Everyone is shopping online these days as that is where the biggest bargains to be had are. Well I would say that, wouldn’t I? I work for a deal website!
To my chagrin and surprise, when looking for a bed today, I was offered an unbelievable price in store. Convinced I would be able to beat it online, I had the sales assistant write all the details down and told her I would have a think about it. When looking online, the best deal was nearly £250 more expensive!
Where is the catch? Why is the store able to offer the bed at such a reasonable price whereas the online price was so much more? My extensive knowledge and experience of internet shopping has proven time and again that the biggest bargains are online. This is generally because stores are able to pass on to customers the significant savings from the absence of building leases, staff costs and utility bills, as well as savings on marketing by going through a voucher code or deal website such as ourselves.
Of course, you don’t have bartering power online. The sales assistant works on commission and will often go as low as they possibly can just to secure the sale. Having said that, on recalculation, the sales assistant looked at me in a rather embarrassed manner and said she had no idea how she had managed to get the figures so low, but that she would go ahead with the originally quoted price. Had she made a mistake?
My second theory is that if I go ahead and order the bed at this price, there will be something wrong with it when it turns up – that either it won’t be brand new and will be ex-display and damaged or that when it does turn up it will be the wrong size, model or make. They will then rely on us being too lazy to go to the extra hassle of trying to return it or too stupid to notice.
Is it wrong of me to be so skeptical of a good deal just because it can’t be matched online?
