you. Her frustration is based on the fact that Amazon works on a very tight margin, and they have tremendous buying power (on their own items – there are several different selling arrangements on the site). It is impossible for the local stores to compete.
most of the stuff sold on amazon by 3 party sellers are on a net profit margin of 1 doller the market out there is cut throat never mind these seller buy at larger qnty then your local store
With all due respect to funnybone, you are a mechutzaf. YOU have no right to go to a check out counter and have the item ring up and then start haggling. Would you do that at Macys? If you dont like the price, walk out. A store has every right to charge what ever they see fit.
Why cant you haggle? You can haggle in Macy’s too. Perhaps their policy is not to negotiate, and that is their right (although I think Macy’s can be negotiable too, to a certain extent), but a customer can certainly try negotiating.
From tommorow’s NY Times:
A glorious future beats a glorious past.
Shares in Amazon immediately jumped nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading, about the same amount that Apple fell after releasing its news.
What caught the eye of investors was that operating margins as a percent of consolidated sales rose to 3.2 percent, from 2.7 percent a year ago.
For more than a decade, Amazon has teetered between minimal profits and no profits. In 2012, it said Tuesday, it lost money. But Wall Street has always been more about promises than results, and Amazon is always on the verge of converting its overwhelming online presence into buckets of cash.
The short-term news Tuesday was not good. Earnings per share fell to 21 cents from 38 cents in the fourth quarter of 2011. Although fourth-quarter revenue went up 22 percent to $21.27 billion, both revenue and earnings did not meet expectations. Analysts had predicted revenue of $22.2 billion and earnings of 27 cents a share.
Forget about all that. What mattered was the improvement in margin.
That was bad advice. The stock is up almost 700 percent since then, hitting a record this month.
Shares in Amazon fell nearly $16 in regular trading Tuesday, to $260.35. After-hours, shares went up more than $22.
Some analysts are still skeptical.
Amazon continues to expand. Last year, the retailer announced it was building a million-square-foot warehouse in Patterson, Calif., about 85 miles southeast of San Francisco. Last week, it announced another million-square-foot warehouse barely 30 miles north of Patterson, in Tracy. It obviously has designs on fast (if not quite same-day) shipping to the seven million generally affluent, Internet-using residents of the Bay Area.
Many of those shoppers will be buying material that originated not with Amazon but with more than two million third-party sellers. The volume of items sold by these firms during the 2012 holidays was up 40 percent from 2011. Some of these sellers merely used Amazon to digitally display their goods, while others also used the retailer to ship it.
LKY: very informative article. Bear in mind though that many individual sellers on amazon could still be turning a profit.
I actually don’t always find amazon to be cheaper, especially if there aren’t many sellers of a particular item.
Funnybone: she shouldn’t have screamed at you. But you were definitely wrong for continuing to squeeze her after she gave you a great discount, and from the way you worded it like you had the RIGHT to get it for 18, not that she’d be doing you a great favor. Her overhead is probably high, you’re not paying shipping which unless it’s shipped through amazon and you spend additional 7 bucks there you’d most likely have to pay more than $2 shipping. You have the convenience of seeing, feeling, smelling exactly what you’re buying, and can take it home immediately. Plus, if you don’t like it you don’t have to pay return shipping, assuming they have some return policy. The only downside could be if it’s heavy/bulky to drag home.
From a halachik point of view, unless the amazon seller is Jewish, you are also most likely wrong. Read the last comment on this thread http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/buying-at-a-jewish-shop-vs-a-non-jewish-shop
You also have to think if you would manage if local stores are driven out of business, for example when you need something ASAP, or want to buy a few screws. (Personally, although I do it out of necessity, I feel guilty buying shoes online for my kids at substantially cheaper prices, although somewhat lower quality compared to local stores, knowing that if everybody did the same, I wouldn’t have where to buy a “first toddler shoe” which really needs to be fitted properly.)
Hope I gave you some food for thought.
some people sell on amazon without making any profit just that their ratings should go up. generally you have to sell more than thousand percent more than a local store to earn a meager livlihood
Funnybone just buy all your things on Amazon, it’s way easier. Anyhow, I don’t think stores do or even should haggle with buyers. But still, she shouldn’t have acted like that.
