Big Box Business

An offer popped up on my computer for printer ink at what seems to be a ridiculously low price. When I bought the new Canon all-in-one, I bought a replacement cartridge because it comes with a "sample" toner cartridge, not a "real" one. It cost me $79.99 plus tax.

I just placed my order at Simplyink on line for 3 toner cartridges for my new Canon printer -- less 10% with the coupon, with a special discount of another $10 for ordering 3 at a time, and free shipping and handling.

Total: $105.22, and my order will be delivered to my door within 3 business days. I did not have to order online to receive the products, the discounts, and the free shipping, as is required at some online merchants.

When I'm tempted to feel sorry for failing big box businesses, I think instead about how they could be cutting cost and meeting consumer needs. Instead, they build bigger, more ostentatious retail outlets that never have what I want on the shelf, but will order it for me -- and it takes 2 weeks and another trip to the store for me to purchase it. When they do have what I need, it ALWAYS costs more than it should, and something in me thinks that's because I'm paying for the dead stock on the shelves and the inflated salaries of the consumer sales rep, who often has no idea about the job because (s)he is working to pay rent and gas, and the cashier who no longer even has to know how to make change or, heaven forbid, count it back to the customer.

If the big box stores want to compete, they have to streamline their merchandise and their service, becoming hybrid retail outlets that showcase the merchandise on the floor and retrieve it from the warehouse out back, rather than stocking upteem of one toner cartridge and not reordering the ones that have sold out until ALL of the cartridges need to be reordered. The excessive merchandising of say, a Wal-Mart, needs to stop: no store needs to display a thousand choices in a thousand sizes, shapes and colors just to entice one consumer to buy one pair of sneakers, or one CD or DVD. Cut the square footage in half, warehouse the back stock, and display what is available. Let the consumer browse, make a selection, go to the sales desk and request it, and let the consumer service representative go pick it up and deliver it to the cashier. Done, done, done. Businesses have become as complacent as consumers have become aggressive, and when balance is restored, the marketplace will revitalize and life will go back to a commerce we all know and love.

Until then, I shop on line: it's at my leisure, I don't waste my gas, my time, or my patience with snippy sales staff, and, unless I have to try it on to see if it fits, it's a better option for me than any brick 'n mortar mall.