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back to article Oz shop slaps browsers with $5 just looking fee

A specialty food store in the Australian city of Brisbane has erected a sign insisting it will charge $AUD5.00 ($US5.25, £3.46) to enter the store, refundable if you buy something. But if you leave the store without buying the store assumes you may be comparing prices to those available online and keeps the cash. The store in …

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    1. tkioz
      Reply Icon

      I know it's silly isn't it... I often wonder around a shopping area, just looking after I've made the purchases that I went there for, I'll nip into a shop I've never been in before, maybe I'll buy something, maybe I wont... but if I saw a sign saying they want to charge me just for looking I'll keep on walking.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Other shops doing it

    I'll forgive El Reg for not knowing of any others, but I believe one of the nationwide trainer shops that does fittings charges $25 for the service refundable on purchase at their excessively marked up prices (Gel Kayano $270 vs $149 shipped from Wiggle before the bastards at asics cut them off) due to most shoppers previously having the fitting then buying online. Can't remember which one. At least they are providing a service as such.

    Then a quick search reveals this in an Australian article

    "Sydney ski store InSki charges $50 for a "boot fitting voucher", which is refunded if the customer buys ski boots."

    She's not alone, but she is in denial.

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    1. Muscleguy
      Reply Icon

      Re: Other shops doing it

      Do a whisky distillery tour here in Scotland and the cost of the tour will be refundable if you buy a bottle of the product. It's still worth it though, you get an interesting tour, fascinating tours and a dram (many offer miniatures to drivers). So this is hardly unknown here in the UK.

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  3. P. Lee

    Undifferentiated product

    Its the same problem game retailers have - undifferentiated product vs online. I suspect a large part of the inventory is highly processed packet-food which can easily be shipped via the internet.

    Their solution is wrong however. What they should be doing is accepting the small margins in such products (they are generally low-involvement bulk purchases anyway) and making money off other things which the internet does badly - fresh GF products (e.g. bread or battered fish/tofu or something) or small treats (chocolates) which don't sell well over the internet. Perhaps they could offer a GF meals-on-wheels service or home-delivered food for local shoppers - provide naturally GF balanced meals rather than relying on gluten substitutes.

    Alternatively, they could expand their range to provide convenience to GF shoppers who also need other food such as organic fruit & veg or non-GF produce. They need to help people not have to go to the supermarket too. Reduce the shopping hops, or people will be go online with or without 'customer service' issues.

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  4. MrZoolook
    FAIL

    And if you go in looking for a single specific item...

    ... that the store does not sell (thinking especially with electronic outlets should they decide to follow suit), it will cost money to find out they don't have what you're after.

    "Sorry we don't have that in stock right now sir, I'll just ring up your browsing charge on the till. Will that be cash or plastic?"

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  5. Fihart

    A vast step backwards in retailing.

    Seems bonkers now, but historically this is how some early stores operated. Thus the signs, still visible in Edwardian (?) photos of emporia, that encouraged shoppers with the promise that admission was free -- and open to all classes.

    Can't think charging admission is a good way to go today, given the vast choice of outlets for most products. In fact, high street stores like Currys/PC World have leveraged their presence by offering internet prices with the convenience/instant gratification of collecting in-store. That's a constructive way to deal with change.

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  6. 1052-STATE
    Coat

    eval the exp

    We need a webcam mounted opposite the gaff so we can follow this like amateur David Attenbroughs...

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Small business? How small?

    I run a small retail and service business in a country town. The locals like having my shop to supply those little things they need urgently; can't wait for them to be posted, but mostly shop online or at large retailers when they go to the Big Smoke. Only a small percentage of people recognise that if they don't support the local retailers, not only will they be doing more travelling, but they won't have any one to ask when they stuff something up. It won't be until the business closes that most people will realise that there's nobody to answer their question and provide some service. Oh yes, those that do buy elsewhere quite unashamedly come in looking for free advice.

    I have a friend in town who retails specialised sports clothing. He complains bitterly about the people, who come into the shop, try the clothing for size, then buy online. Being heavily involved in the sport, he knows the locals very well and knows who buys from his shop and who doesn't.

    Yes, you have every right to chase a bargain and I do it myself, but just stop a moment and think what, if any, impact there will be for you if that local small business disappears up it's own fundamental orifice.

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Weird as it sounds...I understand.

    It may not be the most effective form of customer service, but I imagine it was born more out of frustration than economics.

    I used to build computers and sell parts. I don't anymore.

    People call me up on the phone or ask me questions about all manner of hardware and ssoftware issues. Sometimes I spend hours listening to them and advising them on a suitable system. They then proceed with buying parts online for prices I can't even touch, start botching their systems together, and then call me again for free advice because they run into a brick wall. There are even many people asking me for cheap (read illegally copied) software becaus 'I MUST have this because I'm a merchant' for systems they bought parts for online.

