On 1/13/2017 2:52 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 11:07:44 -0500, Jack wrote:

I think catalog sales and online sales are almost identical. On-line is
cheaper and easy to keep up to date. Today, people occasionally go to a
retail store if in a super hurry, bored, or want to physically see and
touch a product before ordering it on-line.
What I can't figure out is why, after going to the store to handle
the thing, you go home and order it online instead of taking it with
you - particularly at stores that will "price match".

I only tried price match twice, both times at Best Buy. One was Sam's
club had a major sale on Samsung 55' smart TV's. I was at Best Buy and
they had the same TV for a LOT more money. I told the sales man, showed
him the TV on my cell phone. He said that's a hell of a price, but he
would need to get his manager. The manager came out, and made some
really stupid excuse, like it was a special sale, something like that,
and it didn't qualify.

Second time I needed a cable for a computer I bought at BB. I looked it
up and Staples had it for $7. I drove to Staples and they didn't have
it in stock, would take a few days to order it. Went to Best Buy and
they had the exact same cable, but in a BB box, and it was like $20.
They would not do the price match then, because they were not the same
brand. So for me, I'm 0 for 2 in the price match game.

Also, I noticed a lot of stuff you buy at the Borgs have unique model
numbers for stuff, and looking up those numbers turn up nothing. I
would imagine this tactic would put a crimp in price matching if the
store didn't want to match prices. $1 difference, no problem, $100
difference, big problem....

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/13/2017 3:05 PM, wrote:

There is a REASON there is a difference between wholesale (warehouse)
and retail (store) pricing - and it has nothing to do with the
retailer going after your gonads.

The reason a retailer is going after my gonads is not important to me.
If an item cost 3-10 times as much at a retail store, I'm not likely
going to buy it, nor will their price gouging ways send a chill up my leg.

I hate buying machine screws at Borgs, they come in sealed package of 3
for .99. I need 4, and the price is stupid. Hardware stores used to
sell them by the pound and they were cheap. Lowes sells threaded
inserts individually for 10x's more than I can buy them at Granger.

Why Sears, Lowes, Home Depot won't give a decent price on small items is
not important to me. I guess enough people don't mind getting screwed,
or even know they are getting screwed.
I've been there myself.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/13/2017 5:28 PM, Markem wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:46:17 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime is
expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away quickly if
you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

While I have no claim on internet retailing experience, I've found that
my prime membership (and my costco executive membership) have paid for
themselves each year, so far. Just watching Bionic Woman episodes
on Amazon Prime TV was sufficient, Ah Jamie :-).

Do not do Amazon in this household, you see my wife is in the
publishing business. Amazon has made margin in that business a joke.

I only buy books from Amazon, used. $.01 for most books, plus $3.99
shipping, so $4 delivered to your door. All the books I've bought are
like new. Your wife doesn't need to worry about me though, I don't buy
many books. My wife buys a ton though, and I have no clue what she
pays, but they are all bought on-line, probably Amazon.

--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com

On 1/14/2017 10:22 AM, Jack wrote:


Why Sears, Lowes, Home Depot won't give a decent price on small items is
not important to me. I guess enough people don't mind getting screwed,
or even know they are getting screwed.
I've been there myself.


I'm not sure you are getting screwed in spite of the high price. The
big box stores have a different method of handling inventory and the
cost is probably the same for a 10 cent screw as it is for a $20 light
fixture or $200 appliance. I can buy a pound of ham at the deli for
about the same price as a ham sandwich and loaf of bread. You pay for
the handling and convenience.

On 1/14/2017 8:36 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 12:37 PM, Leon wrote:

It just seemed that Jack was comparing different prices on Amazon for
the same thing and apparently not noticing that a low price, that does
not include shipping, was more expensive than the Prime item which
included shipping.

No, that's not what I was doing, and in fact bitched about item prices
being higher when bought thru prime. If an item cost $5 plus $5
shipping and $9 with free shipping under prime, then, how much free
shipping are you getting?

Free "second day" shipping not just free shipping. You are miss
understanding what is free.
From their web site,

Prime Shipping
FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, FREE Same-Day Delivery in
select areas & more.

Basically it is a free upgrade in shipping time which would cost you
considerably more than standard shipping.


Someone is lying, both can't be right. I'm
absolutely certain Amazon used to do that, not sure if they still do,
but they did, and I bet they still do.

Amazon sells products that it stocks and offers many of those products,
through being a Prime member, with free second day shipping. If not a
Prime member you may get free shipping with a minimum order. Also many,
many retailers offer the same goods on Amazon ad different prices.
Sometimes the prices are higher, some times lower, some times with free
shipping, sometimes with a charge for shipping. typically free shipping
takes longer than Prime member shipping.

Prime is not always the least expensive way to order an item but often
it is, as seen with the shelf hanger clips/brackets.

On 1/14/2017 10:17 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/14/2017 10:22 AM, Jack wrote:


Why Sears, Lowes, Home Depot won't give a decent price on small items is
not important to me. I guess enough people don't mind getting screwed,
or even know they are getting screwed.
I've been there myself.


I'm not sure you are getting screwed in spite of the high price. The
big box stores have a different method of handling inventory and the
cost is probably the same for a 10 cent screw as it is for a $20 light
fixture or $200 appliance. I can buy a pound of ham at the deli for
about the same price as a ham sandwich and loaf of bread. You pay for
the handling and convenience.


Yes. A lot of "small cheap items" walk out of the store unpaid for.
Many retailers stock the cheap item so that the customer will not go to
another store to buy that item, possibly first and possibly loosing a
sale altogether.


A customer wants to buy supplies for an oil change.

Store A stocks oil filters, $10. Drain plug gaskets, $2 and oil $7.50
per quart.

Store B stocks oil filters, $9. Drain Plugs gaskets, .25 cents but no oil.

Store A is the most expensive on like items but gets the sale 90% of the
time over Store B.

Convenience comes at a cost, it's like location, location, location in
the real estate market.

Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 3:05 PM, wrote:

There is a REASON there is a difference between wholesale (warehouse)
and retail (store) pricing - and it has nothing to do with the
retailer going after your gonads.

