Retail Merchandise Is such low quality compared to online...

[contract]

In store, $30 nicest scale they offer.

Cheap plastic, thin design, not waterproof. Prob made super cheaply and a pain to use. Assuming there's no way to stop it from turning off every 2 min to save battery life. Top stainless steel tray isn't removable, so good luck cleaning this if you spill anything. Thin profile prob slides around on countertop. Drop it once and it prob splits open.

Online $79. Not even the nicest, but a great pick at a solid price.

Amazing design. Measures in literally every unit, both dry and liquid. WATERPROOF! Stainless steel tray is removable so you can wash it, or rinse the entire unit itself. Uses either a power cord or a battery. Able to keep it on past 2 min and disable auto shut off. Prob built like a damn tank. Full stainless steel construction. Heavier design plus thick bottom feet = not going to slide around.

...

It costs a bit more... But it will last longer.

The internet has just exploded options to the consumer.

It's so nice not being forced to the low quality/bullshit products most local retailers offer.

/rant

 

[CCarter]

Now that I think about it, retail is primarily for looks versus online where it's for utility and efficiency. With online the consumer has so many options that you HAVE to put your best foot forward, whereas retail where the options are limited by geography. That's why retail shit sucks - should be the other way around if retail wants to stay in the game.

 

[shiftymcnab]

Retail is on its ass here in the UK, highstreets dead, big brand giants dropping almost weekly now. Conventional high street retail is doomed here. Partially due to fore-mentioned reasons. Low grade over priced guff, lack of choice, outdated marketing and development, add in same or next day delivery on anything your heart desires from the internet.

Some of our major players even failed with the internet and just pulled the plug on their online stores to try to make conventional stores work again. (Big fail imo)

 

[Ryuzaki]

The problem retail faces beyond what you guys pointed out is that they have limited shelf space and storage space, which naturally leads to a darwinian survival of products with higher ROI and volume of sales than quality of product.

What retail NEEDS to do is understand that the "advantage" of shopping online is really a disadvantage. Yeah, it's cool you can order crap from your couch in your pajama's on your iPad while eating chips and watching TV. But once the novelty wears off it's a pretty obvious disadvantage.

I'm not referring just to walking around, asking store associates for help, touching and feeling products. I'm talking about the fact that online shopping doesn't have what every retail shop is forced to have regardless, which is an experience.

Retail needs to stop being scale oriented and volume oriented and start focusing on the experience. I can only think of a handful of stores that actually pull this off at all, and they're always in a mall. Apple does it to the extreme. There's clothing stores where the entrance is small and dark and surrounded by trees and is jamming EDM music at an absurd level. I've never entered them but I bet it's like a dance club inside.

I think about all the stores that are shutting down these days or suffering bad. Toys R Us, Sears, K-Mart, Best Buy, they're all the same nonsense. A giant rectangle warehouse with exposed lighting and air conditioning in the rafters, and rows and rows of crap with a ton of workers that have no clue what they're talking about. They might think they have no experience as a store, but they do. It's a really bad one.

It would cost nearly nothing to get some decorations going. Hell, even Target thrives just by painting everything red. It would take very little to make it far more interesting to go into the store (Apple) than to order online. Or do like they do and let people order online and ship it to their local store since the local store won't have custom configurations.

 

[shiftymcnab]

I can only think of a handful of stores that actually pull this off at all, and they're always in a mall.

That rings true here, malls are thriving and they typically offer and experience. Full of those extra level design and look as well.

Highstreets lost all their footfall/traffic and the malls get what’s left.

 

[becool]

Here's another perspective - the cost of retail overhead and, specifically, the cost of rent for a brick and mortar establishment. A monthly rental payment for a retail space that's worth a damn can exceed the cost of a new and reliable Japanese automobile (for 1,000 square feet of space or even less space). Granted, maintaining and "pushing" a website by way of SEO or otherwise costs money, but you can make a dent in SEO in some/several niches with $30,000 whereas that's a month's rent for some brick and mortar establishments.