Why do we keep driving to far away stores that are understocked, understaffed and don't care?

[PuffyC]

I was going to drive to a big box store today for some truck cabin filters and dreaded the event. It would be a guess to see if they had the stock, I'd have to wait a long time to check out or self checkout, which I won't do, and pay top dollar of $20 per filter.

After thinking, I checked Amazon and bought better filters for $14 each from them. They will arrive Saturday or before and I'll bet before. I spent zero gas money, zero mileage and wear and tear and saved an hour of my time.

This is why Amazon dominates. Why would you spend hours of your time fighting traffic, parking, then hunting through countless isles (where every store is organized differently) trying to find the 6 things you need only to discover they don’t have two of them, then waiting in a line 7 people deep to check out only so you can load your car yourself and deliver it to your front door using your own gas and labor? I can get those same 6 things on my door step tomorrow from Amazon and spend maybe 5 minutes of my time and no gas. It’s like having a personal assistant who does your shopping for you and works for free.

We cling to brick and mortar out of inertia and a false sense of loyalty to some merchant but the age of retail is over. There will always be a need for certain stores and services but in general it’s a model we simply don’t need any longer.

 

[Diggin It]

Pretty hard to find one today that even has someone to pump gas.

Yeah, but they can keep the 2 litre bottles and chips stocked.

 

[sixdogs]

This is why Amazon dominates. Why would you spend hours of your time fighting traffic, parking, then hunting through countless isles (where every store is organized differently) trying to find the 6 things you need only to discover they don’t have two of them, then waiting in a line 7 people deep to check out only so you can load your car yourself and deliver it to your front door using your own gas and labor? I can get those same 6 things on my door step tomorrow from Amazon and spend maybe 5 minutes of my time and no gas. It’s like having a personal assistant who does your shopping for you and works for free.

We cling to brick and mortar out of inertia and a false sense of loyalty to some merchant but the age of retail is over. There will always be a need for certain stores and services but in general it’s a model we simply don’t need any longer.

I shop local mom and pop places and would also shop big box stores---- IF---they didn't try to keep for them selves 100% of every dollar I spend. I happened to buy some drain hose direct from the manufacturer for $3. Then I see the same hose at a big box store for $16. So was their cost on this $1.25?

That's a heck of a markup and if I'm going to pay that locally, I'll go to the small local places. Amazon for me is for the odd things not stocked by a lot of people or as a protest purchase again the corporate places run by the business school people.

I'll agree retailing is in big trouble but mostly for the arrogant stores with limited product, high prices, few employees and a take it or leave it mindset. Those stores have "commoditized" their products by those actions so of course the lowest price will won and they will lose.


There is a hardware store I know of that has every nut and bolt or screw or whatever, or will get. Old timers work the floors and have forgotten more than I'll ever know. One of them recently saved my bacon by telling me a self-threading screw was the wrong thing for my intended purpose because I would likely damage what I screwed into. True enough, I would have and took his advice of mounting differently. That place is always busy and no big box will replace them.

 

[Pixguy]

There is a hardware store I know of that has every nut and bolt or screw or whatever, or will get. Old timers work the floors and have forgotten more than I'll ever know. One of them recently saved my bacon by telling me a self-threading screw was the wrong thing for my intended purpose because I would likely damage what I screwed into. True enough, I would have and took his advice of mounting differently. That place is always busy and no big box will replace them.

 

[PuffyC]

I'll agree retailing is in big trouble but mostly for the arrogant stores with limited product, high prices, few employees and a take it or leave it mindset.

They're following what I call the Grandy's Bankruptcy Model(tm). It goes like this:

Restaurant (or store) A has a decent business going and things are good. One day Restaurant B opens up across the street, taking half their customers. Restaurant A, which is now making half as much as before, panics and tries to figure out how to restore their margins. Their thinking is always the same - "let's use cheaper ingredients and employ less staff, that'll surely bring our customers and our profit back." Surprisingly to them, their now worse experience drives away even more customers, causing the owners to double down on their cheapness, resulting in a death spiral that inevitably leads to bankruptcy.

Rarely do they realize that their only chance to win that war is to get better, not worse, even if it means increasing costs and charging more. It doesn't always work out as some businesses are destined for failure, but offering a worse product with a worse experience is just asking to be put out of business.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I bought a used brake lathe but have never used it as my days of customer brake jobs ended shortly after with the transition to property management from mechanic work... drum mic, shoe arcing on and off backing plate and rivet machine would get regular use doing side jobs working my way through school...

I do find it harder to assemble the simple supplies but then newer cars don't seem to need as much...

When was the last time adjusting points and most new cars it's simple to replace rotors if needed...

Yeah, I have never shaved a rotor, I just buy new ones. They're cheap, and if one has warped it's going to warp again. I finally trained my wife not to cramp the wheel and lock the brakes on hot rotors, so haven't had a warped rotor in years. They're still cheap, and new disc brakes are a two beer job.

 

[jyoutz]

Many small businesses have established hours that are leading to their demise. Most of us who work need to shop evenings and weekends. Many of these small businesses are closed during these times, so we are forced to shop at big box stores.

 

[JasperFrank]

I remember when a company I was working for gave us the lecture on how Just In Time inventory would save so much money and be so much easier as they transitioned to a Kaizen Toyota based system. Some idiot thought this would work in the United States: a vastly larger geographic area to deal with than Japan. They filed for bankruptcy two years later, cause the parts could not get on site on time. We all lost our accumulated C stock in the company that then, over night, went to zero: That's how it works, that you get nothing.
The last CEO got a golden, severance pay out of it, over 100K a year for the next seven years.
This was obscene, and you have to under stand how Corporations work. All the people on the board know each other. Its a club, and the game is theirs to play.

 

[Jstpssng]

It seems like when I bought new rotors vs having them turned my brake pads lasted longer. Also, I suspect but can't say for sure that rotors are one of those "one use" items now, without enough extra metal to safely turn them. As auto racers used to say, the best way to lose a pound is to shave an ounce in 16 places.

 

[Diggin It]

Making a trip into town today, so I figured I'd hit some local places looking for a widget I need a few of and a couple of other widgets. Local small town combination auto part and hardware store has them for over $6 each. Lowes has a price of over $8/each, but no stock. True Value has a price of $7/each, but no stock.

Twenty minutes or less bopping around the Bay place I find them for a buck each, plus that same seller has some other stuff I need, so I hit their 'free shipping' tier. About $35 for over 20 items that would have cost me over $100 at stores.

Got'em today (despite a UPS flub) and they are exactly the same thing I saw in the stores at the much higher prices.


Turning drums and rotors used to be standard. Not only was it a way to find out if they were still true with no defects, but it put a new surface in them taking off any glazing.