This is the kind of stuff that makes my blood boil.
The stationery industry has faced it for years—brides come in to touch, feel, and get professional advice while searching for wedding invitations, then take that valuable knowledge online, or worse, home as a DIY project.
The assumption that stores provide floor samples and professional advice for free is absurd; they pay for those samples, floor displays, and employee training, all for the purpose of making a sale. Using those resources with no intent of purchasing from the providing retailer is just this side of shoplifting. Yes, my language is strong on this point, but as a past retailer who watched the practice first hand, I know what it costs in very real financial terms.
A lot.
This past weekend, USA Today pushed the “use-em-and-leave-em” concept to the extreme, actually instructing consumers to peruse computers in local stores, then go online to make the purchase, complete with a list of online discounters happy to make the sale (on a brick and mortar’s back).
States are gasping for air as their sales tax revenues drop. Commercial property tax roles shrink as brick and mortars go dark. And our quality of life, directly connected to emergency services, sidewalks, streets, state agencies, school programs, park systems, etc. suffer.
I understand the high cost of outfitting kids for school. No question. But telling consumers it’s okay to “use” a local store’s resources with zero intent of making a purchase is just plain wrong.
Here’s the article—I hope retailers reading this will head on over there and add their two cents to the comments. Your voices need to be heard.
Click here to tell me what you think....
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Oh dear. I wrote a blog post today about using paint chip samples for crafts and decor projects today, and a reader drew my attention to your post.
I am feeling a little remorseful about promoting the idea that it’s ok to go to the store and take all these free samples – but when it comes to paint chips I just don’t know if the stores buy them, or do the manufacturers provide them?
I wanted to check it out a little and went to Twitter to solicit some opinions from paint manufacturers. Benjamin Moore (the only ones who have answered so far) seem not to mind: “We love it! It’s great to see color chips turn into something else, love the coaster idea!”
So…what do you make of this example? I look forward to some opinions.
Yes, Pandora’s Box has been opened (wide). It has created the commoditization of goods and services. Yet as in the story of Pandora, one thing was left, Hope, and I am so very hopeful that as our awareness of these somewhat brutal facts also percolate into the mainstream psyches, our choice-making abilities become much more localized. Well…a girl can dream
The B & M business’ have to be supported. I do believe in doing research for a purchase, but the buying needs to be in store. There is a movement actually in sales circles across the US, people are realizing this and buying local. Social media is helping un-mask the bad players. Look what it’s done to the flower business…………..deceptive adds.
I hope the advertisers in this mullet wrapper decides not to send their hard earned $$$$$$ to them anymore and find a source that supports them back. Without the brick and mortar stores there would be no customer service or need for your paper.
This article is no different than any others I read on a daily basis. It’s not shocking to me that this type of advice is being given but what is shocking is that the local business owners don’t get the real point. The business community is changing and the way people are attracted to the buying decision has changed. The competition for the buying public is more intense now than ever in the past and unless we learn how to succeed in this new arena we are leaving the door wide open to this type of suggestion. Why the sales skills at the local level have eroded to such a state that storefronts are only that, is the question that needs to be addressed and answered. When we learn again the value of selling the advantages of working with people that service what they sell, these types of attacks will become much less effective. People do business with people, they always have and they always will; provided we the people provide the service we sell with a smile, competence and enthusiasm. In closing (a sales term) never fail to ask for the order when face to face with a buyer and never allow them to use your wireless access to buy around you.
Here is a copy of my posting on USAToday:
Appaling. Have you no shame? Theft of Services is punishable by law. Would you ask a doctor or a lawyer for advice and expect not to pay? Why is it that just because someone is “a sales clerk” or owns & operates a small local business does USAToday feel entitled to suggest to its readers to abuse of their services? In a recent TIME article the amount of local sales tax lost by the states to online sales was documented. In several states, their budget deficit would be wiped out if sales taxes were collected. In Florida nearly 50% of the state budget deficit would be wiped out. But Amazon has sued CA and NY to prevent them from collecting sales taxes for its on-line sales. And this only refers to the impact on the state budgets. The local businesses that generated local employment, and supported booster clubs, and paid municipal taxes but now can’t thrive or are out of business are not accounted for in the TIME article. The debasement of the value of work has hit bottom in this country, when parasitic behavior such as the one advocated by USAToday is condoned. Since when does the work of others have no value? What ever happened to the notion that people should be compensated when they provide their work and knowledge? Why is there an ad on TV saying “I asked for free and I got it” seen as a good thing? Where has the work ethic gone? Journalism has lost many standards, including research, the distinction between information and opinion, and background checking. But when it starts advocating unethical and illegal behavior, it has gone too far. USAToday SHOULD have a response that goes BEYOND an apology to all small business retailers and that looks into the consequences of the behavior they have so recklessly advocated.
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