    What made me close the book on this part of my business was a 'customer' who got angry because I refused to explain to him how to build and configure a Server 2008 system...over the phone.

    And all the time you are spending with these freetards you are NOT attending to the wishes of paying customers.

    The Currys/PC World approach may sound interesting, but it simply isn't for local businesses who don't have the large company buying power. And people just were NOT prepared to pay for service.

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    1. Screwed
      Reply Icon

      Re: Weird as it sounds...I understand.

      Many years ago I needed a couple of drive screws. Saw a new, local shop, dropped in - refused to help because they had not sold the drive. (I was perfectly happy to pay.) And they were pretty unfriendly.

      Never, ever went back. Am amazed the shop appears to struggle on - but without any of my purchases going through them. Which was a shame because they are close by and it would very likely have been of mutual benefit to trade there.

      I might have bought the drive from them if I had even known they existed.

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    2. Alan Brown Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Weird as it sounds...I understand.

      "I used to build computers and sell parts. I don't anymore.

      People call me up on the phone or ask me questions about all manner of hardware and ssoftware issues."

      You were in the wrong business. GIviong advise is called consultancy and is a nice earner for those who do it. :)

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    3. Steven Roper
      Reply Icon

      @ Peter R. 1

      What you should have done is set yourself up one of those pay-per-minute premium phone line like all the dial-a-psychics use at $5 - $10 per minute. It would have had the dual effect of providing you with income for your time from those who genuinely needed your advice and were willing to pay for it, and getting rid of all the freeloaders who wouldn't be willing to pay at the same time.

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  9. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    What about the vision impaired?

    Maybe they'll get a discount on the entrance fee.

    $2.50 for people with one glass eye perhaps?

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  10. g e
    Holmes

    Coeliac sufferers are special needs

    But these guys totally redefine 'Special Needs' on a whole new level! You'd think it slightly smarter to put doubt of the coeliac-friendly veracity of 'Internet Brands' over their own, given that some 'Coeliac-Friendly' products actually have 'very low' amounts of gluten in them as opposed to being truly gluten-free, in the UK they're allowed to be marked gluten-free if below a certain amount rather than being actually free of the stuff so you can't properly differentiate free from actually-free. Which is not good enough for many of the afflicted who do need truly-free.

    Yep, regardless, Closing Down Sale ahoy!

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    1. janimal
      Reply Icon

      Re: Coeliac sufferers are special needs

      In the UK / EU the limit used to be under 200ppm could be labelled gluten free, however that definition was changed in 2012 I believe to match the US definition of <20ppm.

      However I believe NZ or AUS use <6ppm

      just FYI

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  11. Phil Parker
    FAIL

    Shops are dead

    The truth is that every person shops on price alone. Secialist shops in the UK at least will always struggle - on-line retailers will beat them on price 100% of the time due to lower overheads. I know plenty of people who would happily take a punt on an item without research rather than spend a fiver more to go an try the product and buy in-store.

    In other news - the same people are moaning 'cos high streets are dying out.

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  12. Don Jefe
    Meh

    It Does Work

    It may not appear very friendly, but specialty shops charging an entry fee is not that rare, at least in the U.S.

    High end furniture galleries, collector car shops, antique auctions, beauty supply shops, firearm shops, architectural supply shops, and art galleries regularly charge entry fees that are refundable upon a purchase.

    There is no point in catering to the bottom feeding comparison shopper. They are the worst sort of customer: time intensive, high maintenance, prone to returning purchased and have the unbelievably ignorant belief that by purchasing an item cheaply they are helping the merchant. They will never be loyal, they're just looking for a deal. Let them have their Internet, they aren't needed anyway.

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  13. Bod

    I'm waiting for...

    ... PC World / Currys to start doing the same.

    In fact if they don't I can see them dissapearing like so many others. Who actually buys things in there rather than just browse for online purchases?

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    1. Muscleguy
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'm waiting for...

      Who goes in there? people whose appliance has died and need another one, now. Not next week.

      Also our experience of shopping for appliances online on price has resulted in the non delivery of goods which included time spent off work waiting for the delivery that never arrived. Excuses galore but a very strong suspicion that they were unable to supply the goods at the price offered.

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    2. jonathanb Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'm waiting for...

      I do, if I need it now rather than next week, or if it is something that is so cheap that waiting around for it to be delivered isn't worth the saving.

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  14. BJS
    Facepalm

    They should feature comparison shopping (and profit from it)

    Instead of discouraging comparison shopping, perhaps they should FEATURE it. Put a kiosk in the store through which customers can compare products and prices with online shops. Just set up the kiosk so that if customers prefer to shop online and wait for shipment, their order goes through an affiliate program. Ka-ching.

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  15. nichobe

    Passive aggressive much?

    http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

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