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Comment by newaccount74 | Hacker News Reader

A couple of years ago, I went shopping for headphones. I went to a couple of different small electronics/audio stores, and none would let me try the headphones!! They had them in the plastic packaging and said they are not allowed to open them.

What the fuck!

I just left and bought something online.

(I know there are high end hifi shops that will let me try headphones. But I wasn't looking for 500€ headphones, I just wanted something that didn't sound like shit. Thomann is perfect for that.)

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HiFi shops won’t let you try anymore either. People come in to try them and then just buy them online.

Record player sales are booming though, according to the shop I went to.

> People come in to try them and then just buy them online.

It still puzzles me how much of a disconnect exists between e-commerce and brick & mortar, almost 25 years from Gates's "Business at the speed of thought".

Those people who come in the store should be converted right there and then, by making it trivial to order in-store a home delivery option that is price-competitive with non-b&m-equipped businesses. Keep razor-thin local inventory that commands a premium for the fact that you get it there and then, and everything else can be ordered. This should allow you to offset a decent amount of showroom costs while still competing with web-only operations.

If the price difference is small enough and the friction low enough, making the order in-store becomes a better option than leaving, sitting down somewhere, searching again for the item on some other store, etc etc.

There are still big opportunities out there for retailers who can figure out that sweet spot.

Yeah, but who's going to buy them in an opened package and at what discount (loss for the store)?

I mean, you could have bought them. Tried them out while in the store, then returned them if they weren't to your liking. But I'll admit that might be more overhead than you were hoping for. But it would also be a great way to communicate to the store that their policies are bad. "I'd like to return these. Nothing really wrong, just don't like them. Oh, and I'd like to try...I mean buy these headphones. ... Actually, I'd like to return these please [etc, etc]

You're assuming the store would accept the return and even if they did, they might not do it for the same price; a (restocking) fee might be charged.

I am assuming that. In most countries it's required that you can return non-consumable items in a sensible time-frame. Restocking fees vary in legality, but typically need to be disclosed before purchase.

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