Amazon does a terrible dis-service to all businesses. They sell at a price that others cannot compete with and thereby put everyone else out of business! Its terrible!
funnybone, I cannot justify her rant but you probably touched a sore spot by mentioning Amazon.
Stores have humongous overhead. They have to pay rent, and have full-time employees manning it. An amazon store, can have a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, (where rent is cheap), and employee wages are lower. Also be aware that items like e.g. cameras, there is barely any mark up at all, and many stores make their profit solely on accessories, etc.
Now, I do feel good going to a store, and supporting the local business owners. However, it’s upsetting to spend so much time waiting to be attended to, (as they are attending to other customers), and then finding out that the size of the shoes I want is not in stock. So, I do prefer
as a convenience to buy everything online.
I would be shocked if I found out Macy’s haggled. It’s a major chain department store with fixed prices, not a mom and pop hardware shop. Certain companies advertise that they will match prices. When I was buying beds last year, sleepys offered a better prices than 1800 mattress, but they matched it etc. it’s not normal to go into a local store and demand anything, let alone such a huge discount.
I don’t like amazon I used to use them all the time but have been very dissappointed lately. For electronics I stick with B&H.
From a person who sells on Amazon and have retail store I can tell you this much. My labor and time on Amazon is much cheaper to fulfill orders and I have several products that I can sell all over the place so i can lower my profit margin a bit. In retail where i have several on people who assist customers who come in to my store i always want to give attention to the walkin customers. But that time from my employees is needed and it costs me money an amazon order is pack and ship in 3 minutes no interaction. I am cheaper on Amazon for that reason. For instance something that retails in more store for 20 dollars i sell it on amazon for 17.50 plus i get shipping depending on the customer. Mind if a customer came in and asked for a discount I would honor it more than likely 20% off depending on the time of year.
Scooter: she was expecting a 40% discount. It may mean the item was overpriced, but probably not by that much. The shopkeeper also doesn’t know right away if the customer is being truthful, unless she actually showed her the amazon price.
As a seller on Amazon, you are welcome to purchase from me
But my overhead is lower, I work from my basement so rent is free and I dont have any employees to pay except myself.
Also there is little interaction with customers so I dont need to pay anyone
As a seller on Amazon, you are welcome to purchase from me
If you had products which I intended to purchase, I certainly would, if I knew which items were yours. I would prefer to buy from a Shomer Shabbos.
The shopkeeper also doesn’t know right away if the customer is being truthful, unless she actually showed her the amazon price.
They probably do know. As long as the Amazon price is a bit more than wholesale, it;s probably true.
Amazon’s wholesale price is usually less than a local stores wholesale price.
Anyways, the store can quickly check Amazon’s price online while the customer is in the store.
To the OP: When the store offered you a price of $20, it beat the Amazon price by about $4, after you add in Amazon shipping, so you were unwise to decline the store’s offer. If you are going to be a schnorrer, at least be a good one.
As for your belief that a store should always match an online price, that is utterly wrong. There is some halacha that prohibits overcharging, but, based on the facts as you have presented them, that is not present here.
I don’t think Amazon’s price is usually less than typical wholesale, although I certainly don’t know for sure.
Many (most?) items are from third party sellers, so it depends on the buying power of those sellers. I have found the prices of Amazon’s own goods to be better priced than anywhere else, including the same items on Amazon from third party sellers.
I still try to buy items from my local stores so that they can send their children to yeshiva and suppport local charities.
For $2-3 profit. And what should they do with the change?
Frum stores don’t let you return. They collect tax on cash transactions and pocket the money. The gouge in the mountains and at any possible venue that they can.
I realized at the end of the day it makes no difference since every penny I save when I shop goes to Bais Yaakov’s coffers.
don’t rip you off? 20 instead of 18 is ripping you off?
You’re paying for the privilege of seeing the item and also for non-shipping. Shipping costs online usually are partly the price of the item.
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