I was reading with interest a little
while ago, that business people here in Australia were petitioning
the Government to lower the $ amount of things you could buy overseas
before they incurred GST. These businesses were saying that
competition from people ordering stuff off places like e bay where
there is no GST was damaging their ability to compete.
For those who don't have it GST = Goods
and Services Tax which is basically a government money grubbing
exercise in return for doing sweet FA. They tax a business to sell and customers to buy.
Now this got me to thinking. Why do
people shop online rather than at their local stores. Well I don't
know about others but for me there are three main reasons.
1) Total lack of Customer Service:
It seems that the majority of times (with the odd notable exception)
I have to interact with my local stores I am met by surly, unhelpful,
ignorant shop staff, who if teenagers, are usually texting on their
phone and will ignore customers if at all possible. Or if not teenagers, will
grudgingly acknowledge your existence but leave you in no doubt that
they really wish you were some place else.
Up to a point I can understand this; as
I've also noticed that a large number of customers are either
ignorant muppets or just plain rude to shop staff and if they talked
to me like that on the street they'd get a bitch-slapping.
However I'm not one of them and I make
it a point to try to be pleasant and polite, because I know how shit
their jobs must be. But they make it all so very hard sometimes and
when met with being ignored when I'm obviously waiting for assistance,or rudeness, I'm
as blunt as a battleaxe and don't have to scream and shout to make
them cringe behind the counter. Honestly though, why should it have
to come to that?
LOCAL BUSINESS: FAIL
2) No Help at All: Everything
is OH-SO-HARD. Several times now something that I wanted to buy was not
stocked . Each time I've asked the various stores if they could
possibly get it in for me as I don't mind the wait and would actually
like to support my local businesses.
Either they quoted a ridiculously
inflated price - one example was a laptop screen replacement which was
quoted at 3x the price I could buy it for in Australia (after having it sent by courier from Queensland) WTF? Or said it would
take months to get in (food from Japan – 16 days via e bay
including the time spent at customs) or they flat out refused. You would
have thought I'd asked them to buy me parts for a particle
accelerator.
LOCAL BUSINESS: FAIL
3) It's cheaper: This is where I
get really confused. Now I buy a lot of stuff off ebay but not all of
this comes from overseas, often it's just from other states in
Australia. So please explain how it's possible for for me, a non
business, to buy a single item, pay for shipping and still be able to
get it cheaper than I can locally? This does not compute.
Surely a business buying at wholesale
prices, shipping high volumes at reduced postage rates, should be
making ample profits with what they are charging. This leads me to
believe they are either grossly inflating their mark-up and so they're just
greedy, or so incompetent they don't deserve to be in business
anyway.
LOCAL BUSINESS: FAIL
That does not mean that I've totally
stopped shopping locally however. There are a number of stores that I
frequent time and time again. What is their secret? Are they cheaper
than online? No.
Their secret is every time I go to them
I feel welcome. The staff greet me with a smile and hello and it was
like that from day one, not just because I'm a regular there now.
Many of them will try to get me stuff in if they don't have it and in
a reasonable time, at reasonable cost. In return for this they get my
money and everyone is happy. Sadly these places are few and far
between.
A lot of the local businesses and their
staff need to get their acts together and realise that without
customers they won't have a damn job and a lot of people are like me.
They may spend there once but they won't be back again.
Rant Over.
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