Quite I bet most people think that Dixons, Currys, PC World, The Link are all competeing chains/companies.
In the above example there still is competition from Comet, Euronics, independant stores etc.
I think he banks at 'Barclays'? their machines don't give tenners.
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
The nearest one by me does'nt?
-- Sir Benjamin Middlethwaite
Ah - can't remember when last I used a Barclay's machine although I bank with them. They're all on the street with nowhere to park. ;-)
I use my local Tesco one usually, and that gives 2 tenners and the rest in
20s.
Is that a question or a statement? Oh, and the apostrophe is in the wrong place;-)
MBQ
If you have them. Not everyone lives in London or Birmingham. Within an hour's drive of here, I have the Coop ("ours are cheapest - when we don't have any"), Currys ("I have that particular model at home sir, and I'm very pleased with it" - this to half a dozen customers looking at different PCs), Argos (used to be the cheapest and best - gone shockingly downhill over the last year or two). We did have local Comet and Dixons, but they eventually closed down when they became so notorious that they stood empty on the busiest of shopping days. My only purchases at both turned out to be used goods fraudulently misrepresented as new - they got the elbow thereafter.
And that's about it. Many small retailers have just been pushed out of business - often by new parking and traffic regulations that seem suspiciously advantageous to the big stores. Some indeed sport the Euronics badge - but it doesn't seem to change the limited choice on offer.
Increasingly down to online shopping - best thing since sliced bread for so many of us out in the sticks. Until, that is, even online stores have started falling prey to the two big groups.
Monopolies Commission? What a crock. They're not simply there to ensure that some small vestige of competition remains, but to ensure that the consumer has as wide a choice as possible. At best they're a waste of taxpayers' money, at worst they're part of the problem.
John
And the competition in the products in the computing section?
Comet sell computing products, so do the catalogue showroom places Argos and Index. Seen computing products in Woolies. There are indepedant computer shops all over the place.
I don't. 20+ miles from anywhere that has more than a small village store, post office and pub.
Where do you live? We can get to towns/cities with the normal range of high street stores in less than an hour.
Very very common from DSG Retail stores. I know I have been sold "new" goods that are customer returns (Sound card from PC World, very noisy, another persons notes in the manual. A kettle, wet inside, it leaked). All returned for working replacements, but a PITA to do. I avoid DSG group stores if at all possible now.
Depending on how Comet handle my current trouble with a new telly they might join the avoid list. So far they are doing OK, tommorow will be the next stage when the repair man is due to come.
I use it as a resource to narrow down what I want to look at but you can't really beat seeing the product in the flesh. Likewise manufacturers websites with manuals available to download. You can see what the product can really do and all the features it has, not what some marketing droid thinks are the "selling points".
Trouble is with an online store if you do get a faulty bit of kit you are a bit lumbered, depending on their returns policy. At least with a store you can go back and make a fuss with a real person (not a sales droid, get a manager or supervisor) and as they are well aware of the online competition threat are far more helpfull these days.
OK going back on a 60 mile round trip is a PITA. I'll do it once, provided that I'm assured they have another in stock and reserved for me and I can check/test in store before leaving. This is were I'm at with the replacement telly, that has a different fault that we didn't test for in the shop, not that would have helped as it initially worked OK and developed the fault after a few hours.
I've never had a problem and as I nearly always ask for =A350...
Using which competing hardware designs and running which competing operating systems?
So what would happen if you were to just pick up your door, walk past the queue of people waiting at the checkout, hand your tenner to the security guard by the door, and walk out? Have you even made a contract to breach? You certainly haven't committed any criminal offence, since there is no criminal intent.
I suspect the door would still belong to B&Q at this point, and the tenner would still belong to you. In theory, B&Q could sue you for the return of the door, and claim they never accepted your tenner, but assumming the security guard didn't try and give it back to you, that would make a fairly interesting argument.
You: Can I have my change please?
.=2E...
snip
Well, it depends .... I purchased online and took delivery of a dishwasher recently. The delivery man used a porters' truck to wheel the device exactly where I requested it and asked me to sign 'here' telling me that I "shouldn't have any problem, but if I did have any problem whatsoever just phone this number 'here' and 'they'll' send a new one". I had a 'warmer feeling' about their returns policy than I had from buying from a shed.
But, the shed doesn't actually have the goods - apart from the show models- the shed's sales-droid merely takes your cash and arranges for a delivery from some centralised warehouse - 'we don't do Wednesdays in your postcode'; 'Can't tell you what time the delivey will be' , some help, for a higher price.
BTW; speaking of 'telly' ... I goggled for a TV and thought I'd find a suitable one on the web. I'd also identified a e-retailer with a very good price offer... before ordering it on line, I wandered off to a Euronic affiliated local retailer. When a young man noticed my interest in the particular device he asked me if I wanted to purchased it? I responded 'Not at that price!' He asked me what price I'd seen - then having looked on the web himself -consulted with his boss? proprietor? over the phone then matched the price. I gave a deposit and collected the TV from the store a few days later; paying the balance. I 'saved' a couple of hundred quid! Act locally, think globally ... or something.
The problem with 'competing' (especially operating systems, there are competing processor and motherboard manufacturers) is that most people want things which are compatible with what they, their employer, their school, or their neighbours have got. Which usually means PCs running MS.
Even for the operating-system agnostic, if a peripheral says "requires MS Windows" or an application "requires Windows XP or better"[1] then that will guide their purchase. I want a colour laser printer but all the cheap ones I look at are Windows printing system printers and won't (or might not) work on Linux. I use Windows right now, but want to keep my options open in future, so want all new peripherals to be multi-OS compatible.
Owain
[1] Linux is better than XP, right ;-)
In fact, increasingly, the delivery is made directly by the manufacturer and the retailer doesn't physically touch it. This makes quite a bit of sense since the product will pass through fewer hands and risk of damage is reduced. It also means that the manufacturer doesn't have to deal with stock rotation on slow moving lines etc.
There's certainly a lesson there. I don't think I've paid the initially asked for price on an item of "capital goods" for some while.
"Options open for the future" usually means upgrading when M$ tell you.
Right. RISC OS is better still of course. ;-))
"options open for the future" means *not* having to buy a new PC just beacuse I'm already 3 versions behind in Windows on a PC that's only 4 years old.
Dammit, my current printer's 12 years old.
Owain
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