Shopping for an ereader? Good luck

[dcross9818]

I used to be a retail manager and it really was a PITA keeping displays working, people trying to close laptops with a security bar running across the hinge and shattering the screen or kids popping the keys off the computer. Displays are great when they work and even better when customers don't break them. Personally, I would just take advantage of the fact there is no restocking fee on them and buy one, give it a test drive and return if it is not for you. (I am pretty sure that borders is one of the few that won't take a return on an open product, but best buy, walmart, and target won't give you any problems within 30 days.)

Good Luck!

---dcross9818

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Here's a stat for you: Apple stores have higher per square foot sales than Tiffany's. They have more staff per customer than any retail operation I know of ... and the stores are packed all the time with customers poking, prodding and buying. You'd think some bright bulb in the other electronic retail space might wander over to an Apple store one day and say .. "we could do that". Alas, it hasn't happened yet.

You can only do that with a very high margin item, a fair number of believers in a brand name, and enough money to prevent clones. Apple managed this by selling sizzle.
You can usually find one or two examples of this in any business.

It did happen and failed in the electronics industry. ComputerLand was a good example. Knowledgeable staff backed by even more knowledgeable technicians.

But computers became a commodity and that business plan failed.

I would guess that the Apple stores have a high turnover in sales or that those employees are not that sharp.

It's the same reason why you rarely get good support on any product. By the time a good support person requires the needed knowledge and experience they have asked "Is it turned on" and found a "no" answer a billion times. They get bored and either move to a higher tier or become independent consultants.
Only the new guys and the dolts are left behind.

[mikemc2]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

I concur with SP, this is a very common problem. Ebook makers also don't have much clout with these big box stores

B&N perhaps but Sony? Before I bought my 505 I was able to try a working demo unit at a couple different places (Borders and Wal-Mart IIRC). The worst I've seen for this is Best Buy, they just don't seem to care if the units are working or even available to try. I chalk that up to poor management at the department and store level.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

You can only do that with a very high margin item, a fair number of believers in a brand name, and enough money to prevent clones. Apple managed this by selling sizzle.

So, just so everyone knows, the last Apple product I bought personally, or for a member of my household, was an Apple ][+, and that was at least a decade before the current crop of university kids were born. So, I'm no Mac-head.

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

You can usually find one or two examples of this in any business. It did happen and failed in the electronics industry. ComputerLand was a good example. Knowledgeable staff backed by even more knowledgeable technicians.

But computers became a commodity and that business plan failed.

But selling consumer electronics IS all about the sizzle: having stock on the shelves, and, in Apple's case, working devices on display. An Apple laptop computer is no more sexy than a Toshiba Windows 7 but at an Apple store I get to poke, prod and question ... at Joe's Computers, the specific Toshiba model I want is in a box behind a locked glass door.

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

I would guess that the Apple stores have a high turnover in sales or that those employees are not that sharp.

Good retail folk are hard to find but they do exist. I expect Apple has its share. I've chatted with polite knowledgeable Applefolk as well as some pretty unpleasant twits. That's pretty much my experience at Best Buy, btw.

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

It's the same reason why you rarely get good support on any product. By the time a good support person requires the needed knowledge and experience they have asked "Is it turned on" and found a "no" answer a billion times. They get bored and either move to a higher tier or become independent consultants.

Only the new guys and the dolts are left behind.

I simply don't believe it has to be that bleak. I firmly believe there is room for an order of magnitude better experience in retail consumer electronics.

Closer to home, I have to say, again, that Amazon did not get to be the giant in this industry by constantly pissing customers off. They built their business under the directive: To be the most customer centric retailer on the planet, or words to that effect, and, by and large, they have achieved it (and continue to achieve that daily -- that's the most important part).

The bookchains aren't being put out of business by Amazon; they are being put out of business by decades of their own bad business decisions and failure to delight their customers as their customers needs and desires have changed.

[Fbone]

Do the sales staff at Apple and Sony stores earn higher wages than other retail merchants?

I never thought it was possible to earn a livable wage in retail.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Do the sales staff at Apple and Sony stores earn higher wages than other retail merchants?

I never thought it was possible to earn a livable wage in retail.

Well, I distinctly remember being a single mom of 2 and doing just that.

It all depends on what you consider 'livable wage'.

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

But selling consumer electronics IS all about the sizzle: having stock on the shelves, and, in Apple's case, working devices on display. An Apple laptop computer is no more sexy than a Toshiba Windows 7 but at an Apple store I get to poke, prod and question ... at Joe's Computers, the specific Toshiba model I want is in a box behind a locked glass door.

And it cost's a lot less because Joe and maybe one other guy is in the store.
In the past if you had 10 guys to service the people they will look at what you have and then go down the street and buy at Joe's as they did at ComputerLand. Today they buy at Joe.com.

But the concept of selling sizzle is far far more than having stock and letting you play with it. That's the steak part.
Sizzle is selling you the exciting sounds and smells the steak has when it is cooking. They sell sizzle and you buy steak. Apple has always done this.

Closer to home, I have to say, again, that Amazon did not get to be the giant in this industry by constantly pissing customers off. They built their business under the directive: To be the most customer centric retailer on the planet, or words to that effect, and, by and large, they have achieved it (and continue to achieve that daily -- that's the most important part).

The bookchains aren't being put out of business by Amazon; they are being put out of business by decades of their own bad business decisions and failure to delight their customers as their customers needs and desires have changed.

Amazon takes good care of it's customers but they are a high volume low price business that offers none of the experience you want.
You can't call them up and discuss the relative merits of the Zonko X3 vs. the Widget V9.

All you can do is read customer reviews, buy one and try it. If you don't like it you can send it back rather painlessly. As long as people don't buy both and send one back that policy will stay in place.

[BWhite]

This is a very interesting thread.

