[quote name='vodkablast']Edit: a word about Bookstores and in store pick up.
From Borders, I had them hold a cook book for me. It was $50 online but when you select to pick it up in store, the price changed to $75. I had a 40% off coupon so I wasn't too mad.
From B&N, a book online was $15 and when I got to the store it was cover price, $24.
I realize that retail stores have operating costs that prevent them from offering as good of a discount in store as they can online but make sure you pay online and aren't just picking it up as the price may be higher.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it's important to note that "Ship To Store" and "Reserve In Store" are two entirely different options. When you use "Ship To Store", which is a shipping option during the check-out process, you're actually ordering it from the website (at the website price), and they're just shipping it to the store instead of shipping it directly to you. You have to wait for the item to be shipped and to arrive just like you would if you were having it sent you your home. When you use "Reserve In Store", you're actually having them hold a copy that they already have at the store for you; you can get the item right away, but you're paying the in-store price for it.
On another note, in my experience, the Borders "Reserve In Store" option is nearly useless, because the stores are too lazy/incompetent to implement it properly. The past three times that I've tried to use it, I haven't actually been able to get the item that I requested. Two of those times, I know for certain that it was because the lazy store employees never actually bothered to even look for the item until I contacted them about it because I hadn't heard anything. The first time, when I went into the store seven hours after placing the request, they "hadn't gotten around to it" yet (the store wasn't busy, so I have no idea what the excuse was for that). Of course, the item that I wanted had been sold out in the meantime. The second time, I called them when I hadn't heard anything from them after three hours (the confirmation email they send says that you'll hear back from them "within two hours"), and again, the item was gone by that point. I don't think I'm going to bother to use that service again, because it's worthless if the stores can't even be bothered to follow up on it in a timely manner.
And yeah, I don't really buy the argument about the operating costs. Ok, maybe they can't sell things quite as cheaply as Amazon or their own websites, but at the same time . . . charging MSRP for nearly everything is just ridiculous. Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. don't charge MSRP for most of their DVDs, blu-rays, CDs, or even books, and somehow they're able to make it and even thrive in those departments. The simple fact of the matter is that while I'd honestly rather shop in Borders and/or Barnes and Noble than any of those other stores, I'm not going to do so when it's going to cost me so much more, and so they lose a huge amount of my business that they'd likely have otherwise. I'm pretty sure that I'm nowhere near the only person who feels this way either. When I hear that they're struggling to survive, I can only shake my head and sigh. While I'll hate to see them go, I'm honestly amazed that they've been able to survive as long as they have with business practices like that.
are you still doing this? Why do you think it's still a good idea to sell a CD for $18?" This is why wholesale exists, so you can add a few bucks for profit and for operating costs to items. Everyone knows DVDs and CDs cost a fraction of MSRP to get wholesale and yet stores still want to get full price.
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