Are Retailers really doing as bad as they say - I think not!

thescouselander

Recently many retailers have announced they have been suffering poor sales.

Today I went to our local shopping centre armed with several hundred £££ to buy a new HD TV. I knew exactly the make and model I wanted and I had seen it for around £550 on the internet.

I had decided to try in the shops to see if I could get a similar price and pick up the TV today so I did not have to wait in for a delivery. My experience was not good.

I tried several shops including Currys, John Lewis etc. In every case the price was way over what I had found on the internet. Ok, they have higher overheads so I expected to pay a bit more but they were not prepared to negotiate on price nor would they throw in any freebies (not even a HDMI cable).

What was even worse was that they didn't even have any stock (despite it being a popular model) and they all said I would have to order the TV and have it delivered to my house. The completely negates that advantage of going to the shop - I'd still have to take time off work to wait for the delivery. Add to all that the sales assistants were pretty indifferent in helping me. In the end I went home and ordered the TV of Amazon for a bargain price.

If retailers are suffering that badly its probably because of their rip off prices and poor customer service. Then again, they didn't seem too bothered about selling me anything so maybe they aren't doing as badly as they make out.

I'm gutted I wasted time battling through traffic to get to the shops.

brightonman123

i guess high end items are a big risk for shops, especially if they dont sell- customers would be expecting lower 'sale' prices, but their supplier would still need paying the full whack..

probably only placing order as customers want them.

Woollies, MFI, who next?

Antispam

I had this trouble with a fridge freezer last month. Currys would not budge on price. I went home bought the same FF for £100 less from a well known high street company

Retailers could be falling over themselves to offer discounts, its a buyers market. Any profit is better than non at all and loose a sale

thescouselander

Antispam wrote: »

I had this trouble with a fridge freezer last month. Currys would not budge on price. I went home bought the same FF for £100 less from a well known high street company

Retailers could be falling over themselves to offer discounts, its a buyers market. Any profit is better than non at all and loose a sale

That's what I thought but yesterday it seemed like they weren't bothered about selling me anything.

Brooker_Dave

thescouselander wrote: »

Today I went to our local shopping centre armed with several hundred £££ to buy a new HD TV. I knew exactly the make and model I wanted and I had seen it for around £550 on the internet.

I tried several shops including Currys, John Lewis etc. In every case the price was way over what I had found on the internet. Ok, they have higher overheads so I expected to pay a bit more but they were not prepared to negotiate on price nor would they throw in any freebies (not even a HDMI cable).

What was even worse was that they didn't even have any stock (despite it being a popular model) and they all said I would have to order the TV and have it delivered to my house.

Lunacy innit.

Hard to believe that here today, gone tommorow websites would be cheaper that proper shops with proper cutsomer service.

And to add insult to injury they insist on delivering large and heavy goods that most people would not be able to carry.

It's now obvious that the whole credit crunch thing has been made up by greedy shop owners, thank god I got my money out of iceland and invested it in woolworths and mfi...

greektony

I hardly think a flat screen TV is something that cannot be handled by one or two people. I managed to get my 37" LCD upstairs to my flat by myself.

I'd put money on the DSG group being next on the block. They are only good for seeing an item in the flesh before I go and order it online. As said b the OP their lack of any kind of customer service does negate the whole spending more to buy something from a bricks and mortar shop.

This isn't helped by them stocking seriously out dated technology at the RRP of the item when it came out years ago. I'm looking at you PC World

Tozer

thescouselander wrote: »

Recently many retailers have announced they have been suffering poor sales.

Today I went to our local shopping centre armed with several hundred £££ to buy a new HD TV. I knew exactly the make and model I wanted and I had seen it for around £550 on the internet.

I had decided to try in the shops to see if I could get a similar price and pick up the TV today so I did not have to wait in for a delivery. My experience was not good.

I tried several shops including Currys, John Lewis etc. In every case the price was way over what I had found on the internet. Ok, they have higher overheads so I expected to pay a bit more but they were not prepared to negotiate on price nor would they throw in any freebies (not even a HDMI cable).

What was even worse was that they didn't even have any stock (despite it being a popular model) and they all said I would have to order the TV and have it delivered to my house. The completely negates that advantage of going to the shop - I'd still have to take time off work to wait for the delivery. Add to all that the sales assistants were pretty indifferent in helping me. In the end I went home and ordered the TV of Amazon for a bargain price.

If retailers are suffering that badly its probably because of their rip off prices and poor customer service. Then again, they didn't seem too bothered about selling me anything so maybe they aren't doing as badly as they make out.

I'm gutted I wasted time battling through traffic to get to the shops.

Why do you think that just because items on the High Street are more expensive than on the web, retailers are doing well?

They will have much, much higher overheads. Staff, energy bills for their stores, higher marketing costs - oh and the big one. PROPERTY costs.

Jakg

Antispam wrote: »

Retailers could be falling over themselves to offer discounts, its a buyers market. Any profit is better than non at all and loose a sale

That would be true if hardware like TV's made much money at all - that's where the cables come in...

Curry's won't go any-time soon, imo, but Comet could. PC World are the strongest of them all, thgouh.

Pennywise

I think that people are getting a little silly about expecting price reductions. Just because we're staring in the face of a massive recession, doesn't mean that shops and traders etc can afford to give things away. Most shops are already heavily discounting their stock.

The big chains are probably separate entities despite being under the same banner name. For example, as a pure guess illustraton only, Currys (Shops) are probably a different company than Currys (Online). Behind the scenes, Currys (Wholesale) will sell to both Currys (Online) and Currys (Shops) and will probably sell the same TV at different prices to each different subsidiary. So Currys (Shop) probably not only pays more for the TV, but also has its overheads to fund, so it can't sell at the same price. If the shop has the TV on its books at a particular "cost" to that shop, then it can't sell it any cheaper otherwise on paper it would make a loss. The guy in charge of Dixons probably justifies all this on the grounds that the customer will probably buy from his own internet distribution network anyway. If the shops don't make a profit, they'll close down, so they have to sell for higher prices than the internet. If your TV shop did reduce their prices to compete with the internet, they'd make a loss, and the next time you wanted to buy something from them, it would be boarded up and the staff signing on the dole.

Same with the trades. Just because the housing market is stuffed, people are expecting the impossible from joiners, builders, plumbers, etc. I was talking to a plumber client earlier this week who said that he actually had one guy suggest that he fit a new boiler for just £50 "because £50 for a days work is better than nothing sitting at home watching TV". Did the customer really think that the plumber would do it??

BargainGalore

No on expects things to be given away, but given the problems and we all have them making some profit is better than making none at all

If the shoe was on the other foot they would be doing exactly the same for instance

A most have product sold at full rrp or more which often happens this time of year

marleyboy

Stores are inevitably going to have more overheads than on-line stores. That should be expected, if the model you specifically wanted was cheaper online, why didnt you just buy it that way?