Insecure?

[wasabi]

Mostly they sell cheapo brand stuff at ridiculous prices. The money to be made from this kind of outfit is of course from cleaning up the mess of middle-aged morons who have infested their computer with spyware and viral crap while whackin off over pictures of fellow wrinklies on dating sites. Or on print cartridges and the likes. Most of the small shops nearby have died in the last couple of years with the takeoff of the laptop. People just assume they've broken it rather than that they've screwed the machine up through their own stupidity. And with bugger-all servicable parts the computer shop can only say to bin it if its a hardware prob.

[Rabs]

OK...

I'll now stick up for the (minority) of small local pc shops.

I work at a local PC shop as a technical engineer (self employed). I charge x amount per week to the owner for my services.

Now I've seen all the trade supplier prices and thats only for cheap gear. Unfortunately people will look for prices on the internet or computer show before going to the local store.

Dont forget, your local store has overheads to consider, as mentioned in this thread that they sell cheap tat at high prices, wonder why that is?

I know first hand that there is f00k all to be made in parts sales (thanks to ebuyer, Scan and the like), the shop I work for is 80% profits based on labour. In our wonderful 'Politically correct' country, it seems common sense has gone out of the window and if someone sees 'Free Screensaver - click here' they most likely do. Obviously they end up with loads of spyware and viruses that there 'Norton' cannot clear.

I happen to work for one of the few shops that will not sell you anything unless you need it. The first thing we ask customers when they want an upgrade is 'what do you use it for?', after which we can steer them the right direction.

While I do agree that 90% of computer shops sell overpriced goods and the 'services' are undertaken by muppets who have no sense of 'cable management' let alone customer satisfaction - its no surprise that small shops get tarnished with a bad name.

Before you guys spout off about small computer shops, just remember that one or two have excellent staff and customer service which is what there reputation is built on. No we can't compete with the big boys on prices, but service in our eyes is number 1.

Have a nice day....

NB: The shop I work will only stock Abit/Asus or other branded stock. The ram we use is Crucial (no other brands at all...), HD's - Seagate etc etc. As stated above were in the minority and the town im in, people want cheap, cheap cheap - so its a job educating them.

[oralpain]

There are at least two dozen of what I would consider "local" (within 20km) PC stores around me. They range from small one man operations running out of a living room/garage to places like circut city, compUSA, and best buy. I rarely visit any of them unless I have an immedate need for something.

Most people I know order most of their stuff online for numerous reasons. There is a far better selection of products on the larger on-line shops, prices are cheaper, and int he US you pay no tax what so ever if you order from out of state, so thats automatically saving at least 8.25% for me.

I can get a 6800GT locally for $430, or I can order form newegg (or gameVE, or sidewinder, or mwave, or zipzoomfly, or excaliber, ect) for less than $350. It's a no-brainer.

[da.Guvna]

There are a couple of shops close to me...both about 20mins away by car in opposite directions.

The one on the island (can't remember the name of the place) is a one man outfit. Total mess inside, but the guy sells pretty good stock, but nothing snazzy. As has been said before, he makes most of his money from servicing broken computers.
I've only been in there once, but I was impressed with the service. My PC was acting up and I was trying to find the root cause. The only component I hadn't been able to swap out was the PSU, as none of my mates had any spares they could lend me. Went to the shop and explained my problem. The bloke sold me the PSU but told me that if it still didn't help I could take it back to him for a full refund, which was really decent of him! Anyway, it was the PSU, so I kept it.

There used to be another one closer in Havant called ABC Computers, but they went out of business a couple of years ago I think. They typically sold pretty crappy stock, and the manager of the place was miserable as sin.

Then there's Novatech in Port Solent. Their prices seem to be ok, and as long as you buy branded goods from them you're generally ok.
Still, I only shop there if I'm desperate for an item, as the whole place has a really shoddy feel to it. I've known several people (including my dad, despite my warnings) that have bought ready-made systems from them (and not the crappy budget ones either), and not one of them has worked out of the box first time round. Managed to get them going ok after some tinkering, but then they just seem to fall over after a few weeks. I have NO idea why, because it seems to happen regardless of the quality of the components.....I think that place is just haunted.

