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Comment by hughperkins | Hacker News Reader

on a related note, i went into a brick and mortar shop to buy earphones the other day. turns out they wont let you try them, for various reasons. in the end, i looked on the internet for reviews, and bought some headphones on amazon instead, and they are perfect, awesome. so, the brick and mortar electronic equipment store adds what value?

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Do you mean headphones, or in-ear phones? Many brick & mortar shops will let you try on headphones in a demo area setup for that purpose. Bose has their own demo tables they provide to some stores for the purpose of demonstrating their noise cancelling headphones, amongst other products. [That's how I got hooked - the store let me plug in my own phone into their demo unit, so I could see how they sounded on my own favorite songs.]

I don't know of anywhere that will let you try earbud headphones, for hygiene reasons.

The big electronics retailers in Tokyo let you try earbud headphones; they usually have most of their range on display with the jacks available to plug into your phone. There's alcoholic wipes to clean the buds.

To be fair, that is kind of a jerk move. They can't resell them as new, and I guess they have to either now sell them as used, or return them to the manufacturer somehow? If you want to try something on and they won't let you, but want to support them, go to Best Buy / Bic Camera or whatever you have locally.

This is basically the crux of this issue. If businesses want to be businesses instead of charities, their business model has to create some sort of win-win where they provide value that people are willing to pay money for above the cost of providing that value. Your parent comment gave an example of that not happening. One potential place the brick-and-mortar could have provided value is in the realm of trying something for yourself before buying - not having that capability seems to be the only major weakness of internet retail - but apparently that wasn't part of their business model. Now if businesses want to rely more on their patrons support to counterbalance a weak business model, they are free to do so, but it changes lots of calculations. It seems far more likely to work for independent record stores, which have opportunities to build a closer relationship with their customers, than for places like Best Buy.

Additionally - curation. I do to specialty shops because I want to have a conversation with a knowledgable salesperson about what I intend to do and what will best serve that need. Sure, many products don't need this level of personal interaction (for example, the headphone example) - but if I were, for instance, starting up an interest in white water kayaking then I would certainly want someone to talk through my goals, gear, etc.

>Additionally - curation. I do to specialty shops because I want to have a conversation with a knowledgable salesperson

This is why I'm happy to pay a premium at my local record shop. I love talking with the owner and he's always introducing me to good music. I know he prices high but I also know that it's quality, and usually the conversation makes it worthwhile.

> so, the brick and mortar electronic equipment store adds what value?

I got my last turntable from a brick-and-mortar after doing plenty of research online. I took some records with me and could listen to them through a couple different tables on various speakers they had wired up in the shop. The guy helping me knew his product and it was overall a good experience (and he gave me a nicer open-box preamp for the same price as the more basic one I had intended to buy). I left that day with new gear I was confident I'd be happy with. If I'd bought it online I wouldn't have had the advice nor would I have heard it through several different speakers. I also wouldn't have gotten a deal on the preamp.

I had the same thing with underpants. It's just crazy.

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