The reason a retailer is going after my gonads is not important to me.
If an item cost 3-10 times as much at a retail store, I'm not likely
going to buy it, nor will their price gouging ways send a chill up my
leg.

I hate buying machine screws at Borgs, they come in sealed package of
3 for .99. I need 4, and the price is stupid. Hardware stores used
to sell them by the pound and they were cheap. Lowes sells threaded
inserts individually for 10x's more than I can buy them at Granger.

Why Sears, Lowes, Home Depot won't give a decent price on small items
is not important to me. I guess enough people don't mind getting
screwed, or even know they are getting screwed.
I've been there myself.


I needed a couple of screws from a small computer store. He asked me for
50 cents or so, but I gave him $2, and thanked him.

On 1/14/17 8:36 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 12:37 PM, Leon wrote:

It just seemed that Jack was comparing different prices on Amazon
for the same thing and apparently not noticing that a low price,
that does not include shipping, was more expensive than the Prime
item which included shipping.

No, that's not what I was doing, and in fact bitched about item
prices being higher when bought thru prime. If an item cost $5 plus
$5 shipping and $9 with free shipping under prime, then, how much
free shipping are you getting? Someone is lying, both can't be
right. I'm absolutely certain Amazon used to do that, not sure if
they still do, but they did, and I bet they still do.


With probably 50 million customers, at some of them as smart as you
:-), I don't think the practice would last long before being outed and
possibly means for a class action lawsuit. If it were systematic policy
then people would catch on quick and there would be plenty of outrage.

One thing that leads people to believe that is taking place (and I was
in that camp for a while) is how they lump together all their different
vendors along with themselves. Amazon used to not warehouse anything
and there were simply a conduit between sellers and buyers. After they
started being a vendor themselves, it was easy to conflate them all as
one and the same.

So you have one guy selling widgets at, near, or under cost just to get
rid of them and possibly make some scratch off an inflated shipping cost
(remember shipping and "handling?"). And you have Amazon selling them
for a fair profit and offering free shipping which costs them a lot less
than the little guys because of bulk postage deals with shippers. It's
easy to think they are just boosting the price to cover the free shipping.


Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime
is expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away
quickly if you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd
day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

My kids have Prime, I sometimes buy through them if the item
warrants it. Mostly I just add stuff to my wish list and when it gets
high enough for free shipping, I buy it. Everything they sell
doesn't qualify for free shipping, and everything doesn't qualify for
prime, so due diligence is required. I've been screwed more than
once when I paid stupid prices for shipping that I thought was
included with the free stuff.

Another nasty habit I noticed is sometimes an online search will
find the item on Amazon at a low price. If you go off the page and
do a search directly on Amazon for the exact same item, it comes up
with a different price and you can't get back to the original price.
They obviously have a number of pricing schemes to get into your
pocket. Another reason Amazon loses trust from me. They are a shaky
out fit and if you are price conscious (cheap, like me) due diligence
is a must.

This may also be attributed to old links and out-dated ads. Some
prices on Amazon change daily for various reasons. If one of there
vendors gets a huge delivery of widgets which he got at a great
wholesale price, he lists them for cheaper than they were yesterday and
that all of a sudden becomes Amazon's lowest price. Another vendor had
widgets for sale at a super low price and he sold out. Well, today the
price for widgets on Amazon suddenly goes up because said vendor sold
out.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On 1/14/17 8:48 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 2:48 PM, Mike Marlow wrote:
Is it really that hard for posters here to delete the irrelevant text
that they are responding to? It's a very common problem from many of
the regulars here and that has long been an annoying thing in usenet.
Really guys - you can't snip everything except the relevant point you
are responding to? Sheese...

One of my main peeves, although I gave up complaining about it during
Fidonet days. When you see me not snip a long post, you can be sure
it's to get back at the poster(s) that didn't snip to begin with. It's
FAR more annoying than punctuation issues.

If they are too freaking lazy/dumb to snip, I'm happy to add to the mix.
Complaining about it never works, so might as well try to annoy them back.


I'm not so irritated by it anymore for a couple reasons.
1. Snipping long posts was necessary when people were paying for data
downloaded and using 14k modems that took quite a while to download even
text. Neither of those things are a concern anymore, since newsgroups
are never going to put anyone over a data limit and nobody's of dial-up
anymore. (If you are, that's your problem!) :-)

2. The fact that we're even debating this in a newsgroup is like
complaining about the 8-track cassette fading out and switching tracks
in the middle of the guitar solo.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On 1/14/17 9:33 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 5:28 PM, Markem wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:46:17 GMT, (Scott
Lurndal) wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While
Prime is expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled
away quickly if you need items quickly and actually pay extra
for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

While I have no claim on internet retailing experience, I've
found that my prime membership (and my costco executive
membership) have paid for themselves each year, so far. Just
watching Bionic Woman episodes on Amazon Prime TV was sufficient,
Ah Jamie :-).

Do not do Amazon in this household, you see my wife is in the
publishing business. Amazon has made margin in that business a
joke.

I only buy books from Amazon, used. $.01 for most books, plus $3.99
shipping, so $4 delivered to your door. All the books I've bought
are like new. Your wife doesn't need to worry about me though, I
don't buy many books. My wife buys a ton though, and I have no clue
what she pays, but they are all bought on-line, probably Amazon.


As someone who has tried to make a living in the music business, I know
that those barn doors are not only open, but gone, entirely.... in fact
the barn has been burned to the ground.

The price of music has dropped so far that it's not even an apples to
oranges comparison between now and then, it's an apples to spaceships
comparison.

There ain't no going back so fighting it is futile.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

-MIKE- wrote:


2. The fact that we're even debating this in a newsgroup is like
complaining about the 8-track cassette fading out and switching tracks
in the middle of the guitar solo.


Man, I hate when that happens!

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:41:01 -0600, Leon wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:58:17 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/13/2017 2:06 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:14:06 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.


I suspect neither has any experience in retailing PERIOD.


