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Whilst I love to support my local shops, even if it's a little more expensive, I find more often the case it is not just a little more expensive, it is a lot more expensive, and yes, I know the reasons. Especially if I know exactly what I want and I have a 7 day DSR to fall back on, I would just go ahead and buy it online and get it the best price that I can. There are apps these days that help you with this (Red Laser) which makes the whole thing really easy. There are plugins that can compare the prices on Amazon and tell if you what you are looking at is the best price. There are websites that tracks the historical data of prices of items in Amazon (Camelcamelcamel). Everything is geared towards saving money so it is hard to resist the savings when they make it so easy. I wouldn't mind spending £11 on something that I can find online for £10 the difference is hundreds or even thousands pounds then there is no way I can use "supporting local stores" as a reason to buy there.
The bit about non-musical gear is so true, actually anything electronic I would do my research for days if not weeks prior first. By the time I am ready to buy it, when I step through the store (even PC World/Currys!), I know what I want and ask for it. I don't ask for an opinion because frankly I don't want it. I only go there if I check online prices are same as Amazon and they have it in stock in my local store and I reserve online, buy through Quidco (3% cash back) then pick it up after work. You get the best of online prices, same day product.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
When I buy camera gear for example, I doubt the sales person in Jessops or even a good independent would know more about it than I do. My research not only entails specs and youtube videos, it most often include asking online community for their opinion. At the end you get both critical reviews and user reviews, plus balance it with what my needs are, with the spec, I am armed with pretty much everything there is to know about said product. I would know about the quirks of the item from the users, I would know about any firmware updates if it is needed, I would know if I am looking for new or old stock and which is better etc.
To be fair things are getting better here. Andertons, for example, give you a 30 day exchange period on stuff, which I have just used for the first time - bought a Supernatural and after a bit of a honeymoon period I decided it wasn't what I was after - contacted them two weeks after I got it and they were fine about exchanging it for something else.
And despite bricks and mortar shops having higher overheads than online they will generally price match UK online prices if you ask nicely - I often do that, despite wanting to support local places, I'm not in a financial position to give them any more money than I have to. In fact if you get to know folk in a decent local shop you will often get better deals than you can get online - Reddog for example are excellent at that in my experience - I got a cracking deal on a Marr Jag.
Coda are another place that go out of their way to keep customers coming back - I have a mate who has GAS like you wouldn't believe, he had bought a few used guitars that he was bored of from Coda that wouldn't sell quickly - that mega expensive Classical I listed in the classifieds for example, and they bought them back as PX for almost as much as they sold them for. Way better than the approx half selling price you can expect for most PX's.
And i have no idea what has happened to the formatting in this reply!
Don't get me wrong- there's a happy medium with service. I've been in music shops before as well where I sauntered around for maybe 20 minutes when I wanted to try something and the staff seemed to be trying its best to ignore me (and there were no other customers in the shop), and that's no good, either. ) But once I've been plugged in, I prefer to be left alone.
That's actually what I was going to bring up- I buy most of my stuff online, but I do buy most of it new. I wonder how many of the people taking the moral high ground about not buying from e.g. Thomann actually buy stuff second-hand? I'm not saying I'm amazing, but at least the way I do it the money is making its way back into the musical instrument industry.
Maybe the people who are saying you should support the little guy aren't the ones who buy second-hand, I dunno- and if so, that's fair enough. But I know from a cursory look round this forum (and most guitar forums), most of the regulars seem to buy an awful lot of their stuff second-hand.
Good points, agreed.
The other thing I'll say is, I don't go just with the cheapest price- I continue to buy from Thomann because both their prices are good and their service. I bought once from MusicStore, for example, and really did not like their service and haven't bought from them again.
I'd also add that I've bought from several English-based online stores as well and have been very impressed with their service, too.
For example, once here I went to a shop and found a really nice Tokai Strat. The price was very good (£275 IIRC) and I asked the guy in the shop about it. "It's new, though we've had it in the shop for a while," he said (this is years ago so that's paraphrased- he definitely implied it was new/not second-hand).
I'm pretty cautious so I went away to think about it.
A few days later I made the trip back (about a 120 mile round trip, and a pretty awkward drive as there isn't a motorway the whole way) to buy the thing. There were different assistants in the shop that day.
I asked to try the Tokai strat.
Somehow (as I said, several years ago, I forget exactly what happened but I remember the gist), the other assistants told me it was second hand, and that the other shop guy was selling it on behalf of his mate.
I said I'd been told last day I was in it was new. The other shop assistants looked at each other and sort of rolled their eyes... apparently this wasn't the first time that other guy had pulled a stunt like that.
Needless to say, I wasn't best pleased. What was a good price for something new was a so-so price for something used, and I'd basically made a one-errand long trip for nothing. I didn't buy it.
Anyway, my point being that not all local shops are good. I certainly wouldn't say that all shops are like that, of course, but it happens. I'm merely making the point that if the anti-DSR people think it's ok to bring up the worst examples of customers to argue against generous DSRs, I think it's ok for me to bring up the worst examples of local shops to argue in favour of them. )
Obviously that's an extreme example- but I've also been in shops where I've got what I'd call "bad" advice (or overheard other customers being offered bad advice) to try to get a sale, or had salespeople argue with me over stuff I was right about (as EdGrip says, odds are I know more than the sales assistant by the time I'm thinking of buying something, at least when it comes to guitar gear). Now, I'd also agree that on other occasions I've had good advice from shops too- again, every situation is different, but acting like every local shop is good and every customer bad is, if you ask me anyway, a bit biased.