[thelist] e-commerce

[Bailey, Dan]

Okay, now from the viewpoint of someone who works in a *real* bike store
(part-time, for the employee discount), is that $26 you're paying for
shipping really worth it?  Bear in mind, bikes ship in a big cardboard box,
semi-assembled.  Buy it at Wal-Mart and you're getting it poorly assembled
by some guy that's making minimum wage (you see things like forks on
backward, the one-size-fits-all mentality...you wouldn't believe some of the
crap we see at the shop), buy it from walmart.com, and you get the joy of
trying to assemble it yourself.  (And trust me, Joe Average doesn't have all
the necessary tools, or the know-how, to do this)...

You have to wonder *what* Wally World was thinking when they decided to put
these on their site.  And $26 for shipping?  That *is* cheap...especially
given what those cheap steel tanks, er, bikes, weigh.  Remember...you get
what you pay for.  I suspect that they see a lot of returns on these things,
because people are unable or unwilling to assemble them, they're damaged
during shipping, or whatever.

Some products are just NOT MEANT to be sold online.  That may sound weird,
but I used to think about opening my own shop, and having a virtual
storefront...but the more I worked in the biz, the more I realized some
things just don't make the conversion from meatspace...

-- Dan

---------------------------------------------------------------
Dan "The Divebomber" Bailey
Marketing Producer
Digital Insurance
dbailey at digitalinsurance.com
(610)-278-5471
Love makes the world go 'round, but, then again, so does a hard blow to the
head.


-----Original Message-----
From: Ron White [mailto:ronwhite at members.evolt.org]
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 10:31 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: RE: [thelist] e-commerce


What exactly are you talking about here?? I just "shopped" walmart.com and
the shipping was $26 for a bike. Yes, a little on the high side, but you pay
for convenience and it was expected to arrive next week. Certainly not the
6-8 weeks you seem to be bitchin about...

Thanks,
Ron White

<snip>
$97.65 because of shipping, and that they won't get around to shipping
them for six or eight weeks.
</snip>



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