Mayayana
| >there is something inherently dishonest about charging high prices | >without offering anything in return, ripping off the customers. why | >would anyone want to shop in a store where they get ripped off? | | Disagree. Stupid, but not dishonest. Problem is perception of value. I, | personally, perceive a lot of value in simply being able to hold the | product in my hands before purchase, and have my questions answered by | a (presumed) expert. Unfortunately, customers have overwhelmingly voted | they place little-to-no value on that, by purchasing elsewhere. | Dishonesty comes in on the customers side, where they TAKE that value | (showroom demonstration) without paying for it (making the purchase at | the dealer offering it). |

It seems that you're both focusing on one part of a complex issue. Nospam wants cheap and chooses to ignore the cost of actually having a store.

He thinks it's dishonest for stores to charge high prices.

(Especially ironic, given that nospam shills for Adobe at every opportunity -- a company famous for gouging a captive customer base.)

You would prefer to view stores as places where kindly and knowledgeable clerks are there to help you, and deserve to charge a bit more for that.

You don't think it's dishonest for stores to overcharge customers, but you do think it's dishonest for customers to take advantage of store sales staff without buying. Both are dishonest. Both are misleading the other party. Both care only about themselves, lacking what used to be known as common decency.

But it's also more involved than that.

Yesterday I was looking to buy a cane for my extremely elderly father. Walmart and Home Depot both claim to carry it. At Walmart it's only $17. But those stores don't really carry the product. It's not in their stores. They just claim to carry anything at all and then act as a middleman delivery service through their websites.

I wouldn't be surprised if I could buy a circular saw or TV set at CVS or Safeway online for less than Home Depot and Walmart, respectively, charge for those items. But woe to me if I need to return them. :)

I don't like to buy online, and I especially avoid anyplace where I can't call and talk to a human.

I ended up getting the cane at Walgreen's for about $40. Walgreen's and CVS overcharge, simply because they can get away with it.

They're giant, "godless" corporations, operating only for proift.

Recently I read about how CVS sells customer medical records to insurance companies; just making a little extra money on the side.

I'd prefer to give my business to a local drug store. And I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for that. But they're all gone. The undercutting strategy that Walgreen's and CVS started out with drove those stores out of business. The clerks in Walgreen's know nothing about the products. Nor should they. They don't get paid enough for that. They're paid to be robots who ask politely, "Do you have one of our valuable loyalty cards?"

I wouldn't entirely disagree with your point. CVS and Walgreen's exist in large part because of the tendency you're talking about: People fall for the low prices, ignoring the slightly less obvious fact that by supporting chain stores they're driving out competition.

The customer tendency to go only for price is what allows companies like Walmart to thrive. And now it's become what allows online mega-retailers like Amazon to thrive. But it's not as simple as a battle between nice, expert retail clerks and amoral online mega-retailers.