[wasabi]

Don't get me wrong - I'm all in favour of small shops and am amazed anyone can do it without punching the customers. The problem is that Joe Average PC shopper is an unbearable stupid git,, and only low end IT workers or sheisters will normally deal with him.

[3dcandy]

Yup guys, seems like a similiar story wherever you go doesn't it?
Well as the manager of a small shop now, and as a worker from a small pc shop before it's dead simple to tell you why these shops all seem the same. Overheads...that's it! They all won't be able to afford to get in new top end kit, which *may* not sell quick enuff, and then have to be discounted to sell eroding their already small margins. My current shop doesn't order stuff for people unless they pay up fron or are real regular customers, because I know we'll bend over backwards only 2 find the customer will have got it somewhere else, and quite often cheaper too!
The problem in this day and age is that you can go online and buy th kit, often cheaper, and get it quicker than going down the local shop. God, I used to buy kit online because it was cheaper than from the shop WITH my discount! The rent on the shop I work in is about £15k a year, and we're not in the main high street. If we moved about 50m, out rent would TRIPLE, and we sure as hell wouldn't take 3 times as much! The truth of the matter is that this will only get worse, not better in the long run, as the gulf between the retail prices increases....

[da.Guvna]

3dcandy, how quickly can you get stock ordered in and ready for collection by a customer?

If I was able to go to my local shop with an EXACT product specification and get them to order it in on the next delivery for collection from them, I would much rather shop there and pay a little extra than go online and have the hassle of making sure that somebody was at home to sign for my delivery (especially on expensive items).

Like you said, you only normally provide that sort of service to regular customers, but perhaps if you were to turn that into a unique selling point available to everyone (as long as they paid the full amount in advance, or perhaps a deposit) and actually advertise it, you'd get a lot more business?

You could still keep a small stock of everyday items that people might just stop in and buy on impulse, and then set aside some warehouse space for customer orders only.

Like I said before, the ONLY reason I ever spend money at Novatech is because I can just pop in and collect on the day rather than paying/waiting for delivery. If they provided a service where I could order ANYTHING I wanted and then collect it 3 days later or something, I would spend a lot more money there!

I guess it depends on your suppliers, and perhaps there are other complications to the process that I wouldn't know about (having never run a shop).

[3dcandy]

Well my shop supplies Outdoor Clothing, and I can get some stuff next day IF I order before 12 midday. It's just that you need 2 balance stock against ordering, and there are also other problems. For example, some of my suppliers will only pay the postage if you order over a nominal amount, and that amount is usually a lot ie. £250. So you need to order a shedload. With margins being squeezed all the time, that's why people don't always order stuff for you! People also don't like to pay up front for stuff....

[da.Guvna]

Ah right, I thought you owned a PC shop....I guess it's a bit different where activity clothing is involved, haha.

Still, I reckon the above model would work for a PC store as long as the customer base was big enough. If you managed to get a reputation amongst enthusiasts for being able to get ANYTHING they wanted for collection in a few days you'd probably get a fair amount of custom.

[3dcandy]

Yeah, but again, you can't afford to just order stock willy nilly. You just can't afford to keep too much stock! I know how much stock I have, it's ALWAYS more than I should have. Quite often, suppliers want minimum orders, either in quantity or amount in pounds.
Believe me, you just can't order stuff sometimes...would you go into a shop that has no stock whatever? Because that's probably what would happen if the model you describe was followed. That's why shops hold mid to bottom range of stock. You know it will sell, and you know you haven't shelled out a fortune for it to sit there gathering dust. You will never have as large a customer base as an online retailer, and also, they can shop whenever. I work 6 days a week, and get no lunch or other breaks. I can't afford wages for someone to cover me, and on saturdays when someone else IS there, I can't leave them alone...