And you would be wrong. I ran an automotive center at 21 and chose to
retired at 40. I knew retail pretty well.
Then you should know better than most what is involved - I spent
the first half of my working life in the automotive repair business -
not a tire and muffler shop but real automotive service - half of it
in dealerships. (from age 15 to 37) - then later a few years working
in the window business and computer business, supporting business
management systems etc.


17-23, tire stores. Manager at 21. 23-28, manager of the parts
department for a large Olds dealership.
28-30, Service Sales Manager for same Olds dealership. 30-33, parts
director for Olds and Isuzu dealership.
33-40 the GM for an AC/Delco 3M wholesale distributor. 40 retired my real
jobs. Last 22 years custom design and build furniture, a hobby that has
evolved into a small business.. 2016 was a banner year.
Okay - so which side of the fence are you on? The side that says the
retailer selling the shelf brackets for something like 73 cents should
be selling them for a nickel like Amazon, or the side that understands
why a retail store needs to charge higher prices??

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:12:54 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:14 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.

How would you know how much experience we have with on line retailing?

Besides, we certainly have plenty of experience with on-line retailing
from the customers point of view, and that's about all that counts. If
the customer doesn't like what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.
Well that's certainly a novel idea --- If the customer is always
right, perhaps he should go into buainess while he knows it all?
Perhaps the "customer" can change the laws of economics - - - -

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:36:10 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:37 PM, Leon wrote:

It just seemed that Jack was comparing different prices on Amazon for
the same thing and apparently not noticing that a low price, that does
not include shipping, was more expensive than the Prime item which
included shipping.

No, that's not what I was doing, and in fact bitched about item prices
being higher when bought thru prime. If an item cost $5 plus $5
shipping and $9 with free shipping under prime, then, how much free
shipping are you getting? Someone is lying, both can't be right. I'm
absolutely certain Amazon used to do that, not sure if they still do,
but they did, and I bet they still do.

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime is
expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away quickly if
you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

My kids have Prime, I sometimes buy through them if the item warrants
it. Mostly I just add stuff to my wish list and when it gets high enough
for free shipping, I buy it. Everything they sell doesn't qualify for
free shipping, and everything doesn't qualify for prime, so due
diligence is required. I've been screwed more than once when I paid
stupid prices for shipping that I thought was included with the free
stuff.

Another nasty habit I noticed is sometimes an online search will find
the item on Amazon at a low price. If you go off the page and do a
search directly on Amazon for the exact same item, it comes up with a
different price and you can't get back to the original price. They
obviously have a number of pricing schemes to get into your pocket.
Another reason Amazon loses trust from me. They are a shaky out fit and
if you are price conscious (cheap, like me) due diligence is a must.
You finally caught on. It's up to YOU - not Amazon, or anyone else,
what you pay. Either you do your homework and find a price you can
live with - and then live with it - or you keep looking and don't buy.

"free shipping" is a PLOY. It is not crooked. There is no such thing
as a "free lunch". Prime pricing is "shipping included" pricing. It
is "convenience" pricing and "convenience" shopping.. It does not
implement "combined shipping" and the economies that go with that.


The only "free shipping" that really does appear to be free is buying
stuff from China or other far east countries on Ebay where you buy
something for less than it would cost you to send an empty envelope.
In those cases, the chinese government is subsidizing the foreign
trade by ssubsidizing the shipping..

I still can't figure out how I can buy something like an arduino
micro, fully assembled, for less than the price of the processor chip
- and have it shipped from China (for something like $3, believe it or
not - try sending a letter to China for under $3 postage from the USA
or Canada - - -)

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 22:49:14 -0600, Markem
wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 23:11:34 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 16:28:36 -0600, Markem
wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:46:17 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime is
expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away quickly if
you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

While I have no claim on internet retailing experience, I've found that
my prime membership (and my costco executive membership) have paid for
themselves each year, so far. Just watching Bionic Woman episodes
on Amazon Prime TV was sufficient, Ah Jamie :-).

Do not do Amazon in this household, you see my wife is in the
publishing business. Amazon has made margin in that business a joke.

OTOH, Amazon allows individuals to self-publish, keeping more of their
royalties and saving the buyers money. Not good for publishers but
they don't have a value add in this sort of market.

Well as my wife is Director of an university press the damage done by
Amazon is viewed critically. Self publishing is easy, getting your
stuff sold though. As a matter of survival she has started a "vanity
publishing arm" and so it goes.

I wasn't talking abut "vanity publishing" (AKA paying someone for the
honor of being a "published" author). People are making real money
with their writing skills. The publisher is just unnecessary
overhead.

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 15:29:52 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:36:10 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:37 PM, Leon wrote:

It just seemed that Jack was comparing different prices on Amazon for
the same thing and apparently not noticing that a low price, that does
not include shipping, was more expensive than the Prime item which
included shipping.

No, that's not what I was doing, and in fact bitched about item prices
being higher when bought thru prime. If an item cost $5 plus $5
shipping and $9 with free shipping under prime, then, how much free
shipping are you getting? Someone is lying, both can't be right. I'm
absolutely certain Amazon used to do that, not sure if they still do,
but they did, and I bet they still do.

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While Prime is
expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled away quickly if
you need items quickly and actually pay extra for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

My kids have Prime, I sometimes buy through them if the item warrants
it. Mostly I just add stuff to my wish list and when it gets high enough
for free shipping, I buy it. Everything they sell doesn't qualify for
free shipping, and everything doesn't qualify for prime, so due
diligence is required. I've been screwed more than once when I paid
stupid prices for shipping that I thought was included with the free
stuff.

Another nasty habit I noticed is sometimes an online search will find
the item on Amazon at a low price. If you go off the page and do a
search directly on Amazon for the exact same item, it comes up with a
different price and you can't get back to the original price. They
obviously have a number of pricing schemes to get into your pocket.
Another reason Amazon loses trust from me. They are a shaky out fit and
if you are price conscious (cheap, like me) due diligence is a must.
You finally caught on. It's up to YOU - not Amazon, or anyone else,
what you pay. Either you do your homework and find a price you can
live with - and then live with it - or you keep looking and don't buy.

"free shipping" is a PLOY. It is not crooked. There is no such thing
as a "free lunch". Prime pricing is "shipping included" pricing. It
is "convenience" pricing and "convenience" shopping.. It does not
implement "combined shipping" and the economies that go with that.


