DAY 2

The BIG Visit

Running into the store !

LINDA.....The group was to visit the computer store. To find out where the store was Dan and Dawn called for the directions.

LORETTA.....While walking across the parking lot Dawn and Linda wanted to know what to expect. I told them that they would see boxes everywhere. I advised that in order to shop in computer stores you have to be willing to read signs and boxes. When we first entered the store we decided to go straight to the computer room.

DAWN.....After about half an hour I needed some help from a salesman. As I walked in the computer store I was totally lost and nervous. There were many boxes and colorful objects. I didn't know where the computers were. It was very hard for me to ask a salesperson to help me. They were too busy. I don't know anything about computers at all. It was comfortable walking around looking at many computers and their equipment without being bothered by a convincing salesman.

DANNY.....At first I felt uncomfortable with the salesperson. It was hard to work with him. It seemed like he was trying to sell me a computer that I didn't want. . LORETTA.....It was very hard to understand our salesman. He seemed very knowledgable. He spoke very quickly and had a heavy accent. It seemed to us that he knew we were not familiar with computers and was going to confuse us so we would allow him to sell us more than we needed.

PAUL...... The salesman assured us that all of the computers in the store were capable of doing what Linda wanted. This was to be able to make business flyers, keep business record, add pictures to her flyers and print in color. But he didn't show us anything else. The oddest comment he made was when he told us that if we bought a Hewlett-Packard computer (which is what we were looking at) we would pretty much have to buy a Hewlett-Packard monitor because it had speakers attached. LINDA.....One of the salepeople saw us taking notes and he commented that he never had customers all take notes as he was talking. And it seemed to make him nervous.

PAUL.....When we asked about scanners and printers, he pointed us to another area that was not his department. Another gentleman was there to help us with our scanner-printer questions. (I was impressed that the salesmen-all men at this point-were so available; I have been there other times when I had to wait several minutes for someone to answer my questions.) We found out that there were many scanners-and a couple of printers-that met Linda's needs and price-range. He generally did not show us the cheapest (he encouraged a $100 scanner over an $80 scanner, though quality didn't seem to be an issue) and did not tell us about a $100 refurbished printer that apparently did everything the $300 printer he showed us did. Maybe these were actual quality issues-I've sometimes bought the cheapest thing only to have to return it because it didn't work very well-but it seemed to suggest: if you want the best deals, don't always count on the sales people to point you to them.

LORETTA.....The consumer should read flyers and catalogues and visit the stores regularly to compare price and quality. This experience reminded me of buying a new car. the consumer and the dealer can be talking about two different things. The consumer has his budget and his need in mind. The dealer has the best sale of his preferred item in mind. How does an item become a preferred item?

DAWN..... After spending a fine amount of time in the store I got the hang of where everything was. I also learned a lot of things I didn't know just by exploring. I am proud of myself.