When Choice Beats Price
from the price-doesn't-matter-so-much dept
Here's a different theory that you don't see talked about very often. A lot of people shop online for the selection rather than the price. The article makes a few very good examples where this applies. I think it may be definitely true in my case, as well. Price is definitely important, but what makes me go online to buy stuff is the wide selection. It's the same thing that caused me to make my first online purchase at CDConnection via telnet many years ago. They had music that I couldn't get anywhere else. Remember when the internet was so fun and exciting? I'm sure the reality is that it's a combination of price and selection, and a few other things, but I think it's important to realize it's not just price.
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sometimes selection, sometimes one-stop convenienc
I like a lot of stuff that I have a hard time finding at retail. It's much easier to find a copy of the new widescreen DVD of "Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom" online for some reason... Ditto when it comes to music, many of my favorite bands don't show up in record stores. If the new releases by Melting Euphoria or Ozric Tentacles show up in YOUR local record stores, consider yourself lucky. Not to mention the obscure stuff. Hell, I've even had to resort to shopping on line for blank videotape - the retail outlets seldom carry high grade tapes any more, and if they do, they're at ridiculously high prices.
I've also found that it's much easier to place one or several orders on line rather than spend a whole weekend running errands to a number of different stores. Sometimes I pay extra for the convenience. It's also nice to be able to place one big order instead of visiting a half-dozen botique shops.
And yes, sometimes it's purely on prices. A site like dvdpricesearch.com can save me a lot of money, especially if I've suddenly decided to stock up on a big pile of movies. I've got to find something like that for CDs...
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Re: sometimes selection, sometimes one-stop conven
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YES! I bought over a hundred CD's on CDConnection via telnet. and CDEurope.com for those imports. back then no one cared about giving credit card numebrs away over telnet. now you can't get people to check their email without an encrypted transport.
oh well. i think selection is way more important than price, a place with a good selection of stuff I want is a place you'll continue to shop at and if they charge $1 more than amazon, I'd much rather support them. that's why places like Forced Exposure still exist.
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