i can see only 3 ways to meet the consumers demand for cheaper prices.
1) lower the quantity supplied
2) or lower the quality of the goods supplied
3) or remove the service that used to be attached to goods purchased
i cant see any other way for a business to stay open and continue to employ staff and sell products. Its now a well document fact that consumers no longer have any loyalty to the seller and will spend inordinate amounts of time and petrol to find the cheapest reseller for an item to save even a dollar. In this climate do you really think any one is going to put their prices up so they can provide service to go with a purchase. From what im seeing every reseller is trying to find ways to reduce their overheads so they can drop their prices to meet the demands of consumers. That means no more back room stock, you order from and electronic show room sight unseen to get the item. It means you have to run the gauntlet of resellers hiring the cheapest labour to take your money and hand you the goods with out having any idea abou the products you want. It means having huge issues over warranty follow ups as the cheaper guys will have the flimsiest of warranty procedures. Any one see a way to do it differntly please let me know.

create superior product?

1) lower the quantity supplied
2) or lower the quality of the goods supplied
3) or remove the service that used to be attached to goods purchased

4)profit?!!??!?!

Develop client tell relationships to ensure continuity of work. Depends on what feild you are on about though cobba.

what products are we actually talking about here?

1) lower the quantity supplied

I assume by this you actually mean lower the quantity stocked? As actually selling fewer items will give you less ability to purchase at competitive prices and fewer sales over which to spread your overheads.

Also, don't forget that customers will pay for convenience too.

i bought a computer a few days ago from computer alliance. they have slightly higher prices than some other computer retailers (or used to anyway, i didn't bother shopping around) but i bought from them after having utterly disgusting experiences with another retailer when it came to after sales serivce. CA were good to me last time i bought from them so i was happy to pay a little extra for decent service. i'm glad i did too because it looks like a hdd has failed already =(

so i think you're making some pretty retarded generalisations about consumers and what they are looking for.

ps. how the s*** would lowering quantity supplied cause lower prices?

ps. how the s*** would lowering quantity supplied cause lower prices?

i was wondering this also taggs..
doesn't this drive prices up?

The point was 1 litre of milk is cheaper than 2 litres.

Has anyone been through those new automated checkouts at Woolies? Basically the idea is you scan and bag your own stuff and pay for it with a card( can get cash out too). It's simple enough if you are only getting a few items but the thing that bugged me was that despite having a lower level of service you don't make any actual saving from it.

I'm happy to have lower customer service in some cases if it means a lower end cost but it kinda s***s me when you get less service with no benefit. I don't consider myself particularly thrifty but I always feel like I'm being ripped off in situations like that. Similar to BCC online ticket crap, sif I'm going to pay more for something that costs them less to provide.

the self serve checkouts are awesome, simply because most rtards still line up, where as i can rock up, do my own checkout and get out of the horrible store, quick smart

Wouldn't they need to be watching those self-server checkouts? Anyone could slip a few items past...

i bought a computer a few days ago from computer alliance. they have slightly higher prices than some other computer retailers (or used to anyway, i didn't bother shopping around) but i bought from them after having utterly disgusting experiences with another retailer when it came to after sales serivce. CA were good to me last time i bought from them so i was happy to pay a little extra for decent service. i'm glad i did too because it looks like a hdd has failed already =(

Same, CA has good cust service. I once went to the Umart on Logan Rd and it sucked. It was just a bunch of young asian guys in a boring room with a few posters here and there, and once you'd paid for the product you actually had to go downstairs to the store room's counter yourself and some pasty looking random in plain clothes gives you your item(s). The sales guy gave me my receipt and is like "Okay, you can go and get your item now." - ".....where?" "Down the stairs" "err okay.."

ye i was kinda generalising
most of the computer stores i know are now only stocking fast turnover items and everthing else you have to order. there is no techs on hand to advise you any more and the sales man tell you go look it up on the net. our local computer store no longer has techs to give us advice as they told me it was to expensive to pay them to be there to help people who went off to buy cheaper elswhere so now they have really cheap prices like everyone else but you cant get any help there now.

3dee, im more than happy to "walk down stairs" to get my product when it saves me hundreds of dollars (i buy lots of pcs)

3dee, im more than happy to "walk down stairs" to get my product when it saves me hundreds of dollars (i buy lots of pcs)

True, but it was still kinda dodgy. He didn't really say where t]o go. He sorta just expected me to know to go down [this] stair case and ask [that] guy to get my part.

Guess they mistook you for someone that understands "bargain basement" an knew where to look :)

I don't like when you go places and the people who work there are so full of themselves they don't realise you don't know their silly ways.

To OP...

Got any sources to these claims? They sound oddly outrageous.

Wheres the documented fact that customers show no loyalty?

and isnt it a bit contradictory that thrifty shoppers "spend inordinate amounts of time and petrol to find the cheapest reseller for an item to save even a dollar."

Are you doing some high school assignment or something? Just sounds like you were bored and just rattled off a backwards rant.


also, the solution is a WELL IMPLEMENTED loyalty scheme. ie: fuel vouchers...or anything woolworths ltd is doing. They pretty much own everyones life. In a few weeks they are taking it up a notch with their own credit cards. Not saying they were the brain child behind what they do, probably stole it from the Americans.

they've had their own CC's for ages................

That may be how retail is working out these days, but retail is driven by the consumer. You can't blame the store for wanting to stay in business.

In this climate do you really think any one is going to put their prices up so they can provide service to go with a purchase.

In fact I would argue the opposite. In my business for example, accreditation with government is critical for consumer confidence (not to mention on- going government licensing).

Accreditation means proving you have systems and procedures in place to ensure continuity of service in times of emergency or disaster. The best way to establish this is through service level agreements with all suppliers.

So, in fact, price becomes a distant second factor over the quality of backup and service and quite often I maintain a contract with a more expensive supplier because I know they deliver superior backup and service.

i think your observations relate purely to commodified products which have very short lifespans. i.e. USB memory sticks or blank DVDs. it's not going to apply to a $40,000 multifunction copier or $70,000 gas powered washing machine.

I think the rant has to be taken in context, Retail PC Shops.

Otherwise it's just wrong. But to be fair, it's true of just about ALL retail

Another way to decrease price per unit is to increase your volume (number of goods sold)

or just carry a pen so you can scribble out prices and write your own cheaper ones on there

Well to start with, can I suggest you buy yourself a quality keyboard. One with a shift key would do, a return key would be a bonus.

out source to India who in turn out source to china, this will save you lots of money i hear slave labor is quite cheap these days.