I visited a store on Saturday, with the intention of purchasing a Wii console for my son. The store is usually great value, but this time I realized why shopping online is now taking huge steps, and traditional stores are closing down.
Let's start with the store, my son is fluent Spanish and knew exactly what he wanted, but me, having not researched the product entirely was in the hands of the store attendant.
We headed straight to the console counter, my sons money burning a hole in his pocket as usual. I have three children, and they seem to get good value for money out of their video games. But there is always a fight over controllers and turns etc, so I try to stick with two or three player games for them. That was my first question to the store attendant, I hadn´t looked at the Nintendo games before, and needed to know where it stated players, he pointed to the completely wrong area, and I was left to work this out for myself. We managed, but compared to an Internet store, I would have this information in front of me immediately. We picked up the console and needed to know how many controllers, I again grabbed a store assistant, who pointed out that it came with one. Now inside a Wii package is more than just a controller, you also need a motion sensor, I know, I was confused also. But the store assistant didn't tell me this, I found this out when I returned to my home, and reviewed it on the Internet.
So we plodded through, trying to select a game, but we couldn´t even take it out of the plastic security box to look at the manual, to check players or to research our product, and when we asked the store assistant, he didn't really know either. The point I'm trying to make here is simple, If I had been buying on the Internet, all this information would have been at hand, I would have found videos to check the graphics, reviews on the game play, information on what would be best for my childrens age group. All in front of me, when I asked Google, the best in store assistant in the world.
The most disappointing thing about our shopping trip was the store assistant advised us completely wrong, and going back to the motion senor, without it, you cannot play the two player games he had shown us, we could not play any two player games, because with out it, the second controller we purchased may as well prop the door open.
This is where
Internet shopping is taking giant steps, Its time we started to learn from the Internet shopping experience, if we want our stores to survive. We need knowledge at the raise of a hand or the push of a button. I want a store assistant who can help, not who can check my 20 for a dud. You need your products to be thoroughly understood, your services to be above excellent, and your employees to be experienced in what you are selling.
The down fall with shopping online is the time factor, but If we learn to become patient and purchase in advance we will save money, save time, and mostly get what we want.
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