[StoneNewt]

There are four independent computer shops near me I'm aware of, well in the local town at least (less than 30 min drive), two of them are rather bad, and half the time I think the counter guys make it up as they go along. I walked into one of these shops recently wanting a 40GB SATA HDD & a 15m crossover cable I was told that I needed two 10m patch cables (even though I explained to him that a switch wouldn't work cause I wasn't using it for a network) & was told that "normal ultra serial drives are unreliable and shouldn't be used". Both offer 6 month old kit at top-dollar prices, in short I'm totally unimpressed.

Then we have the legacy & repair specialist, they have everything from new Socket 7 to the latest & greatest offerings from AMD, intel, etc. It's a family thing and everyone there really knows their stuff , they can fix almost anything from 3 day old home build attempt to a 486 and probably earlier. Operates on a strictly RRP basis so no savings to be had, but quality of care comes at a price.

Finally we have the 'big player' this place is mainly setup for home & small business, always high-quality hardware backed up with knowledgeable staff that know where their knowledge ends and will admit it, they're not cheap but you'll not be paying top-dollar though. We use them at work and the only complaint is slightly dodgy custom system builds, however we've heard that a certain new member of staff was fired. Though currently they're not shipping AMD systems as standard (they got badly burnt by AMD reliability during the SoA era) if you're willing to pay they'll buy in and put any system together if you give them a spec.

Then there's PC World, this is a BIG store so loads of choice and room. The usual PC World rules apply staff are useful for directions to the bit you want (cables, graphics, laptops etc) and that's about it (though one guy must have played dumb in the interview cause he knows his stuff), prices are okay cheapest in town but not even close to on-line stores.

[Overlag]

well my local shops have all gone bust.......(hornchurch/romford area)

but then what do you expect for a shop that refused to replace a dud psu they sold me.....

the only "Pc" shops around here now are PCworld

[killban]

Hi there,

I live in Rugby, and I am lucky enough to have Stak only 3 miles away. This is one of the places that is actually an online retailer, that just so happens to have a counter service as well. The staff in there are helpful, and knowledgeable (sp?). However, I can get kit from Scan a bit cheaper including the postage. I do know that they have a very good stock level, so if I am building a PC, and I need a different component, or something extra, they will be able to supply it.

[cjs150]

Living in west london a big PC world has all but eliminated the competition. PC world is overpriced and the store assistants, when you can find one, border on the completely useless for anything technical (nice to know from Blinky this is true across the country). We also have a small Maplin, that usually does not have the right stock!

I am therefore forced to use online stores. Even there the quality of service and stock is extremely variable. My pet hate is those online stores (savastore.com and overclockers.co.uk are two of the larger online stores with this problem) who insist on delivering to the billing address of your credit card - they usually say it is for security reasons (according to VISA it is not an issue - and how would amazon or interflora cope!). It is about time the people running these stores did a bit of research and found out that (a) for most poeple the billing address for their credit card is their home address (b) a lot of their customers work for a living in places that are not their home (c) therefore the customers are not available to accept deliveries at home during the normal working week. Of course if you are a complete cynic, the very high prices for Saturday deliveries from on-line stores, may be the actual reason why such on line stores do not have user friendly delivery policies.

I would exempt Scan.co.uk and thecoolingshop.com from any criticism, they and from time to dabs.co.uk now get all my custom - shame they do not have the stock in I want at the moment

[Ruggerbugger]

Hi killban (welcome to the forums). I'm in Rugby as well, and agree with you about Stak being the best shop we've got. The guys in there know what they're doing, but it does take AGES to get something from the stockroom with their weird ordering system. The others (IS Computers, Star, "the one on Murray Road") all suffer from the perrenial tale of a poor range of stock, particularly TFTs. All of their websites, including Stak's, would benefit from some work though.

Whereabouts in Rugby are you?