Do you mean would I rather get the car out drive for miles ,try to find parking to be told by an employee of Comet or Curry that the bloke who deals with cameras is on holiday.?
Quite agree that one has to find a reliable source for information on the internet.
Earl
Why would you go to Comet or Currys for info on cameras? If you want info on cameras then at least try a proper camera retailer, they do still exist , despite the efforts of big store groups and online dealers. Try Jessops of Jacobs, or an independant.
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What rubbish. The western world is based on competition and part of that is deciding who gives the best deal, and buying from them.
What you are objecting to is a seachange in retail and trying to stop that by pontificating about buying where you get advice is a bit like King Cnut and the waves.
If a shop is so worried about customers moving elsewhere they should give the service or price that wins the business. Sadly chains like Jessops pay minimum wage or not much more and get employees without the wit or interest to offer decent advice anyway. The whole business model sucks from low service levels to huge debt to high street overheads, and they'll die.
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Banned
Do you mean would I rather get the car out drive for miles ,try to find parking to be told by an employee of Comet or Curry that the bloke who deals with cameras is on holiday.?
Quite agree that one has to find a reliable source for information on the internet.
Earl
Curry's and Comet don't "sell" cameras (or anything else for the matter), they display goods that you buy - much like Argos.
Getting proper and qualified advice can save you £10's if not £100's as the case of the muppet that purchased a 30x Zoom for taking pictures of watches, this would only be suitable if he was a Private Investigator taking pictures from 250 yards away. Not only could this chap have saved money but had the right piece of equipment from the off.
What you can't Google is how a camera (I'll stick with photo examples for now) feels and handles (very important to a pro or keen amateur) or what the picture quality is really like. You can't try different body/lens combinations. You can't compare five or six similar models side by side, unless you are happy to mess about ordering six then sending five back, in which case I would suggest the trip to a local photo retailer is time better spent anyway.
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windlesham
If you're an indication of the camera industry I think you're doing an excellent job of killing it off yourself.
All I seem to read from the passport photo petition guys that recently joined the forum is doom and gloom. Perhaps if you chose to be proactive in thinking of ways to regenerate your business rather than trying to stop businesses that are one step ahead you may fair better.
Every business has to move with the times and compete. If you fail to understand this and work under the misguided assumption that because you're independent the public should be supporting you then you're going to struggle.
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aussiecameras
I think you would find that I'm pro-active enough, my business is dramatically different to what it was 5, 10, or 30 years ago.
And there are stores charging for advice. There are other stores charging for lessons, in fact that is a huge growth area.
My point related to the ethics of asking for advice and then buying elsewhere from a business that can't possible have the overheads of a high Street business paying a good deal in rent and a good deal in wages. Somebody has to pay for the advice.
End of story
And there are stores charging for advice. There are other stores charging for lessons, in fact that is a huge growth area.
My point related to the ethics of asking for advice and then buying elsewhere from a business that can't possible have the overheads of a high Street business paying a good deal in rent and a good deal in wages. Somebody has to pay for the advice.
End of story
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Luckily there are still plenty of consumers that realise this and continue to support smaller independents even if they are a little more expensive, because they value the superior service and wider range.
Thankfully we're not all sheeple who just follow the herd and worship at Tescos to save a few pence yet suffer dire service and put up with less choice and fall for all the fake offers.
Obviously though, smaller independents who don't offer a good service or who take the mickey with too high prices won't benefit from customer goodwill.
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Consistency
I would not say I worship Tescos but I brought some grapes that were not from Tesco but from a local fruit and veg shop. They were £1 for a bag and so nice and simple and better for the environment without the plastic tray.
I threw them away as they went off quick and did not seem to wash well and went back to Tescos for two packets in their plastic trays, nice and yummy - 2 for £3.
That's why I go to Tesco's. That said, I brought some nice big mushrooms at the same time from that fruit and veg shop and they were £1 for a bag and they were brilliant mushrooms.
I threw them away as they went off quick and did not seem to wash well and went back to Tescos for two packets in their plastic trays, nice and yummy - 2 for £3.
That's why I go to Tesco's. That said, I brought some nice big mushrooms at the same time from that fruit and veg shop and they were £1 for a bag and they were brilliant mushrooms.
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Perhaps you have hit on it. If you have long supply chains, say for grapes, then perhaps the majors are best, but for local stuff, the independents have a case.
