BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="PeterPS" data-source="post: 3164901" data-attributes="member: 124043">The discussion is becoming more and more heated (as usual...) when in fact things are quite simple:*Say I would like to buy model X. My first question of course will be if I can find it and test it directly in a local store within driving distance. If yes, which is not the case for most of us living in smaller cities, then I'll visit the store and if the price is much larger than elsewhere then I will negotiate---my experience is that most stores will be willing to match the best price offered by a well-reputed competitor (but understandably not the price offered by some dubious online retailer in some unknown country). However if they choose to stick to their price, which is significantly larger than the price offered by other sellers, I cannot see any "moral" reason why I should buy from them. Furthermore more and more of these "brick and mortar" stores also sell via their website, and therefore they have to compete with big online retailers and set their prices accordingly. *Local stores in smaller cities carry a smaller and smaller selection of models. Very often model X is not available in any local store, and then the only option is online retailers. However as I suggested above many local stores sell products online as well, and the differences between virtual retailers and physical ones become less distinct in some sense. Local stores of course don't have the "shelve space" of big online retailers but they can order a not-in-stock product for you and then you get the chance to check it out in the store. I agree with some posters that local stores have to find ways to adapt, and I am sure that many will, or else they will perish.Peter.</blockquote>

Verification