Lee-Bro

17 snare drums.

I can't remember who did the research, but I recall reading about the emotional attachment shoppers will get from over analyzing a purchase. Essentially if they are trying to decide between option A, B, and C, even though they conclude option B is best for them, they may not make a purchase at all because they've subconsciously become attached to A and C as well through all the research and saying "no" to those options doesn't feel right. That's the short version of it and I'm certain I saw it more than a few times in my old retail days of musical equipment. There's a whole bunch of info out there on behavioral finance (spending) and how to help a client work through it, not become paralyzed by indecision, and preserve your own business development.

"Retail would be a great business, if it weren't for the people."

Whether I'm buying hockey gear, shop tools, musical gear, etc., I typically ask if there's a package or combo special. When I started hockey last year, I told the co-owner (who fitted my skates) that I wasn't sure I was going to go "all in" just yet. I mentioned I wanted to get gloves and skates. He said he'd give me 10% off if I bought them together. Sold.

I understand your reasoning but respectfully disagree. For security purposes, I keep a low purchase allowance on my debit card. I know other people do not do the same. Charge cards are different and have different financial protections. Either way, I have access to my financial resources and can cover a "no checks" policy if needed.

Non-hockey related retail store I used to work at had check approval but the store owner had a policy that the check processing fee had to be paid in cash by the customer. You simply can't roll it into the amount of the check due to it perpetually affects the amount the check would need to be. Interesting side note, I was part of a discussion with some retailers (non-hockey) about implementing a PayPal checkout option in-store. I'll comeback and update if anything develops.

...which is exactly why I ALWAYS get the name of the person I speak with, give them my name, note the date & time, and let them know I'll be asking for them when I go to the store, who to ask for if they aren't there and ask they let this person know I'm coming. Believe me, I learned early on in my retail career (not hockey related) to do this on my end so when someone came in I spoke with, I took care of them, got the sale (usually) and built the relationship with them.

Dude, punctuation and spell-check are the rant's friend.

To the D2 guy playing down in my D5 league, I owe you big time for "sweep the leg Johnny" you gave me from behind. Yeah, I played the rest of the game with a sore ankle, but your b.s. move has left me with a sprained ankle.

At 40 years of age, and only on ice skates only maybe a dozen times in my life, I had my first game ever last night. I played defense most of the night. Here's probably the clearest pic. We won 7-5.

This. My shoe size will range anywhere from 9.5 to 10.5 depending on what type of shoe, manufacturer, and style. When buying shoes I'll typically start at the 10 and go from there. There's a couple 11s in there too. For my running shoes, I've never bought the same shoe twice (updates & such). I bring in my current shoe, talk to the associate about what I like, they look at the wear pattern, measure me and we go from there. I got into hockey just before the holidays and I went to 2 diff't LHSs. The first store had me feeling good in a 8.5 Reebok 4k (can't remember width). The second (better stocked & where I purchased) had me feeling good in Vapor 30s @ a 9EE.

It's discouraging when you invest so much time, energy, and knowledge into someone and they pull turn out to be a Clyde* We all learn the hard way though. One thing I used to do w/ my non-exclusive type semi-regulars was after spending some time explaining diff't product lines, etc, would be to give them the version of my business card that had my direct line & VM and tell them that I want to be their "drum guy." Meaning that if they wanted to buy something we didn't have in stock or normally carry, they'd call me first; if they were price shopping to give me a chance to put together package deal*; and if they ever had a gear emergency, to call me first because my store was the only one in town w/ delivery service and mobile repair truck*. Clyde - store visitors who never bought, only pumped us for knowledge, demo'd our equipment; named after a guy named Clyded who bought all his kids equipment from a catalog after checking everything out in the store. The store owner ended up having to tell him, as polite as possible, not to come back. Package Deal-a lot of times, I knew there was no way I could price match. The next best thing I could do was put together a package (eg: drum kit, extra heads, box of sticks, extra cymbal stand, cymbal bag, t-shirts) and see if they would go for it. I'd say I had about a 50% success rate w/ that. If they took the deal, I ended up moving more inventory, at a slightly lower overall margin, but now they "have a guy." The times it didn't work out, I'd say it's because they were price shopping because they had only so many dollars. Mobile Repair Truck-It was a late 80's Nissan w/ a cap on the back. It's amazing how much stuff you can get into one of those things.

