Re:A small town that kept Walmart out now faces Amazon
by sokoloff on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @12:19AM
(#16534421)
There's a contrary point of view which is, "I've transported myself right here, into your store, with money in hand, ready to buy this thing right now" You, local merchant, have a distinct advantage over all online and all other B&M retailers and all you have to do is provide a reasonably close approximation to the same value I can get by tapping a few buttons on my phone and waiting 1-2 days.
The local merchant has the advantage, but many of the small, local merchants around here seem to be content to pull a Leon Lett on the 1 yard line. [0]
"Sorry, our price is $XYZ [50% higher] and we don't price match."
"OK, fair enough. <tap, tap, tap>"
On the flip-side, Home Depot, BestBuy, and Target have generally competitive pricing to start and do price match online competitors, so they get a lot of my "need it now" business.
Using a local business as a showroom for an online business is unsustainable. If enough people do it, then the local business will cease to exist.
It's perfectly legal, and I don't particularly think it should be made illegal, but that doesn't make it ethical.