|
Bryan, your post demonstrates that:
1. In this day and age the consumer has the ability to pay less if they shop around (that is what you have done); and
2. Some businesses operate on lower turnover but higher margins, other businesses operate on higher turnover but lower margins (DSE vis-a-vis Officeworks).
3. The free market seems to have a place for both business models (both DSE and Officeworks currently trade).
For some people, price is not the sole criteria on which shop they might give patronage to. They may have loyalty to a particular store, and enjoy shopping there with all that goes with that.
To put it in another context, in the legal services industry that I operate, Firm A will charge, say, $500 per will, and make 200 of them each year, collecting $100,000 in fees per annum. Firm B will charge, say, $1000 per will, and make 100 of them each year, also collecting $100,000 in fees per annum. How much is a will worth? If you have confidence in the guy that charges you $1000 for it, and are happy to pay that amount, then everyone wins. Certainly the solicitor wins, because he only has to do half the amount of work that the other solicitor does.
Your attention appears to be drawn to the perceived injustice that you, as consumer, suffer when you pay more for the same item in different stores. On the other side of this picture is that small shopkeepers are being elbowed out by large scale companies, with a signicantly greater buying and bargaining power. Those small businesses would close if they tried to compete with the prices of the largers stores.
Unless we want to see the demise of the small local store in favour of the mega stores, I would encourage people to shop at the local store when they can, even if it means paying a bit more occasionally.
As to what assessment we should base the value of a good on, my view is that things can easily be underpriced just as they can be overpriced. A large chain can afford to sell particlar items below cost price due the profits made elsewhere across a larger product range. This is not always possible for a smaller seller.
|