Please explain Microcenter and Fry's sales techniques to me ...

[dud]

I am in process of building either an i5 or i7 system at the moment and am looking for build components. People rave about MC and Fry's so I created accounts at each vendor. Unfortunately, I am not local to either vendors B&M store. While on the MC site I found some great prices on processors and tried to buy one ... but unfortunately was told that the item could only be purchased in-store.

OK, both MC and Fry's are small, bit players in the PC world (both have about two dozen B&M stores). Why would they not wish to expand their business to the VAST majority of customers that have no access to their stores?

 

[SKORPI0]

Logistics and viable locations.

You'll have to spend a lot of money to lease/build a building for the store.
Hire people, have enough inventory of products. You may end up needing a Distribution Center for all of those and plan to ship them to the store, via trailer truck.
It would take months that to make it profitable for that location, after getting back the $$$ initially spent.
Fry's and MC are about 25 miles from where I live.

 

[dbcooper1]

I think he's asking why they don't do mail order..

 

[dave_the_nerd]

They don't do mail order because they want you to be in the store, where you can be pressured into purchasing more stuff, where you can allow desire for instant gratification to overcome your common sense, and where you can spend twice too much for a case of power supply, and 10 times too much for cables, offsetting the minor loss they take selling you a CPU and motherboard.

 

[Termie]

I've purchased almost all my CPUs at Frys and Microcenter. I've never purchased anything else at either store (well, I may have picked up a motherboard in a bundle deal, once, actually).

If you spend any time in either store, you start to realize that the people who fill up their carts with entire systems are getting exposed to a lot of up-selling from the employees, who make it very clear that they are on commission. As long as you go in with an understanding of the situation, there's nothing wrong with these stores. But they are definitely counting on more than just impulse shopping to make the sale.

As for why they don't do mail-order on CPUs, I'm pretty sure it has to do with sales contracts put in place with Intel and AMD. They are selling at way below the MSRP, probably below the minimum sales price, but as long as they don't ship the CPUs, Intel and AMD probably don't mind, as it doesn't impact the overall market much.

 

[corkyg]

Mail order also requires a wholly different investment in people, and support systems, handling of RMAs, etc. Could be that their business is efficient and profitable as is and they don't need the mail order headache.

 

[Charlie98]

Believe me, if Newegg, TD or others thought they could beat MC at their own game, they would be doing it.

They don't do mail order because they want you to be in the store, where you can be pressured into purchasing more stuff, where you can allow desire for instant gratification to overcome your common sense, and where you can spend twice too much for a case of power supply, and 10 times too much for cables, offsetting the minor loss they take selling you a CPU and motherboard.

Or they can be there when you need a PSU right now (after your other one just took a dump) not in 3-5 days shipped from an online retailer. Or they can be there when you want to go in and lay hands on some different PC cases... because you can't tell everything from a picture online. I'm glad I have a MC 20 minutes away...

Uninformed consumers make poor choices, and impulse buyers are foolish by nature, and not just with PC/component purchases... they are probably the same way at the grocery store.

As for why they don't do mail-order on CPUs, I'm pretty sure it has to do with sales contracts put in place with Intel and AMD.

I think you are correct... I think those deals are intended for end-users, and have quantity limits.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Microcenter has great prices on a lot of other minor stuff too, like their generic ink cartridges, cables, etc. You just have to be careful not to buy extra stuff or some things that are overpriced. I do find gpus to generally be expensive there. As for not shipping, yes, the point of those cpus is to get you into the store to buy other stuff, but I see nothing wrong with that.

 

[dbcooper1]

Bottom line- most of their publicized deals are loss leaders; if they did mail order, most of what they shipped would be loss leaders.

 

[dud]

Bottom line- most of their publicized deals are loss leaders; if they did mail order, most of what they shipped would be loss leaders.

I believe this explains it. MC and Fry's are a mirage of good deals for the 90% who cannot take advantage of them. These deals simply do not exist for the vast majority of us ... and I still grasp for a LOGICAL explanation as to why. I have to admit that I somewhat envy anyone living within an "economically" feasible distance of either MC or Fry's ... but I've decided that vendors (including these as well as TD and NE) need my money more than I do.

 

[Spydermag68]

I order on-line at MC and then skip the check out lines that take forever to get through.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Or they can be there when you need a PSU right now (after your other one just took a dump) not in 3-5 days shipped from an online retailer. Or they can be there when you want to go in and lay hands on some different PC cases... because you can't tell everything from a picture online. I'm glad I have a MC 20 minutes away...

This!

When I built my gaming rig a while ago, I actually got to poke around at the 300R, decide I didn't like it, bring it back the next day for an easy exchange for the 500R.

When I bought a refurb laptop from MC, I got to visually inspect it, and when I told the employee I was serious about buying, then even let me break the seal, power it on, and try out the keyboard. It was great, and I was happy to buy it from them for going the extra mile in helping me inspect the thing I was going to buy.

There are some downsides to commissioned sales people and "loss-leader" sale items (I use the term loosely because I don't believe MC actually loses money on them) but there are also some notable upsides to being a brick and mortar store that includes staff that can be flexible.