Work the System Before it Works You
It was… way too long ago that I talked about schoolyard piracy and the music industry’s attempt to paint it as a graver threat than online piracy. If you look back at that article (well, you don’t have to look back – I’m about to quote it here) you’ll find this little snippet.
I remember buying a couple of CD’s back in the days before you could download music off the interweb. This was the typical scene. I would walk up to the counter with my CD’s and my money in hand. The clerk would ring the CD’s up. Then, invariably, the clerk would turn and gesture to a display of blank cassettes sitting right next to the register.
And the clerk would say, ‘Would you like some blank tapes with that? This brand is special and makes near-perfect copies of CD’s.’
A similar thing happened last year when I went into Best Buy. My old iPod had long since frazzled out, and I had been trying to go about my life without a portable player. I couldn’t handle it any more, so I went to buy the cheapest iPod I could find, which at the time was the 512 MB iPod Shuffle. I walked up to the checkout counter with my pack-of-gum-shaped mp3 player and got out my wallet.
“Would you like our return policy?” the man behind the counter said. “iPods have been known to have battery issues every now and then, and if the battery starts to act up we’ll replace it for you free of charge.”
“How does that work?” I said.
“If anything happens to your iPod – anything,” he said, “just bring it into the store with your policy and receipt and we’ll change it for the in-stock model that’s closest to it. Free of charge. So if you have battery problems or you lose the cap that covers the USB plug or anything at all, just bring it in.”
“So, even if it’s just that I think my case is too scratched up—” I said.
”—you can bring it in, tell us it’s too scratched up, and we’ll return it.”
Now, sixwise is reporting that chains including Best Buy are looking to punish what they call devil shoppers. These are shoppers who do unethical -but legal – things that cost the company money. Like, I would guess, returning your iPod shuffle and getting a brand new free one because your case is too scratched up. Even though you were encouraged to do so when you bought it.
Devil Shoppers may find that they suddenly cannot return merchandise. Nor can they buy warranties. And they’re not receiving the special offers by mail that other customers are. In short, Best Buy decides that these shoppers are untouchable.
Many of the behaviors listed for “devil shoppers” are, in fact, unethical. They consist of such old favorites as wearing an item of clothing once with the tags attached and then returning it, and buying an item only to return it and re-buy it at the discounted open-box price. But hidden in the list are these two little treasures.
Buying a product at a discount, such as from the store’s selection of “loss leaders,” (low-priced products stores lose money on that are designed to attract customers) then reselling it on eBay for a premium price.
Finding rock-bottom prices on Web sites, then challenging stores to pay up on their lowest price guarantees.
Let’s take these one at a time, shall we? “Buying a product at a discount… then reselling it on eBay for a premium price.” I fail to see how this behavior loses the company any more money than it had already determined it was going to lose. If the item they sold is a “loss leader,” then they were already planning on having to take a loss on its sale. What does it matter then if the customer puts it up for sale on eBay? The eBay sale doesn’t steal more money from the company. It doesn’t result in lost productivity. All restricting this behavior does is squelch entrepreneurship. It is the retailer deciding that nobody should be able to sell property that they have paid for and now own.
Second – if a store advertises they’ll match the lowest price on the market and a consumer then tries to hold them to it, that doesn’t make the consumer a devil. That makes the company stupid for not realizing what the lowest price actually is before promising they would match it. It’s something to consider changing your store policy over. It’s not something to punish the consumer over.
Corporate greed in America is at an all-time high. We’ve seen consumer abuse from the RIAA and MPAA, and the retailers are getting in on the game as well. Believe it – if this trend is left unchecked, American consumers will soon find that the only “consumer rights” they have will be to move money from their bank accounts to the bank accounts of major corporations, and the right to expect nothing in return.
January 21st, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Best Buy seems to view each customer as an inconvenience and likely shoplifter. That, combined with what are not really all that terrific prices or selection, has really helped to not endear them to me.