Re:America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning
by rimunroe on Thursday November 09, 2017 @07:05PM
(#15666859)
There’s a big difference between comparison shopping for prices and the type of shopping you described with your bike example. The former is something that everyone who’s remotely frugal does, and the latter is something that people who want to get The Best Thing (ie not out of necessity) do. That research to find The Best Thing takes a whole lot of time and energy, and lots of people just don’t have that.
Your bike example doesn’t really make much sense, because for the vast majority of people, the cheapest bike will do. Most people don’t bother measuring themselves first, and there’s basically no need to do so at all.
[edit]
To clarify: I don’t think that doing the type of research you described on a thing you’re buying means you value money less, but that it means you probably aren’t shopping for that thing out of necessity.
This is a pretty odd assumption. Why do you assume that doing your research means valuing money _less_? If anything, I would assume the opposite. I grew up lower middle class with a scholarship to a school full of upper class kids, and doing my research usually meant getting the best value for my money : when you have lots of money, it's often easier to just throw a bunch of money at the most commonly purchased product perceived as luxury instead of spending your time doing research on which provides the best value.