The only "free shipping" that really does appear to be free is buying
stuff from China or other far east countries on Ebay where you buy
something for less than it would cost you to send an empty envelope.
In those cases, the chinese government is subsidizing the foreign
trade by ssubsidizing the shipping..

At least in the US, so is Uncle Sam.

I still can't figure out how I can buy something like an arduino
micro, fully assembled, for less than the price of the processor chip
- and have it shipped from China (for something like $3, believe it or
not - try sending a letter to China for under $3 postage from the USA
or Canada - - -)

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 15:18:17 -0500, wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:41:01 -0600, Leon wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:58:17 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/13/2017 2:06 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:14:06 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.


I suspect neither has any experience in retailing PERIOD.


And you would be wrong. I ran an automotive center at 21 and chose to
retired at 40. I knew retail pretty well.
Then you should know better than most what is involved - I spent
the first half of my working life in the automotive repair business -
not a tire and muffler shop but real automotive service - half of it
in dealerships. (from age 15 to 37) - then later a few years working
in the window business and computer business, supporting business
management systems etc.


17-23, tire stores. Manager at 21. 23-28, manager of the parts
department for a large Olds dealership.
28-30, Service Sales Manager for same Olds dealership. 30-33, parts
director for Olds and Isuzu dealership.
33-40 the GM for an AC/Delco 3M wholesale distributor. 40 retired my real
jobs. Last 22 years custom design and build furniture, a hobby that has
evolved into a small business.. 2016 was a banner year.
Okay - so which side of the fence are you on? The side that says the
retailer selling the shelf brackets for something like 73 cents should
be selling them for a nickel like Amazon, or the side that understands
why a retail store needs to charge higher prices??

How about the side that doesn't care; the transaction is up to the
buyer and the seller and is of no business of anyone else?

On 1/14/2017 2:18 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:41:01 -0600, Leon wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:58:17 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/13/2017 2:06 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:14:06 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.


I suspect neither has any experience in retailing PERIOD.


And you would be wrong. I ran an automotive center at 21 and chose to
retired at 40. I knew retail pretty well.
Then you should know better than most what is involved - I spent
the first half of my working life in the automotive repair business -
not a tire and muffler shop but real automotive service - half of it
in dealerships. (from age 15 to 37) - then later a few years working
in the window business and computer business, supporting business
management systems etc.


17-23, tire stores. Manager at 21. 23-28, manager of the parts
department for a large Olds dealership.
28-30, Service Sales Manager for same Olds dealership. 30-33, parts
director for Olds and Isuzu dealership.
33-40 the GM for an AC/Delco 3M wholesale distributor. 40 retired my real
jobs. Last 22 years custom design and build furniture, a hobby that has
evolved into a small business.. 2016 was a banner year.
Okay - so which side of the fence are you on? The side that says the
retailer selling the shelf brackets for something like 73 cents should
be selling them for a nickel like Amazon, or the side that understands
why a retail store needs to charge higher prices??


There is no correct answer. Many under priced items are loss leaders.
The first tire/automotive store I ran I immediately marked the name
brand spark plug prices down to "40 cents less each" than I/we paid for
them. It was a rare coinsurance that with each set of plugs we did not
also have a distributor cap and "tune-up" kit to go with that, and very
often an oil filter and oil. We sold lots of every thing in that
category. So I lost $2.40 on every set of spark plugs we sold but add
on sales were typically $30~$40.


Retail stores have to have something to get the customer in the door.
They naturally have to charge more because of their over head.

So to answer you question. If it were my retail store and I only sold
shelf hooks I would mark them up.
If I also sold standards and brackets, and shelving, I would make the
hooks cheap.

It is much better to double your profit on a $10 item than a 5 cent
item. Take the loss on the 5 cent item if it could mean add on sales
fot the more expensive and more profitable related items.
If there is no related item to "up sale" with your shelf hooks, mark the
hooks up, you really do not care if you sell them or not anyway as the
customer may only be there for shelving needs.

Way too many factors to determine which method of pricing is correct
including area of town the store is in.

On 1/14/2017 2:20 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:12:54 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:14 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.

How would you know how much experience we have with on line retailing?

Besides, we certainly have plenty of experience with on-line retailing
from the customers point of view, and that's about all that counts. If
the customer doesn't like what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.
Well that's certainly a novel idea --- If the customer is always
right, perhaps he should go into buainess while he knows it all?
Perhaps the "customer" can change the laws of economics - - - -



Well, while every one knows that the customer is not always right, not
having the attitude that the customer is not always right will run away
business.

The customer is why you are there, if the customer is not there neither
are you. You have to know when to give in and when not to.

When I was the service sales manager for the Olds dealership we were
very busy, a typical Monday morning during the Summer meant taking in
150 or so vehicles. I had 6 service advisers doing nothing but writing
repair orders from 7:00 am till about 1:30 in the afternoon. A typical
week was 400+ vehicles going through our service department.
We were in down town Houston and 80% of our business was big fleet
business, oil companies, banks, etc. We provided great service and
certainly charged a premium for our services. Using the OLDS warranty
labor manual for our flag time we charged up to $70 per hour, 33 years ago.

For our customers that brought in their personal vehicles that may have
had an issue with a repair or what ever they thought they were paying
for I had a special way of letting the customer be right if they were
not happy. My service adviser would bring the customer to me, explain
the situation and I would immediately apologist, right or wrong, and
hand the customer my business card with a note on the back. The note
stated that the customer got a 10% discount on his next visit when he
presented my card and there was absolutely no limit to the dollar amount
of repairs. They were always happy because they felt that some one
cared and extended a token of appreciation for the situation.

We also had a separate department that followed up on every service
customer with in one week. Every customer was asked 10 question about
his or her experience. Our satisfaction rating was never under 95%. I
will add that I and the service advisers could double our pay checks as
long as the customer rating did not go below 92% That was a feat
considering 400 new customer each week.

Leon wrote:
snip
If there is no related item to "up sale" with your shelf hooks, mark
the hooks up, you really do not care if you sell them or not anyway as
the customer may only be there for shelving needs.