However, why does an independent want to sell ham at £2.49 per 100g at the local Farmer's Market when he gets all of that instead of selling it through Sainsburys where he may get only 99p per 100g and Sainsburys sells it for £1.99 per 100g ? When they sell direct, with no middlemen costs, why do they insist on rip off pricing ?
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Banned
Talay, don't presume farmers markets have any farmers actually attending. If it's like ours one "farmer" is a shop in Windsor (baker), another sells jams & chutneys from a supplier I use - not only have they never seen a farm they also travel 130 mile round trip to get here.
I have about as much time for these markets as I do for supermarkets, they are generally just another bunch of people treating their customers as fools.
I have about as much time for these markets as I do for supermarkets, they are generally just another bunch of people treating their customers as fools.
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The shop that offers the cheapest ( usually the big store group) is able to do this becuase they have the buying power. The bigger the store becomes ( Tescos was a good example), the more they can do this. We all rush to Tesco and take advantage of this, and the bigger they got. You feed a monster, and a monster that does not always give the best service, and a monster that starts to dictate what happens with pricing in the future.
Price is the key, always was, and always will be, but service is still important. These big store groups try to replicate the one to one service, but it becomes a science, which they do not always get right.
Service you get in a small , independant store is often from the heart, and they need to try that bit harder to get the business. Yes, it inevitably costs more, but I think it is often worth it, and if it means preserving smaller independant shops that can only be a good thing. I do not fancy a future that is dominated by massive store groups stick in out of town retail parks, and a dead high street.
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Photovision
You'll find often the supermarkets pay below cost to farmers, and that why there is so few dairy farmers in the uk now
The BBC or C4 did a really good dcoumentary called the true cost of fodd or something like that
Once you start seeing where supermarket food comes from you'll want to shop at a specialist again
some of it is truly shocking stuff
I've worked in supermarkets and I used to see the frozen stuff left out for hours and then refrozen, out of date meat opened and sold through the hot food counter
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DDPlumbing
I also used to work in a major supermarket, I wouldn't shop there, as I know how we used to treat the fresh/frozen product! and dumped returns..... hmmm how long exactly has that chicken been sat on the floor? oh well, its in date.... back on the shelf!
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Consistency
There is no evidence to say that a small corner shop treats produce any better. If there freezers went off for an hour due to a power cut, would they discard all the produce and restock or hope no-one noticed and carry on regardless?
I am not saying that they would, what I am saying is trust is trust, big or small. A smaller shop has more chance of getting away with this but still trust is trust and unless we make everything ourselves from complete scratch and grow all our own fruit and veg, slaughter our own animals etc, we can never truly truly know.
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aussiecameras
In my part of the world there is a great belief in knowing where your food comes from and how the animals have been treated or what sort of chemicals have been applied to the vegetables!.
So here one idea is that you should know the farmer or the guy who knows the farmer and sold it to you or your store.
A sort of degree of separation thing.
Its a bit like pure branding in many ways.
It's an idea to look at.
The big supermarkets pump out the deal that they are the fresh food guys but what a joke!
So here one idea is that you should know the farmer or the guy who knows the farmer and sold it to you or your store.
A sort of degree of separation thing.
Its a bit like pure branding in many ways.
It's an idea to look at.
The big supermarkets pump out the deal that they are the fresh food guys but what a joke!
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Umm, because everyone does what they ar told to do , and get paid silly money?. Oh , and no unions................
Oh just like the UK.
Earl
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Esk247
Indeed. Bread should only last a couple of days at the most. Stick your supermarket bread outside in the packet and it will take a full week to start going off.
Think there was a documentary or video about someone throwing food out in their garden and they found it quite odd that not a single bird, badger, hedgehog or fox went near it..it just went mouldy because the animals didn't see it as food, they saw it more like plastic or metal than something that was edible.
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Mischievously resurrecting the thread !
It has been pretty quiet following this quarters rent date, only Mothercare making any big moves. I wonder if things are getting better or if companies are still living off Christmas, perhaps the June rent date will see some more biggies buckle
It has been pretty quiet following this quarters rent date, only Mothercare making any big moves. I wonder if things are getting better or if companies are still living off Christmas, perhaps the June rent date will see some more biggies buckle
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Give it a couple of weeks past the rent/VAT due date to kick in.
Shouldn't say that it's being negative
So - "tip of iceberg" would be wrong, on that basis...
I'll just wait, then...
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Esk247
Yes...yes...chant their name until your lungs burst. Tesco..tesco..tesco!!!
Just imagine the clubcard points if they were the ONLY shop.
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