I have to head to Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday to ship someone off on their Thanksgiving Holidaze trip so I was actually considering dropping by a Best Buy and checking out the keyboard on either the small or the large Macbook Air.

After reading all of this I am wondering what I will find? There is one Apple store in that city, too.

[phenomshel]

I can only speak for the stores in DeKalb, IL...but this is my experience there. The staff at Borders know NOTHING about ebook readers, and they have a quota of them they're supposed to sell. I've got personal experience with this one, as one of the guys who works there is on my Facebook...and one of the bigger reasons we went to DeKalb yesterday was so I could give him a crash course on ebook devices and formats. He thought Kindles read ePubs....
Best Buy...they had working demos of the 950 and the 350 out - by working models I mean they were tethered to the display, but all the functions except wi fi were fully functional. I played with the 950 for several minutes. However, it took the poor sales associate about ten minutes to find a boxed model (it was locked in a case reachable only via ladder on top of a ledge.). The Kindle display was under glass, untouchable, and I didn't see a Nook there at all. (But, I wasn't looking for one so I could have missed it...).
Barnes & Noble is the big winner in DeKalb. The Nook Color is the first thing you see when you walk in the door, along with a big colorful display of cases, lights, and other accessories for both the Classic and the Color. Usually there is also a sales associate walking around armed with one or the other of the devices, too. The time before this, there was also a big tray of cookie samples. That time I was greeted as I walked in, offered a cookie sample, and then asked if I'd seen the Nook. This time, no associates were around; and I played with the Nook Color for several minutes without being accosted, LOL.
I think it just depends on the store, and management of said store. I want to take the manager of the DeKalb Borders and hit him over the head with the Nook display from the BN across the street til he gets the point...

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Well, I distinctly remember being a single mom of 2 and doing just that.

It all depends on what you consider 'livable wage'.

Things may have changed since the days when you sold pickles from an old oak barrel, panning tins for the miners, and burlap sacks of flour.

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by BWhite

This is a very interesting thread.

I have to head to Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday to ship someone off on their Thanksgiving Holidaze trip so I was actually considering dropping by a Best Buy and checking out the keyboard on either the small or the large Macbook Air.

After reading all of this I am wondering what I will find? There is one Apple store in that city, too.

As sensualpoet pointed out your experience at a Best Buy may be good bad or indifferent. I've gone into one of them to look at an existing product I had seen on line and told it did not exist.

"I don't know." is not in many vocabularies. At some point every time I picked up a new client I would say it and they would tell me that the other guy always knew the answer. I would ask why they hired me especially since I cost more.

[Ken Maltby]

eReaders, like eBooks are products that for all practical purposes require a connection
to the internet, for their proper support. They are in many ways an Internet spin-off.
I don't see it as a problem that people who will be obtaining their eBooks from the
internet, would be buying an eReader over the internet.

Luck;
Ken

[astra]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Has anyone else found themselves vexed by non-working displays... or no displays or helpful salespeople at all? Do you feel certain stores do these products justice, and are providing good shopping experiences? Do you feel like buying any electronic device is pretty much a crap-shoot? Help out your fellow shoppers here.

You describe my local Waterstones.
They have 10 packages on display stand, empty obviously. If you want to play with the reader, you have to ask a shop assistant for help. She will run upstairs come back 5 minutes later with the reader and let you play with it. If you want to do it again in one week time, you have to go through this process again. I hate it.
For a change, I decided to buy black PRS-650 in the high street shop vs. the Internet (so many of them are crying that the Internet is the devil who steals their customers). She spent 10 minutes upstairs than called her another assistant who asked me whether I would like a silver version. I said no. She came back and said they have no black readers in stock and she doesn't know when Sony can supply them, if ever.
Eventually, I have purchased the reader from Waterstones online shop?!?
I went to the high street shop to buy a cover. Why? Well, they had something like 10 packages of the covers on the display stand.
The shop assistant spent 10 minutes upstairs and came back empty handed. They don't have covers in stock. I didn't bother asking her where the heck they got empty cover packages. I just left. I bought it again from Waterstones online shop.
When they were selling 505, 300 and 600 they had them on the display. Permanently attached to it. You could not take it into your hands and feel it or adjust an angle for better light. Better light? Probably no amount of adjusting the angle would help because the light condition over there is horrible. Very dark.
The display stand is still in the same dark place, but now you can walk with the reader inside of the shop with the shop assistant trailing behind you. Although the lighting is not bright enough anyway.

One might wonder whether they do it deliberately to scare off potential buyers.

[astra]

I must add that in Bath they had them on display, good lighting, but (I could be wrong, not 100% sure) permanently attached to the display stand.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Here's a stat for you: Apple stores have higher per square foot sales than Tiffany's. They have more staff per customer than any retail operation I know of ... and the stores are packed all the time with customers poking, prodding and buying. You'd think some bright bulb in the other electronic retail space might wander over to an Apple store one day and say .. "we could do that". Alas, it hasn't happened yet.

The problem is that if an electronics store does this, they will end up with higher staff costs, and have to charge slightly more. What will happen is that lots of people will come into the store to play with gadgets, then go home and buy them cheaper online, or pop to the no-service store next door.
With Apple stores, they don't care. They are both manufacturer and retailer, so they make money whether you buy in store or elsewhere. (And as prices are essentially fixed, there is no reason not to buy in a store anyway.)
It would be worth Apple's money to continue to run a store even if the actual sales it makes did not cover its costs, a major purpose of an Apple store is to make the products available for people to play with, whether or not they decide to buy them straight away. They are advertising stations, not just retail outlets.
I imagine the same is true with Sony stores, and the other electronics manufactures with their own retail presence, but it isn't true of Best Buy, etc... who gain nothing from customers experiencing the products but not buying them.