Way too many factors to determine which method of pricing is correct
including area of town the store is in.


The seller, along with the help of buyers, will determine which method
of pricing is correct.

-MIKE- wrote in news

This may also be attributed to old links and out-dated ads. Some
prices on Amazon change daily for various reasons. If one of there
vendors gets a huge delivery of widgets which he got at a great
wholesale price, he lists them for cheaper than they were yesterday
and that all of a sudden becomes Amazon's lowest price. Another
vendor had widgets for sale at a super low price and he sold out.
Well, today the price for widgets on Amazon suddenly goes up because
said vendor sold out.



Another game some vendors play is to set their price slightly higher than
the base price. What happens sometimes is the guy setting the base price
sells out, then the automated price setting tools set their price to be
slightly higher than the other one and fight their way to the top.

They want to be slightly higher because some people look to see what an
extra penny will get them. It might be something like two identical
products ship from Washington and Rhode Island and you're in Maine. An
extra penny or nickel could mean cutting several days off the transit
time. (It also lets you avoid being charged for sales tax automatically
in some states. You're still supposed to submit it anyway, but who
does?)

Puckdropper

--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 17:47:02 -0600, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 1/14/2017 2:20 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 09:12:54 -0500, Jack wrote:

On 1/13/2017 12:14 PM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Jack writes:
On 1/13/2017 10:46 AM, Leon wrote:

Yes Amazon as well. I would suggest not dabbling in what you don't
understand. Like those $1.99 shelf brackets that are more expensive
than the Prime brackets once you add in the shipping.

I'd suggest not dabbling in what you don't understand.

Since neither of you seem to have any experience with
online retailing, perhaps you're both tilting at windmills.

How would you know how much experience we have with on line retailing?

Besides, we certainly have plenty of experience with on-line retailing
from the customers point of view, and that's about all that counts. If
the customer doesn't like what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.
Well that's certainly a novel idea --- If the customer is always
right, perhaps he should go into buainess while he knows it all?
Perhaps the "customer" can change the laws of economics - - - -



Well, while every one knows that the customer is not always right, not
having the attitude that the customer is not always right will run away
business.

The customer is why you are there, if the customer is not there neither
are you. You have to know when to give in and when not to.

When I was the service sales manager for the Olds dealership we were
very busy, a typical Monday morning during the Summer meant taking in
150 or so vehicles. I had 6 service advisers doing nothing but writing
repair orders from 7:00 am till about 1:30 in the afternoon. A typical
week was 400+ vehicles going through our service department.
We were in down town Houston and 80% of our business was big fleet
business, oil companies, banks, etc. We provided great service and
certainly charged a premium for our services. Using the OLDS warranty
labor manual for our flag time we charged up to $70 per hour, 33 years ago.

For our customers that brought in their personal vehicles that may have
had an issue with a repair or what ever they thought they were paying
for I had a special way of letting the customer be right if they were
not happy. My service adviser would bring the customer to me, explain
the situation and I would immediately apologist, right or wrong, and
hand the customer my business card with a note on the back. The note
stated that the customer got a 10% discount on his next visit when he
presented my card and there was absolutely no limit to the dollar amount
of repairs. They were always happy because they felt that some one
cared and extended a token of appreciation for the situation.

We also had a separate department that followed up on every service
customer with in one week. Every customer was asked 10 question about
his or her experience. Our satisfaction rating was never under 95%. I
will add that I and the service advisers could double our pay checks as
long as the customer rating did not go below 92% That was a feat
considering 400 new customer each week.

Similar to my experience but mine was on a smaller scale. Absorption
rate was never under 90%, and retention rate hovered between 90 and
120% on 3 year rating. That was over my 10 years as service manager of
the smaller of 3 Toyota dealers in the Golden Triangle. We were in the
top 10 in the nation and top 2 in the province in customer
satisfaction for 9 out of the 10 years.

On 1/14/17 8:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
(It also lets you avoid being charged for sales tax automatically
in some states. You're still supposed to submit it anyway, but who
does?)

Puckdropper


We can't avoid it anymore, since there's an Amazon warehouse in TN, so
we get charged sales tax, anyway.

BTW, TN calls it a sales and use tax.
WTF is that!? I'm getting charged to use something!?


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

-MIKE- wrote:
On 1/14/17 8:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
(It also lets you avoid being charged for sales tax automatically

When you order from a 3rd party seller who is out of your state.

On 1/14/2017 10:29 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 1/14/17 8:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
(It also lets you avoid being charged for sales tax automatically
in some states. You're still supposed to submit it anyway, but who
does?)

Puckdropper


We can't avoid it anymore, since there's an Amazon warehouse in TN, so
we get charged sales tax, anyway.

BTW, TN calls it a sales and use tax.
WTF is that!? I'm getting charged to use something!?




In Texas the sales and or use tax goes like this.

Sales tax, easy to understand, when you buy something you pay a sales tax.
It is considered use tax if you are a tax exempt business and purchase
products for resale but do not actually resale the item. Say you buy 50
screws and do not pay sales tax. You sell 45 screws, collect sales tax
on the 45 screws and forward that money/tax collected to the state.

You keep the remaining 5 screws for personal USE. The business/you pay
the USE tax on the price you paid for the 5 screws that you did not sell
and collect sales tax on.

On 1/14/17 10:31 PM, Bill wrote:
-MIKE- wrote:
On 1/14/17 8:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
(It also lets you avoid being charged for sales tax automatically

When you order from a 3rd party seller who is out of your state.


I'll have to check on that.
My guess would be, yes.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On 1/14/17 10:42 PM, Leon wrote:
On 1/14/2017 10:29 PM, -MIKE- wrote:
On 1/14/17 8:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote: (It also lets you avoid
being charged for sales tax automatically
in some states. You're still supposed to submit it anyway, but
who does?)

Puckdropper


We can't avoid it anymore, since there's an Amazon warehouse in TN,
so we get charged sales tax, anyway.

BTW, TN calls it a sales and use tax. WTF is that!? I'm getting
charged to use something!?




