[citation][nom]jhansonxi[/nom]Google is just following an ongoing trend. Many retailers have seen an increase of people checking out items in their stores, taking a picture or two, then leave without buying anything. The theory is that they are just using the retailer as a showroom then buying the item online cheaper. This happens with computers and consumer electronics also. Computer City, CompUSA, Circuit City are gone. Best Buy is not doing well (Win8 isn't going to save them). How long before Micro Center meets the same fate?[/citation]
because they cant compete...
best buy trys to sell a 100$ hdmi cable with new tvs... tell me that isnt some bs right there.
you know, if i had a big enough store, like say i was amazon, i would open up a showroom store.
we would sell some snack food, water and drink, but everything in the store would be showroom stuff, nothing to sell these people, just a place they can go and check out the deals, perhaps scan a code and find it online through amazon. everything would be properly setup, and i would have keyboard samples, mouse samples so on so forth, no working models, just samples, so you can get the look at feel.
and if you went and decided to get speakers or something, you could look at show room models, but if you were a serious buyer, you could select specific models, and combinations of amps. 100$ non refundable down payment, you would get a sound proof room, and 10-25$ service charge per setup, and you can sit there and watch a full movie, granted this would be 2 people only, possible exception for a 3rd person if its a husband wife and the person they trust who knows tech. if you are buying high end speakers, you want to hear them first.
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now back on the topic of of same day delivery,
nearest grocery store to us is about 10 miles away, and you pass close to 100 peoples homes going there.
imagine a dilivery truck, each delivery compartment holds 4 bags, and 2 12 packs of soda and you are charged per compartment.
shoping takes 1 hour for us, knowing where everything is.
imagine this, they get your crap together in 10-15 minutes, bag it, and charge it, and ship it
its delivered within 1-2 hours of ordering (depending on how backed up they are) along with 20 other peoples orders, and in the end it costs 2-5$ to ship same day about each compartment is sold at cost to keep people employed, food is charged at profit.
that is at least 1 hour of time you have back that you never wanted to spend in the first place, and the food is delivered to your home.
hell its possible that they could deliver snack food at 25-50 cents because how many people have a craving for something like doritos or funouns every now and than, and if you didn't have to drive you would SO go to town on a bag, but the 5-10$ in gas is so not worth it for one bag.