Halfords lose a sale
A story from Jim. His wife needed a new bike so they visited Halfords in Kiddy. They knew exactly what they wanted and talking to the assistant he came back with something that his wife tested and liked.
Good news was this was old stock, with new stock coming in which means the price was reduced to clear. Except they couldn't sell it as it was the last one.
Turns out policy is that the racks need to be kept stocked to show they have lots of bikes on offer; if they sell the last one of a particular model that leaves a gap which looks bad. Not to worry they can sell it when the new stock arrives and it may be reduced in price even further. New stock arrives in 2 weeks. Can a deposit be put down on it? No. So what if it's sold by the time we return? Um.
Well done. They left.
In the end they went to (couldn't recall the name but from the location I believe it to be) Smiths Cycles where after hearing what they wanted the owner stated that he might have just what they wanted, just came in, still boxed up. He put it together for them there and then; and as more details emerged fitted the extras they wanted.
Sold.
8 comments:
Yeah, having a gap on the shelves would be far worse than making an actual sale.
Oh, wait…
Hey it's regulations.
My personal 'amusement' came in Sainsbury's on the same day (24th). Cardboard sleeves over the bollards advertising the DVD/Blu-ray release of "Avatar". A DVD rack set-up at the entrance, and an announcement over the PA about how it's available at a special price... on Monday.
Gee thanks for that, thanks for getting me all excited about this special offer I can't take advantage off because I've inconveniently turned up two days early.
Yeah. I wouldn't buy a bike from Halfords even if they had loads of stock. They heavily rely on selling things euphemistically called "mountain bikes" with tyres that aren't appropriate for any conditions and heavy steel frames that bend in the wrong places. I popped into my local last month and the only actual bikes they had in there were the "cboardman" ones that are supposed to be OK (but looked cheap and nasty in the shop) and a nice, old-fashioned, three-speed, leather-saddled town bike (that are completely inappropriate for bombing along dual carriageways). In general, your local independent shop will give you much better service and a range of proper bikes (not just the shoddy imports head office managed to get a discount off this quarter).
Now you know how I feel every time I set foot inside PC World, Comet, Dixons or… hey wait! They're all the same shop! :-P
But just like PC World et al if you know exactly what you want they're likely to have stock rather than have to order it in and it may be cheaper on the bulk-buy.
I've yet to see anything cheaper in PC World than at Maplin. (And the staff at Maplin have a clue!)
Still, if you know what you want, you're going to buy it on the Internet from somebody like ebuyer. They have a much larger range than any physical shop could possibly hope to stock, and their overheads are so much lower that a highstreet shop can't hope to beat them on price.
Heh, I still remember being in Curries, with some salesman jabbering on to my mum about “the new 8.1 hyperdrive”. And of course, my mum is pretending that she understands exactly what this guy is saying. (And I'm standing there thinking “dude, what the hell?? Hyperdrive? Is it a space ship or something?!)
Sorry yes to be precise - if you know exactly what you want and you need it right now.
Like that time I wanted an Ethernet hub, and every shop in the city priced it at £15, but didn't actually have one in stock. But PC World had one in stock.
Because it was priced at £90.
OK, admittedly it was Belkin rather than Random White Box. But still…
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