But then some customers don't get it either. Back in the days when there were still full service gas stations I worked at a self-serve across the street from one. A lady came in and wanted me to pump her gas for her. When I suggested she go to the full service across the street, she said, "But they charge 15 cents a gallon more". I always wondered how she figured they paid those 6 guys they had running around over there, filling tanks, checking oil, cleaning windshields, etc. She was driving a Cadillac, of course.
frank theriault wrote:
I wonder if things are coming full circle? A long time ago (like 100 years ago), some retailers in North America made their fortune by selling through catalogues. Sears Roebuck in the US and Eaton's in Canada did have stores in the larger cities, but they made much of their profit through selling by mail order to rural areas and small towns that could never support anything more than a general store.
With mail order delivery and catalogues, every person in North America with an address had access to an entire department store and more. Sears even sold automobiles by catalogue.
It seems that another revolution is well under way. The small retailers are under seige. Mind you, they've always been under seige, haven't they? In cities they had to compete against the huge department stores. Then it was shopping malls. Now on-line retailing. With each onslaught many small retailers (and not so small) don't make it.
I hope a few survive this current change. There's nothing like a "real" store, with real people to talk to and exchange ideas with. It's worth a premium to me to keep these people in business.
cheers, frank
Ramesh Kumar wrote:
Online shops & eBay may be affecting the retail shop business. I am also interested in buying in local shops but I find their prices ridiculously high compared to eBay. eBay beats even B&H. Me and my friends always use online shops except for film processing.
Thanks Ramesh
-- "Hell is others" -Jean Paul Sartre
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
