I snapped a chain on Friday JRA - must be my massive strength (and definitely not the extra pies I'm packing currently or shoddy bike maintenance) and as the I narrowly avoided a nads/stem interface, and the chain is quite old I thought I'd treat my bike and buy a new one....
I'm a serial online bike part shopper but as I knew I was going past a Halfords yesterday I thought I'd check what they had in stock so I could do it there and then. 11spd SLX chain in stock reduced from £34.99 to £19.99. That'll do. I could buy online and pick up or have free delivery. I thought I'd just rock up and pick it off the shelf....
Got there and found the chain...but it was priced up at £34.99 with no discount. Took it to the till to query and prepared to get all huffy and stand there and buy on the website for the cheaper price. Lady said- "oh no, I can do it for the cheaper price". Good so far....Then I asked what would have happened if I hadn't seen it at their online advertised discounted price ....."We'd just have charged you the full price". Then I asked, "is there other stuff in the shop priced like that"...."yeah, quite a bit".
Hang on....bricks and mortar shop where I can reserve something online and pick it up or they'll go to the trouble of posting it to me for free at a massively discounted price but if I just turn up and pick the exact same chain (not the model...as in physically the same one I was holding in my sweaty mitts) off the shelf I'd be expected to pay 40% more unless I was in the know....that don't feel right to me.
Moral of the story - never buy anything at Halfords unless you have checked the online price first....I maybe the only person in the country to not know this already.
That's normal. Bought loads of stuff, including car parts from Halfords on-line, then collected at massive discounts. It's how the model works - if you don't plan and just call in, you pay more.
Business in ‘wanting to make profit’ shocker.
if you don't plan and just call in, you pay more.
You don't though - they always match the online price if you ask.
It's how the model works - if you don't plan and just call in, you pay more.
Apart from the model has a huge hole in it....you could just walk around the shop with your phone out checking the price they are advertising electronically rather than the price tag on the shelf. The fact that people aren't doing that I'd say is consumers don't appreciate what the shop are doing and a lot of things in front of them have two (sometimes wildly) different prices.
Maybe it's my expectation (and naivety?) that's amiss but with a physical shop like Halfords where the website is telling me exactly what is in stock right now in my local store, I view the website as a promotion of what I can expect to find when I get there rather than essentially a completely different pricing structure. I've no idea of the breakdown of how their consumers buy from them but I'd guess it's mostly physically from the shop (either reserved online or walk in). I'd expect to pay the same amount at a bricks and mortar shop if I reserved it before I got there as I would if I picked it up on arrival. See Screwfix. I can see merit in an online and delivered only special price - but if you walk into the shop to collect, I'd expect to pay the same if I reserved it ahead of time or not.
It also feels particularly unfair to the older or possibly the socio economically less affluent. Don't have the tech or aren't comfortable price checking the exact same company online and you pay £xxx, middle class w***** like me wafting around my phone and what I've seen them charging online for instore pickup and you get a nice big discount.
It also feels particularly unfair to the older or possibly the socio economically less affluent.
Not sure how many little old ladies are buying SLX chains or cans of WD40.....and the homeless (I assume) Albanian woman selling Big Issues outside my local Tesco has a smartphone...
Not sure how many little old ladies are buying SLX chains or cans of WD40.....and the homeless (I assume) Albanian woman selling Big Issues outside my local Tesco has a smartphone...
Yeah - you are right. Silly me. Literally no one on minimum wage trying to replace headlights bulbs on their car to pass an mot they use to get to work. Or grandparents buying kids bike bits as presents. It never happens. As you were.
Thanks for the heads up.
I'll be checking that in future although I mostly use the LBS even when it costs a few £ extra unless it's a Sunday when it's shut.
Our LHS (local Halfords store) has always been pretty good.
I looked up some engine oil online, £31.99 down from £39.99. Decided not to bother ordering and just walk round and get it. It was full price in store. Mentioned it to the lad at the counter, who quickly discounted it, and then asked if I wanted to buy 2 air fresheners for a fiver. This extra purchase would get me a further £10 off the total, so £26.99 for the oil and smellies. A++++ would use again
I recently cancelled my British Cycling membership renewal, that would have taken their direct debit in the coming week.
Little did I know that BC cancel all discount codes as soon as they process your cancellation, including the 10% online code for Halfords.
It's how the model works - if you don't plan and just call in, you pay more.
Apart from the model has a huge hole in it....you could just walk around the shop with your phone out checking the price they are advertising electronically rather than the price tag on the shelf. The fact that people aren't doing that I'd say is consumers don't appreciate what the shop are doing and a lot of things in front of them have two (sometimes wildly) different prices.
I'm confused why you're confused. You're literally answering your own question
It's just basic economics.... Get every customer to pay the maximum they can.
It's the basic premise of how vouchers work... Full price for people who CBA with ATS or earn too much, but also sell to people who are price sensitive to keep your volumes up
Joel spolsky did a good article on "it" years ago.
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber-duckies/
Obviously software is very different from physical goods but the general principle is worth knowing...
All from the power of segmentation: separating your customers into different groups according to how much they are willing to pay, and extracting the maximal consumer surplus from each customer
It's annoying, and I have seen my local Halfords make someone order online to get the cheaper price. To which the politely told them they would buy elsewhere
I will argue it is good for the old folks though. The online prices need to be competitive as folks buying online won't use Halfords if it's not competitive. Likewise, people who are checking prices in-store probably won't buy if the price is dramatically more than other online retailers. Having competitive online prices and effectively price matching their website allows them to make a sale they otherwise wouldn't.
However, the margins for a sale at online prices almost certainly aren't enough to keeps the stores open. How could they be when their competitors don't pay for stores. So they need to have higher in store prices for people that don't look online in order to keep the business viable. If they didn't then they would close the stores and there would be nowhere for the old folks to buy dashcams to record bollards hitting their cars etc.
Last time I went in Halfords the nice fella behind the counter handed me a full box of brand spanking (8 speed) Shimano STI levers and brakes. For free 😀 That's my kind of business!
My son was working there at the time.
Actually the very last time I went in Halfords was this weekend to find a 26" wheel for my partner's turbo trainer bike. They don't sell em. In the shop or online 🙁