In Texas the sales and or use tax goes like this.

Sales tax, easy to understand, when you buy something you pay a sales
tax. It is considered use tax if you are a tax exempt business and
purchase products for resale but do not actually resale the item.
Say you buy 50 screws and do not pay sales tax. You sell 45 screws,
collect sales tax on the 45 screws and forward that money/tax
collected to the state.

You keep the remaining 5 screws for personal USE. The business/you
pay the USE tax on the price you paid for the 5 screws that you did
not sell and collect sales tax on.

Makes sense. I used to have a business license that allowed me to buy
stuff sans tax and I seem to remember hearing what you wrote.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 17:46:34 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 22:49:14 -0600, Markem
wrote:

Well as my wife is Director of an university press the damage done by
Amazon is viewed critically. Self publishing is easy, getting your
stuff sold though. As a matter of survival she has started a "vanity
publishing arm" and so it goes.

I wasn't talking abut "vanity publishing" (AKA paying someone for the
honor of being a "published" author). People are making real money
with their writing skills. The publisher is just unnecessary
overhead.

Just like all of us can play in the NFL (if you have Madden).

On 2017-01-15, -MIKE- wrote:

BTW, TN calls it a sales and use tax.
WTF is that!? I'm getting charged to use something!?

Watch out for shipping "and handling" (S&H). There are limits on shipping,
but add "handling" and the sky is the limit.

Also, there are super slow rates. I ordered a pen from Japan.
Received it in 10 days ....from Japan! A used book, I ordered from
VA, took 30 days!

Watch restocking fees, also. Newegg has always had a 15% restocking
fee, so I changed to Tiger Direct ....at least until TD instituted
that same 15% fee.

I bought a panetonne from SFBA. They charged me $20 to ship a 2lb
package from SF to CO, yet a guy who sold me a 40lb golf cart charger
charged me zero shipping, on ebay.

Amazon wants $46 for a skillet. I can get that same skillet for $30,
elsewhere. Problem is, "elsewhere" want $18 to ship it.

Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances!......

nb

On 1/15/2017 9:54 AM, notbob wrote:


Watch restocking fees, also. Newegg has always had a 15% restocking
fee, so I changed to Tiger Direct ....at least until TD instituted
that same 15% fee.

I guess that is what they call "price matching". The competition does
it so why not? Stops abuse of people ordering three items and then
picking the one they really want and send the other two back



I bought a panetonne from SFBA. They charged me $20 to ship a 2lb
package from SF to CO, yet a guy who sold me a 40lb golf cart charger
charged me zero shipping, on ebay.

Amazon wants $46 for a skillet. I can get that same skillet for $30,
elsewhere. Problem is, "elsewhere" want $18 to ship it.

Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances!......

nb

Everybody likes free shipping and free lunch.

I don't mind paying a fair price for sipping, but when you need a $5
part and the shipping and handling is $15 it makes you wonder but there
s real cost to handling an order. My company has a $300 minimum order
but we don't deal with the general public.

On 1/15/2017 8:54 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-15, -MIKE- wrote:

BTW, TN calls it a sales and use tax.
WTF is that!? I'm getting charged to use something!?

Watch out for shipping "and handling" (S&H). There are limits on shipping,
but add "handling" and the sky is the limit.

Also, there are super slow rates. I ordered a pen from Japan.
Received it in 10 days ....from Japan! A used book, I ordered from
VA, took 30 days!

LOL, I ordered 25 microfiber towels specifically made to clean glasses
lens/specticals. Ordered on Amazon for about $7 including free
shipping. About 5~6 weeks later they showed up oddly packaged with
strange postage stamps. Direct from Viet Nam.

On 2017-01-15, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

About 5~6 weeks later they showed........

Yikes! You win.

nb

In article 587237d0$0$10185$c3e8da3
, Puckdropper
says...

Ed Pawlowski wrote in news:k9hcA.238056$hu2.141755
@fx02.iad:

On 1/7/2017 8:25 PM, wrote:

I hate satellite TV. We've had both and they're crap. Every time a
cloud rolls by they go out. They claim that it doesn't happen but it
does and they can't/won't fix it. No thanks.


You must have a decent cable company. We don't. Cable would go out in
light rain, and a hundred other reasons. My neibor stopped over the
other day and was complaining about the cable company and how email is
down frequently.

Takes a really bad storm for DirecTv to go out. In a year we may lose
15 minutes and get pixelation a few seconds a month if heavy storm
clouds. It kept working even in a blizzard.



That's been my experience with Satellite as well. During a snow storm if
the dish stops working it's time to take a broom or a hockey stick or
something and brush the snow off.

I've got a heated dish--when it snows I just
flip a switch and problem solved. OTOH, I've
dropped that service--now I have fast Internet
and individual Hulu, Netflix, and Prime
subscribtions that get me more TV than I have
time or inclination to watch. I did get the
"flex" package from the cable company that lets
me stream the local channels and watch HBO for
about the same price as I would have paid for
online HBO alone.

We have no cable company, I've looked. I'd love to be rid of AT&T, but
only if the alternative isn't worse. To their credit, they're usually
reliable... but I do lose connection for a few minutes every once in a
while.

Puckdropper

In article zrmdnbP0OZY64e_FnZ2dnUU7-
, lcb11211@swbelldotnet
says...

On 1/8/2017 10:35 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article e53f370e-286c-47b5-96b8-4750c73cc302
@googlegroups.com,
says...

On Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 1:33:36 PM UTC-6, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/5/2017 1:40 PM, Leon wrote:
Apparently Craftsman was around before Sears acquired it 90 years ago.
And now Sears is selling Craftsman tools to Stanley.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-...--finance.html


Yep, not sure how selling off the better selling lines will save Sears.
If you sell them, you get quick cash, but then what?

I think Sears will go out of business shortly. Been 2 years that I have
been waiting for them to give up. Last Christmas, no one was in the
store I went to, while all the other stores were packed.

The craftsman line is not what it once was. Too bad. But don't look to
Stanley, B&D to bring it back. They are horrendous at managing the tool
lines..

Dewalt, B&D, Milwaukee, Stanley, are all former shells of what they once
were. The latest one to drop was Milwaukee, with people lamenting that
the quality has dropped.

