| there is something inherently dishonest about charging high prices
| without offering anything in return, ripping off the customers. why
| would anyone want to shop in a store where they get ripped off?
|
| Disagree. Stupid, but not dishonest. Problem is perception of value. I,
| personally, perceive a lot of value in simply being able to hold the
| product in my hands before purchase, and have my questions answered by
| a (presumed) expert. Unfortunately, customers have overwhelmingly voted
| they place little-to-no value on that, by purchasing elsewhere.
| Dishonesty comes in on the customers side, where they TAKE that value
| (showroom demonstration) without paying for it (making the purchase at
| the dealer offering it).
|

It seems that you're both focusing on one
part of a complex issue. Nospam wants cheap
and chooses to ignore the cost of actually
having a store. He thinks it's dishonest
for stores to charge high prices. (Especially ironic,
given that nospam shills for Adobe at every
opportunity -- a company famous for gouging a
captive customer base.)

You would prefer to view stores as places where
kindly and knowledgeable clerks are there to help
you, and deserve to charge a bit more for that. You
don't think it's dishonest for stores to overcharge
customers, but you do think it's dishonest for
customers to take advantage of store sales staff
without buying. Both are dishonest. Both are misleading
the other party. Both care only about themselves,
lacking what used to be known as common decency.

But it's also more involved than that.

Yesterday I was looking to buy a cane for my
extremely elderly father. Walmart and Home Depot
both claim to carry it. At Walmart it's only $17.
But those stores don't really carry the product.
It's not in their stores. They just claim to carry
anything at all and then act as a middleman delivery
service through their websites. I wouldn't be surprised
if I could buy a circular saw or TV set at CVS or
Safeway online for less than Home Depot and Walmart,
respectively, charge for those items. But woe to me
if I need to return them.

I don't like to buy online, and I especially avoid
anyplace where I can't call and talk to a human.
I ended up getting the cane at Walgreen's for about
$40. Walgreen's and CVS overcharge, simply because
they can get away with it. They're giant, "godless"
corporations, operating only for proift. Recently I read
about how CVS sells customer medical records to
insurance companies; just making a little extra money
on the side. I'd prefer to give my business to a local
drug store. And I wouldn't mind paying a little extra
for that. But they're all gone. The undercutting strategy
that Walgreen's and CVS started out with drove those
stores out of business. The clerks in Walgreen's know
nothing about the products. Nor should they. They don't
get paid enough for that. They're paid to be robots who
ask politely, "Do you have one of our valuable loyalty
cards?"

I wouldn't entirely disagree with your point. CVS
and Walgreen's exist in large part because of the
tendency you're talking about: People fall for the
low prices, ignoring the slightly less obvious fact that
by supporting chain stores they're driving out competition.
The customer tendency to go only for price is what allows
companies like Walmart to thrive. And now it's become
what allows online mega-retailers like Amazon to thrive.
But it's not as simple as a battle between nice, expert
retail clerks and amoral online mega-retailers.