The loyalty of their clientele has helped the store weather the onslaught of online retailers during the past few years. And, sure enough, electronics customers are showing up at our neighborhood store armed to the hilt with information and prices obtained by surfing the Web. How not to move at Internet speed I recently had the rather unpleasant experience of waiting in line behind a customer who wanted to know all the details about a particular stereo component, asking question after question about its various features and how it stacked up in terms of quality and price against other brands. So many choices, so little time Being a slow Sunday afternoon and facing such a barrage of questions, the lone salesperson did the best he could to answer all of the questions and get on to the next customer. Still, despite all the attention, the inquisitive customer would not make up his mind.
Independent retailers face a double-whammy.
Not only do they lose sales outright to the e-tailers, they have to compete with unrealistically low prices. Soon, three or four other customers were impatiently waiting. Just when we had decided to interrupt, the customer finally declared that he had made his choice at last. The salesperson was as relieved as we were. We do match the prices of other retailers.