Reading the Bauer warranty thread about someone buying 2 sticks of the same model but at different times to return the older (broken) stick under the new stick warranty, it made me think of my days in music retail. Almost all the music manufacturers put serial numbers on everything. Every cymbal, individual drum, guitar, effects pedal, etc had a unique serial number. At check out, we would record serial numbers on the receipt for warranty (and our protection) purposes. There were a few exceptions because not every company used numbers on all their lines of products. But I must say that once I instituted this policy, the number of claims we helped process went down. As a side note to that, it did not cost us the sales of the 2nd purchase. Many clients were very pleased to find out that we were doing that because some of the companies had mail-in warranty registration cards. We sent all these in for the customer at the time of purchase as a value-add service. The companies now had a record of ownership & purchase. In addition, a few of the companies we dealt with kept chain of command records -meaning they knew when it left the factory, which distribution center it went to, which LMS (local music store) bought it for their inventory, and for those who actually had warranty registration cards, who ended up buying it at the retail store. You'd think putting serial numbers on receipts at time of purchase would've been a standard procedure. But not so. I found out that what we were doing was "against the grain" of what a lot of other stores were doing -which was actually ENCOURAGING the "buy, break, buy, switch & claim" process. I spoke w/ a few of the LMS owners who did this and their position was a customer who only had a 1 year warranty on something now pretty much gave the customer an unlimited warranty. All that was 15+ years ago so I'm not sure how much serial number recording is going on, but I do know more manufacturers are issuing them and requiring registration now. It's not that hard to imprint a serial number on modern gear and/or sticks. I wonder how many manufacturers have experimented with this? A final note for you LHS owners, here's something we did at the music store on all non-serialed products: if you want to create you're own serial number system, get white or invisible (blacklight reactive) U.V. paint (sometimes referred to as "blacklight paint") and a stamp pad kit. You stamp the date of purchase, store initials or something similar. You determine the best place for the stamp, maybe 2 places, for each different product -maybe gloves get it between the cuffs, under the caps on shoulders, etc. Since it's UV, it's not visible to the naked eye (if you go that route). You keep a black light handy that way when someone brings something in, you check it for your mark. If a stamp doesn't fit/work, you can always get UV paint pens. Cheers!

I'm trying really hard to not get more involved in this conversation. That being said... I understand the limited selection locally=buying online. As long we all agree on that, my next point... The issue I have is when a customer goes to a store, gets fitted and THEN buys the exact thing online when they could've bought the product at the store, even if it's more. You get what you pay for. Some people look at this strictly as product purchase. That's perfectly fine, just don't use an LHS' service to determine your product selection or at least pay them for the service. Another poster mentioned: "However, if you lhs has it, you can check it out, then buy it cheaper online. I mean in the eyes of the lhs owner, it is a pretty s***** thing to do, but in the eyes on the consumer, it is a reassuring thing a person can do before they invest in a product." To be blunt, the LHS made a much larger investment than any customer without any reassurance. As an entrepreneur they took on the risk of independent business and all the fun stuff entailed there. The point being is it's unethical to use someone's time, service, and their resources to save money. How much do you think skilled and knowledgeable labor is worth per hour...$50, $75, $150? If you use their inventory as your research tools, you're contributing to their inability to buy larger inventories and offer better pricing. You're hunting yourself into starvation. In my previous post about the differences between LHS & virtual stores I mentioned labor costs. Even if YOU, YOURSELF, are super delicate and polite, not everyone is that way and repeated handling does cause wear & tear on inventory -which I already addressed. But to make up for margin lost on those items, margin has to be maintained on other items. We're all adults and understand all of these points. What I'm reading is that the real rub people are feeling about this particular discussion is not rewarding those who do the work of providing a service by being there for your research, especially when the exact or similar enough product could have been bought from the LHS. Inventory sucks? Ok, go online. Teenage kids working the desk suck? Ok, go online -but make sure you let the LHS owner know that you'd like to give him the business but his investment (staff) is making it hard for you to invest with him. Most LHS owners I've met work the counter at some point. You live where hockey doesn't exist? Fine, go online or next time you take a trip, do some Googling and let the LHS' know you'll be in town and you'd appreciate some time. A final note, for whatever reason or feelings you have about LHS vs. online, if you're not able to give the business to the LHS even for the exact same product you tried on and you don't believe in paying a service fee, buy the guys lunch. You'd be amazed as to how much good will a large pepperoni pizza and 2 liter of Coke will buy you. Most LHS' are somewhat close to a pizza joint of some sort (pizza from the rink doesn't count). Pizza & Cokes can easily be done under $15. You'll be welcomed back w/ open arms for that one even if you didn't spend a penny.

It's a nice sentiment, but that's such blanket statement that doesn't even begin to address phase-out, subsidy issues, residency vs. proximity, tax filing status, etc. Ask Canadians about their mortgage interest deduction. I'd hate to see this discussion/board spiral into a tax-debate, but your comment while helpful in nature, gave me a brain twitch...and I haven't gotten over the previous one when I had to explain to a 22 year old what porridge is when she's never even heard the word.