“These are the times that try men's souls.” | I'm just like Ben, I'm tired of driving to town first one is 40 miles away only to get there and their shelves are bare. Well we can order it for you and it will take a week or more. But I can buy online and have it at my doorstep in two day or next day if needed. We really try and project our needs throughout the year and order accordingly but sometimes it just doesn't work that way. I have a local tire service shop that hands down always has any tire I need and service on a fly. I call my fuel supplier, he is here when I need him, I do give him a week's advance notice when fuel is needed. But he will have it here the next day. But local CO-OP's are a joke, only stock what will turn in 30 thirty days. So you are out of luck on most things there. Used to be I could go into CO-OP and buy 3-4 pairs of jeans, nope that ain't going to happen because they wouldn't stock bigger sizes. Used to be able to 25 years ago but management changed that. Tried to get them to special order boxes of shirts for me, nope that isn't going to happen. Nobody working there can make the decision to place a order. So long time ago switched to ordering from Sears, but they decided to change their business model and just bring cheap goods from overseas. Then you couldn't even buy a decent work shirt from them for big guys, so I quit them. But I can order online and have it delivered to my door step.
I really want to support local stores, they would have 100% of my business but what is wrong with them? Local feed store I went into last week, one of my employees needed a pair of Muck boots, very few pairs on shelve. I asked lady if they had anything that would fit him. Nope she told me they had a hard time keeping them on the shelve. She offered to order them, would be a week she said. I thought to myself they should have been watching inventory it is the season for those boots for another 100 days. She could have placed an order from Amazon Prime for their store, had them in two days to keep her shelves full. She still would have made a little money on them because they charge 17% more than what I can buy off Amazon for those boots. at least she would have kept me as a customer. Plus I never just buy one thing when I go into a store, but if they don't have my first big item, I don't grab the other items I need as I go to the next store so I only make one check out or charge.
It's really sad to marketing gone this way, but I can't find very few shirts or jeans to fit within 100 miles, you would have to spend all day to find them. But I can order online and have them their next day if needed. No store would offer to order next day for you. But I would pay the added freight if they would. It's out of their business model that they learned in college.
I get great service from my animal pharmaceutical suppliers, vets office, NAPA dealer as he will order from MacMaster-Carr for me and have it next freight free on his end, but he gets his mark-up and I get parts first thing in morning and don't have to wait for the end of the day next for me. So some businesses do have marketing figured out. |
Mall sells for $100
