I wanted to buy an electronic gadget the other day and so I did a bit of homework online to find out prices. Never having actually seen this thing I then went to a real shop to have a look, chat to the sales person to decide which model I should get and find out how much it cost to buy it at the shop. I'm all for supporting local small business and I had every intention of buying at the shop, even if it was slightly more expensive than the online one. But it was 40% more! So I bought it online, and now I feel slightly guilty about that.
Do you work in a shop? Do people come in for advice and then buy online?
And while we're on the topic of shopping ethics, should you use the toilets at the local fast food joint with the golden arches even if you're not buying something there? I have a recently toilet trained little boy and the other day we needed a toilet. The shop we were in wouldn't let us use theirs and directed us to the closest ones, those being at fast food place (oops, I accidentally typed fat food place first, is that saying something?) Is the provision of toilets part of their community service?
2 comments:
I did that when buying a camera. I was never going to buy it in a store, the prices there are ridiculous compared with online prices, but I wanted to see how it felt in my hands before I bought it. The information about the camera came from the internet, not the sales assistant (who was not particularly knowlegeable in any case). I do feel badly for shops, especially the small businesses, but I think it's wonderful that consumers have more options. We no longer 'have to' pay those huge, often unjustified mark-ups for products. I think online shopping is ultimately a good thing. My brief, 2 cents.
As for the toilets at McDonalds, I have to qualms taking the kids in there and not buying anything, if that's the only option. Maybe write a note to the shoppping centre management and let them know their own facilities are inadequate, to alleviate some guilt ;-)
Darn that Trish, taking all my lines and using them as her own! Yeah, what she said. On both points!
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