What's My Price?

     “Is this fridge made in America?”
     “Yes, it is.”
     “Great! I only buy things made in America. Is this the price?”
     “Yep.”
     “Hm… Is there anything you can do on the price?”
     This scenario, or variations of that, have been related back to me by countless friends, former coworkers, and current coworkers. I’ve had to deal with similar situations like that for years now and it always baffles me. Why do you care so much if a product is made in America when you don’t want to pay the price for a product made in America?
     You may not be hurting the manufacturing jobs directly, but you’re hurting the stores you’re shopping at because they now need to recoop the money they lost on the product that they had to reduce to sell. This means they’ll either raise the prices of products in the store or cut back hours of the staff you already claim aren’t around to help you. Or they’ll just stop carrying the products because they can’t make a profit off of them. Raising prices could then, possibly, lead to stores closing down because nobody wants to shop at a store where the prices have gone up. With stores closing, the companies that make products in the US will have fewer and fewer places to sell their goods.
     That’s awfully simplified but much of that tends to be the path retail stores take. If you want to teach a baby to walk, you don’t cut off its left leg first and then train him or her. The baby needs both legs to get the job done.
     Right now many are probably asking, “Why don’t people just shop online for products?” Prices can be lower since there are no stores to maintain and not as many staffers to hire. That would work great if the customers asking for more discounts weren’t the same customers who hated to shop online because they couldn’t see the product in person. I have tons of customers who say they prefer to see the products in the store and wouldn’t shop online for bigger purchases because reading about a product can only go so far for them.
     Buying DVDs or video games online is great, but who wants to buy a $1500 stove online when they’ve never seen it in person? What if there’s a typo and the dimensions for that product are wrong? Maybe that white isn’t white enough and now it clashes with everything else in your kitchen. Well, if stores, such as Circuit City (an electronics store that closed down a few years ago) can’t make it, and more stores join them, your options dwindle, leaving only online sites to buy products from. Is paying the price for the product in the stores worth it now?
     Finally, when all is said and done, and the prices are agreed upon, I will often have that same customer ask me, “So, how’s business been?”
     How the hell do you think it’s been?? You’re the moron who wanted the product for next to nothing and you’re concerned about the economy? Do people not know how to connect the dots in this world?
I suppose not. We’re too busy connecting dots that aren’t even there. We’d rather make accusations about people’s religious or political affiliations and then cite evidence that isn’t true than to focus on the real problems of the world. We’d rather go on and on about 9/11 conspiracies or JFK conspiracies than think about how our personal shopping habits may impact the economy at large.
     You don’t go into a grocery store and ask if you can get the broccoli that’s on sale for less. You generally understand that that’s the price you pay and if you can’t afford it, you don’t get it - or you get frozen instead of fresh broccoli. You don’t go into Petsmart and haggle over the price of dog food. Why do you suddenly go into an electronics store and demand discounts on something with a price tag already on it? I wonder how customers would like it if we went into their places of work and ask for discounts of products they sell.
     “Can I get this unleaded gasoline for less than the price at the pump?”
     Electronics stores are not car dealerships. We are not in the mood to haggle over prices with you and we don’t want you to treat us as car salesmen.
     The state of the US economy shouldn’t be something you haggle about if you truly care about the state it’s in. If you want to support American jobs, that’s terrific, but support ALL American jobs.
     More soon from the frontlines…