Even B&D coffee maker sucks now.

I don't see this as a bad thing, nor a good thing.


--
Jeff

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Does not bode well for quality but I've got a few Craftsman tools and for parts and service I'm glad a company without a foot in the grave will take over.

I'm kind of tempted to drop the bucks for one of
their big mechanic tool sets before they're
gone. OTOH, I've been taking the Jeep apart for
years now with a 50 buck Harbor Freight set so
maybe not.



Craftsman will still be around, it is Sears that might disappear. You
can get craftsman at 6 other brand stores too.

https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy?location=77407

But will they still be made in USA or will the
just be the same stuff Harbor Freight sells only
with a higher price tag?

You might also consider Northern Tool for tools too. We have a few of
their stores in the Houston area and they, compared to HF, are much
nicer and do carry brand name tools.

The nearest Northern Tool to me is 600 miles
away. There's a Harbor Freight in the same
block as Home Depot and Lowes to the north and I
drive past another one on the way to Home Depot
and Lowes to the south. On the other hand, the
closest place to buy tools is a Home Depot with
no nearby Lowes or Harbor Freight--there was a
Sears across the street though.

Snap-On does come to work to service the
helicopter mechanics and maintenance staff--I
suppose I should find out their schedule.

BUT they have their own brand of sockets and wrenches that resemble the
slick chrome that SnapOn sells/used to sell.
The wrenches are pretty darn inexpensive and have a life time warranty.
I have a few of their wrenches for special use and am impressed for the
money.

Harbor Freight's store brand wrenches have a
nice finish and lifetime warranty as well.

I bought this particular wrench to replace the wrench that came with the
router. Like Craftsman you can buy individual wrenches.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

Open stock is a big benefit of Sears--at HF
it's a set or nothing.

In article ,
says...

On 1/8/2017 2:07 PM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-08, Larry Blanchard wrote:

problem with a vendor, but I do check out their ratings and reviews first.

I've found Amazon's ratings to be unreliable. This after shopping on
Amazon fer yrs. I even used to have Prime. No more.

I bought a banjo stand based on over 100+ reviews that gave the item a
five star rating. I ordered it, based soley on its Amazon rating and it's
basically a piece of junk. The reviews had to be bogus.

nb


I wonder if some people would know good from bad at times. I figure no
matter how good an item is, someone will always dislike it so one or two
bad ratings won't dissuade me. OTOH, if a third of the ratings are 1
star, I'll pass.

I read the bad ratings to see if there is a
consistent issue.

On 1/15/2017 10:05 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article zrmdnbP0OZY64e_FnZ2dnUU7-
, lcb11211@swbelldotnet
says...

On 1/8/2017 10:35 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article e53f370e-286c-47b5-96b8-4750c73cc302
@googlegroups.com,
says...

On Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 1:33:36 PM UTC-6, woodchucker wrote:
On 1/5/2017 1:40 PM, Leon wrote:
Apparently Craftsman was around before Sears acquired it 90 years ago.
And now Sears is selling Craftsman tools to Stanley.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears-...--finance.html


Yep, not sure how selling off the better selling lines will save Sears.
If you sell them, you get quick cash, but then what?

I think Sears will go out of business shortly. Been 2 years that I have
been waiting for them to give up. Last Christmas, no one was in the
store I went to, while all the other stores were packed.

The craftsman line is not what it once was. Too bad. But don't look to
Stanley, B&D to bring it back. They are horrendous at managing the tool
lines..

Dewalt, B&D, Milwaukee, Stanley, are all former shells of what they once
were. The latest one to drop was Milwaukee, with people lamenting that
the quality has dropped.

Even B&D coffee maker sucks now.

I don't see this as a bad thing, nor a good thing.


--
Jeff

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Does not bode well for quality but I've got a few Craftsman tools and for parts and service I'm glad a company without a foot in the grave will take over.

I'm kind of tempted to drop the bucks for one of
their big mechanic tool sets before they're
gone. OTOH, I've been taking the Jeep apart for
years now with a 50 buck Harbor Freight set so
maybe not.



Craftsman will still be around, it is Sears that might disappear. You
can get craftsman at 6 other brand stores too.

https://www.craftsman.com/where-to-buy?location=77407

But will they still be made in USA or will the
just be the same stuff Harbor Freight sells only
with a higher price tag?

Hard to say, a lot of Craftsman is not made in the USA now. I wonder if
the Sears "Companion" brand is made by Craftsman.



You might also consider Northern Tool for tools too. We have a few of
their stores in the Houston area and they, compared to HF, are much
nicer and do carry brand name tools.

The nearest Northern Tool to me is 600 miles
away. There's a Harbor Freight in the same
block as Home Depot and Lowes to the north and I
drive past another one on the way to Home Depot
and Lowes to the south. On the other hand, the
closest place to buy tools is a Home Depot with
no nearby Lowes or Harbor Freight--there was a
Sears across the street though.

I would say stick with HF. A life time warranty is not worth much if it
costs you more to have it replaced under warranty than simply buying a
new one.

And Having said that I could no longer fine the "Northern" brand
wrenches on the Northern Freight web site. That might be an in store
item only used as a loss leader.


Snap-On does come to work to service the
helicopter mechanics and maintenance staff--I
suppose I should find out their schedule.

BUT they have their own brand of sockets and wrenches that resemble the
slick chrome that SnapOn sells/used to sell.
The wrenches are pretty darn inexpensive and have a life time warranty.
I have a few of their wrenches for special use and am impressed for the
money.

Harbor Freight's store brand wrenches have a
nice finish and lifetime warranty as well.

Well there you go.... I have not paid much attention to their wrenches,
none of mine need to be replaced. And I lived very close to Northern
Tool when I bought the odd wrenches for specific tools.



I bought this particular wrench to replace the wrench that came with the
router. Like Craftsman you can buy individual wrenches.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lcb112...posted-public/

Open stock is a big benefit of Sears--at HF
it's a set or nothing.

Yes, that is one of the advantages to Northern Tool, they sell
wrenches/sockets like Sears, loose or in sets.

