On Sat, 1 Jul 2006 12:40:22 +0100, David Peters wrote
(in article ):

On 01 Jul 2006, Andy wrote:

I don't follow the logic of not buying from an on-line site because
of delivery charges.

- If the prices are less for the goods than a store then why does
it matter?

- You can have free delivery if you spend more than £45

- A £6 delivery charge for smaller orders or faster delivery is
negligible when compared with the cost of transport plus time used
in going to a store.


I agree with you if the total cost (including delivery) was
competitive. But to buy a small item costing maybe £8 or £9 and add a
delivery charge of £6 means it is likely to be very uncompetitive.
After all I find Screwfix's price to be anything but bargain
basement.

Obviously if you buy items of low value one or two at a time it is not going
to be an efficient or cost effective way. That will be true of any on-line
supplier. The shipping costs have to be paid for out of margin or added to
the price paid or a combination of the two.

A store retailer has to pay for shipping, premises and the surly teenagers to
staff it.



I'm not that far from two or three different DIY chain stores but as
you point out it can take resources (time and money) just to make a
trip to them. Espeically if all I want to di is browse goods or to
compare prices.

I suppose that that is realistic if you cost your time at a very low hourly
rate. OTOH, if one is costing time at a realistic rate, there really isn't
(economic) time to wander round several stores to buy goods for a project.

Generally each retailer has high/low price levels across the board or on
product groups/brands. It's simple enough to note or memorise those and
then to decide on which retailer/on line source is likely to have the best
price and availability on all the goods for a project.

On a larger project, it becomes possible to go to several trade suppliers and
ask them to quote competitively for the project.



That's why I want to get a decent catalogue or use some good web
sites and see what is avilable and what a good price is and then to
use my local store if they are suitable. In some cases they will be
and in others they will not be.

Some traders in different sectors do operate something like this - e.g. PC
World and some other DSG stores have something like this. You can look for
products on line, check availability at a local store and go and pick it up.
Sometimes the price is lower than the store retail price.

However, this type of operation is not the cheapest in the market and their
ASP per line item is higher than a DIY store. I suspect that the cost of
maintaining a detailed and accurate web site with stock availability at
branches would be quite high. As long as people are willing to waste their
time wandering around and going between stores, there is not a lot of
incentive for them to change that. The web sites will continue to contain
only a subset of higher ticket and offer items.