Saturday, October 15, 2011

Saving money

I went to Barnes & Noble to get the 11th season of C.S.I., and to use the $10 gift certificate I got at school last year.

They had several copies there, priced at a whopping $79 (with the 10% discount they were currently offering it would have been $71)

The clerk said something about having it shipped to my house, that I missed because I was trying to restart my heart from sticker-shock.  I mumbled something about just taking it with me as she clicked away on the computer.  Before I could tell her that I really didn’t want to pay for shipping since I was already there, she said “If you don’t mind waiting a week, we can ship it to your house for $44.”

It took only a millisecond for my brain to go from “another $44 bucks to wait for it?” to “It’s less if I have it mailed to my house?”  Fortunately, what came out of my mouth was the later, and the clerk confirmed it.  So I asked if it would be the same if I just ordered it online.  “Yes, but then you would miss out on chatting with me.”

Bonus points for the quick comeback.

My figuring is that the company knows the more people they can get to order from the warehouse, the less shelf space they need to keep, and pay for, in the expensive prime locations they put their stores. 

Either way, with the $10 gift certificate, I got an $80 DVD for just over $35.  Do yourself the same favor next time you’re shopping there.  If you can wait, get it delivered.

4 comments:

Alexia said...

Bizarre!

Books are really (comparatively speaking) expensive in this country. I can get books airmailed from England (that's the-other-side-of-the-world-England), post-free, for around half of what I would pay at the bookshop. Go figure!

Max Sartin said...

It's funny how online or mail-order shopping can be so much cheaper. I just never expected to see a company competing with itself.

Lisa Shafer said...

A deal's a deal.
I don't do B&N much. I either shop at one of the two independent bookstores in the area, or else I just buy at amazon -- because amazon sells everything under the sun.

Lisa Shafer said...

Good point.