Now that you mention a set or nothing, I bought a set of hex/Allen
wrenches from HD, the Husky brand with LT warranty. Unfortunately they
are not great especially, as you would imagine, in the small sizes, they
bend. I gave them away after replacing with a set of Bondhus hex
wrenches. These are great and made in the USA.

Any way I wonder if HD would have replaced the whole set of wrenches.
Have you had to replace a wrench or set with HF?

In article GIqdnYx6oJnfSu7FnZ2dnUU7-
, lcb11211@swbelldotnet
says...

On 1/9/2017 11:44 AM, notbob wrote:
On 2017-01-09, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet wrote:

Sears is selling Craftsman, most all of us assume just the tools. I
wonder what will become of the Craftsman lawn mowers/lawn power tools,
and Craftsman Garage door openers.

Who gives a rat's ass!?

I give a rat's ass.

What are you doing with the rest of the rat?

In article ,
says...

On 1/14/17 9:33 AM, Jack wrote:
On 1/13/2017 5:28 PM, Markem wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:46:17 GMT, (Scott
Lurndal) wrote:

Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet writes:

Granted again prices are all over the board on Amazon. While
Prime is expensive up front each year, $99, that gets whittled
away quickly if you need items quickly and actually pay extra
for 2nd day delivery.

Prime is good for some and so much for others.

While I have no claim on internet retailing experience, I've
found that my prime membership (and my costco executive
membership) have paid for themselves each year, so far. Just
watching Bionic Woman episodes on Amazon Prime TV was sufficient,
Ah Jamie :-).

Do not do Amazon in this household, you see my wife is in the
publishing business. Amazon has made margin in that business a
joke.

I only buy books from Amazon, used. $.01 for most books, plus $3.99
shipping, so $4 delivered to your door. All the books I've bought
are like new. Your wife doesn't need to worry about me though, I
don't buy many books. My wife buys a ton though, and I have no clue
what she pays, but they are all bought on-line, probably Amazon.


As someone who has tried to make a living in the music business, I know
that those barn doors are not only open, but gone, entirely.... in fact
the barn has been burned to the ground.

The price of music has dropped so far that it's not even an apples to
oranges comparison between now and then, it's an apples to spaceships
comparison.

There ain't no going back so fighting it is futile.

The simple fact is that audiophile recordings
are a niche market. Most people are happy to
pay 99 cents a track for MP3 singles. But I'm
also seeing the MP3 albums going for more than
the CD despite higher costs of production, which
says that somebody somewhere is profiteering and
if it's not the musician then he needs to
reconsider his distribution channel.

In article zPOdnRXd9uHNyefFnZ2dnUU7-
, lcb11211@swbelldotnet
says...

On 1/14/2017 10:17 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/14/2017 10:22 AM, Jack wrote:


Why Sears, Lowes, Home Depot won't give a decent price on small items is
not important to me. I guess enough people don't mind getting screwed,
or even know they are getting screwed.
I've been there myself.


I'm not sure you are getting screwed in spite of the high price. The
big box stores have a different method of handling inventory and the
cost is probably the same for a 10 cent screw as it is for a $20 light
fixture or $200 appliance. I can buy a pound of ham at the deli for
about the same price as a ham sandwich and loaf of bread. You pay for
the handling and convenience.


Yes. A lot of "small cheap items" walk out of the store unpaid for.
Many retailers stock the cheap item so that the customer will not go to
another store to buy that item, possibly first and possibly loosing a
sale altogether.


A customer wants to buy supplies for an oil change.

Store A stocks oil filters, $10. Drain plug gaskets, $2 and oil $7.50
per quart.

Store B stocks oil filters, $9. Drain Plugs gaskets, .25 cents but no oil.

Store A is the most expensive on like items but gets the sale 90% of the
time over Store B.

Convenience comes at a cost, it's like location, location, location in
the real estate market.

I see that with food. There are on the four
corners of an intersection, Aldi, ShopRite,
Stop&Shop, and BigY. On the stuff Aldi carries
they are generally the cheapest. But there's
always one or two items on my list that they
don't have so I have to go to one of the other
stores to get the missing items. On food stamps
it was worth visiting the two. On a quant's
salary it's not and I just skip Aldi.

In article 5bb738e7-7ee8-4c16-bd7e-e2a188f30248
@googlegroups.com,
says...

On Thursday, January 12, 2017 at 9:37:06 AM UTC-6, Jack wrote:

It's not hindsight, it is now. Sears could have easily shifted to
online sales at any time, but my guess is management had their
collective heads where the sun don't shine.

Amazon started from scratch, Sears had a long history of catalog sales.
They blew it big time by ignoring the CURRENT trends. How on earth could
a retail store with a history of catalog sales IGNORE Amazon? Brain
dead is what I think.

--
Jack

You seem to believe everything is so easy. Back in August Wal-Mart paid $3 BILLION for Jet.com online sales company. After spending years trying to increase online sales at Wal-Mart. Did all the fools at Wal-Mart have their head up their behinds? Why couldn't they just make online sales magically? Why? Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. How could they not know how to sell online?

As for comparing catalog sales to online sales. Maybe they are similar, maybe not. Catalog sales for Sears started dying out in the 50s, 60s. They had physical stores so no need for catalog sales. And the US became far more urban, not rural, in the second half of the century. Today everyone almost lives in a city or near a city. So today almost everyone is close to a physical Sears store. Why would they use a catalog? Online sales you have 50 choices and prices.
Catalog you have 5. Are they the same? I have a tool catalog from Acme Tools on the shelf. I doubt I would order anything from it. I'd go to the store in town or use the internet. Is a catalog the same as online ordering, even in philosophy?

You really are looking at this from the wrong
perspective. A "catalog" is not a paper book,
it is a list of items offered for sale. When
you order from Amazon you are ordering from a
catalog. May not seem that way but when you
make something available for sale on Amazon you
have to provide the information about what you
are selling and how much you want to charge for
it and so on and it goes into Amazon's database
where it becomes visible to potential buyers.
That database is no different in concept from
the Sears Big Book--the only difference is that
it's electronic and dynamic rather than paper
and static.