Toronto sto Efstonscience is history!!

Originally Posted by Martin Brown

On 30/06/2012 19:23, Bert wrote:
In lal_truckee
wrote:

On 6/30/12 9:32 AM, Bert wrote:
So it's really "Internet saves another niche business."

Not really.
What a physical site offers is true browsing with tactile interface,

Which, apparently, was not of value to enough people.

Sadly what a lot of people do is go and visit the small shopkeeper, get
his skilled advice for free and play with his kit in store and then
*order* it online at a massive discount.

A lot of large high street stores these days just employ clueless
drudges anyway whose product knowledge is limited to the part number and
the lifting weight to get it off the shelf. It is sad to see the demise
of small shops but it seems inevitable as rents for physical bricks and
mortar shops increase and profitability falls.

which is now lost.
A "net presence" is one button push away from Amazon and can't
compete. So it's a temporary "save" at best.

Again, if enough people don't receive sufficient value from this outfit,
they're gone.

The trouble is that too many people exploit the goodwill of such outfits
and then go and buy the stuff online at a discount. You can hardly blame
them for cutting back a loss making part of the business.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

People! Anyone ever visited Efston to experience their customer service or lack thereof and their higher sales prices as compared to Khan Scopes just down the street. Let's not blame the internet and price discounters for all the problems retailers are having.

"David Staup" wrote in
:


"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 30 Jun 2012 11:17:10 -0700, lal_truckee
wrote:

On 6/30/12 9:32 AM, Bert wrote:
So it's really "Internet saves another niche business."

Not really.

Yes, really. Obviously people place more value in the ability to
conveniently shop at home than in actually going to a
brick-and-mortar store. This is a societal change, and can hardly be
blamed on the Internet. A retailer who is unable to adjust his
business to changes in how people CHOOSE to shop will go out of
business. That's how things have always worked, and nothing has
changed in that respect because of the Internet.

I know that I'd much rather buy astronomical instruments online, and
I'm old enough that most of my life has been about shopping in
stores.

A "net presence" is one button push away from Amazon and can't
compete.

There are millions of thriving niche companies doing most of their
business on the Internet, and Amazon poses them no threat. They
thrive in large part because they can provide a degree of service
companies like Amazon can't. If I want a blender, Amazon is great.
But if I want a CCD camera or a quality astronomical telescope, I'm
going to look for somebody who specializes in those kind of things.


chuckle,
any dad (dad not just a father) with a kid showing interest knows what
is being lost here. But then I've never seen a liberal DAD.



They exist, but instead of extolling the virtues of an apochromat, they
launch into a tirade about the pollution generated by mining the rare
earth's to make the lens.