Should we try to haggle at the Local Camera Store using Amazons prices?
I don’t think there is any point to bargaining with the local camera store. Amazon.com is cheaper because they don’t have to pay for a storefront and floor models. One reason that it might be worthwhile to buy locally (and pay $100 extra) is if your husband could use some assistance or support with the camera. I know my local camera stores will happily provide assistance and basic training (this is how you do X, Y, Z, here is how you access A, B, C) and if your husband wants hands-on help down the road, having a relationship with the local camera store could be useful. OTOH, all the information they would provide is also easy to find on the web in places like DPreview.com. So, it is a toss-up of where to buy the camera, but I absolutely wouldn’t say, “I’d like to buy this camera from you, but it is $100 cheaper on Amazon.com” unless they have a price-matching policy that includes online purchases.
For what it’s worth, there’s no sales tax at Local Camera Store (which I don’t think is a franchise), and, of course, no shipping from Amazon. And we don’t have the extra $100 budgeted for this (as it is, the camera he seems to be settling on is right at the top of the budget….on the other hand, you don’t want to buy a camera that is obsolete when you buy it!)—and if we did, then there would be no question as to which camera to buy, we’d get the fancier one, and be back at the same question.
If you’re going to go in to check out the camera and ask for advice, you should plan on buying it at the store. It’s worth asking if they’ll price match with Amazon. If they will, yay! (And you should do them a favor by buying accessories from them instead of getting them a couple bucks cheaper online.) If they can’t match it, they can’t match it. If you absolutely can’t afford what they’re charging, order it from Amazon. If you decide you don’t like it, return it to Amazon. Don’t go in to learn about the camera it if you can’t afford to pay what they’re charging. They have bills to pay too, and they’re not in the market to help you figure out what to buy from someone else. They’re in the market to sell you stuff.
If your husband wants to check out the cameras, he should pay the local store their full price. That extra $100 is the cost of being able to check out the cameras. As Tim O’Reilly says, you should Buy Where You Shop: A few months ago, I was talking with one of my most loyal retail customers, a specialty computer bookstore in Massachusetts. “We survived the chains, and we survived Amazon,” he said, “but I don’t know if we’re going to survive the online discounters. People come in here all the time, browse through the books on display, and then tell me as they leave that they can get a better price online.” Now, you might say, as the Hawaiian proverb notes, no one promised us tomorrow. Businesses, like individuals and species, must adapt or die. And if the Internet is bad for small, local retailers, it’s good for the online resellers and it’s good for customers, right? But think a little more deeply, and you realize that m
Asking for a price match makes sense to me. On the other hand, I’ve gotten FAR more support from my local camera store than I would from Amazon. They’ve willingly, happily exchanged defective kit without even a question, and the extra $$ I’ve paid is more than accounted for by the extremely good advice I’ve gotten from them. Just two months ago, the salesperson I talked to talked me out of buying a $700 lens and said I should buy a $400 lens. I could’ve gotten the $400 lens for $350 at Amazon, but I probably would have bought the $700 lens. Just a few weeks ago, they pulled my customer records and emailed me the serial numbers of the lenses I’d bought from them when some of my kit was stolen. If the pricing is outrageously different (several hundred $$), I’ll buy online, and I’d feel comfortable asking for a price match where it was close, but I figure I’m paying for service, and (important addition) I make use of that service fairly regularly.
