Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

Suckers With Money

A woman comes in who knows next-to-nothing about cameras, wants to get a digital, makes some comments leading me to conclude she has a generous budget. I show her five cameras that are easy to use and take good pictures, and are attractive to someone who doesn’t know much about cameras and has money to spend: compact cameras, big screen, impressive-sounding number of megapixels, etc. In other words, cameras that are kinda-expensive-to-very-expensive.

She does not seem to mind, as this is all in clear view of many cheaper cameras with their prices brightly advertised (i.e. she never says “Why exactly are these $400 cameras better than those $200 cameras?”). We settle on the Casio EX-Z55. She leaves the store apparently satisfied.

I feel great about my selling skills for a couple hours - a feeling that can be summarized by the thought: “Hah! Sucker! I can’t believe I convinced you that you need a pocket-sized 5MP camera!”

(Nah, that's not true. No convincing was required, as much as I would like to think I am that persuasive. I just showed her a couple cameras, told her why they were nice, and she chose one. The only thing I did that was at all "skillful" was starting with the top-of-the-line cameras, and she apparently did not have a problem with paying that much for a camera so we never even talked about cheaper ones. Besides, I take too much pride in being an "expert" to willingly deceive customers into buying something they don't need. Most of the time, anyways. Also, my primary duty as a salesman is first to my employer, and second to the customer. In other words, I "sold out", I sound like an expert so that people end up being persuaded to buy something nicer than they thought they were about to. It's not often that this suceeds so well, though, Most people come in looking for a camera at a certain price range, I show them cameras on the upper end (and just above the upper end) of the price range, emphasizing how super nice the more expensive ones are. With THIS customer, though, I showed her the nicest ones I had, and that was ALL. Too easy).

In any case...

...not much time later, the woman comes back. She says she consulted with her husband, and she probably only needs a 3MP camera. Whoa, looks like we have a real independent- and critical-thinking individual on our hands all of a sudden, I think to myself sarcastically. So the obvious thing to do is to go down to the 3MP equivalent of that camera, the EX-Z30, and she’s about to get it...

...when her husband calls her cell phone. She's like “Yes, we looked at a bunch of different ones... No, I’m not sure why I want to get it... Here, talk to him”, and she gives me the phone. Um, hello? He asks: “Is this the best camera in that price range? If you were to get one, which one would you get?”. I’d be between that and the Nikon 3200, depending on whether my priorities were size + cool factor + big screen, or just performance and reliability and price. The Nikon does take better pictures. “But the Nikon’s so BIG”, she complains. “Well, let me see it… I suppose I could take it… lemme talk to him…" She takes the phone. "Honey.. Ok… Uh-huh… Ok, we’re taking the Nikon”.

I remind her that getting a photo printer now would be $50 cheaper than later, and she IS getting more than half her money back… so she takes a printer, pretty much impulse-buys it. See ya later!

Selling to people like this is like shooting fish in a barrel, if only it weren’t for their husbands or children (or, you know, their more-tech-savvy friends or relatives who point out to them that, if you look around, it's easy to find good deals on gadgets that do ALMOST everything the super-nice gadget does, but for half the price).

This makes me worry about what the salesmen at electronics stores must convince my mother that she “needs”… When I go shopping with her, she is so lost, yet so willing to spend a ton of money…

posted by Remus