Morality? Difficult situation. I agree with Macm above. We all window shop and compare stuff without intending to take advantage of our local dealers.
(1) You visit your local high end salon and listen to speakers you can't afford. You spend a lot of time and ask a lot of questions and because you're a nice guy the dealer spends his time with you knowing, because youve been honest with him, that you cant afford to buy from him. Maybe he'll refer one of his customers to you with a used pair for sale. Later on, you see the speakers advertised on Audiogon for a song and buy them. Nothing wrong with that as long as you were up-front with the dealer and he knew he was volunteering his time. But wrong if you gave him the impression that you were a buyer.
(2) You visit your local dealer and listen to a pair of bargain speakers that you know can be bought on-line at a discount. The retail value ($300) is not enough for the local dealer to spend time with you and give you much of a discount. The dealer is a jerk, has BO and a foul mouth. You still gotta buy from him and not try to save a few dollars going elsewhere, unless he called you a name or insulted your family.
(3) It is, imo, wrong to go to a store and give the impression that you are interested in buying a product from them when you intend all along to buy from someone else. But what about comparing the same set of speakers, say, to different competitive products at different dealers. Three stores all sell Speaker A. You compare it to Speaker B at store 1, Speaker C at store 2 and Speaker D at store 3. You decide to buy Speaker A. From which dealer do you buy Speaker A? My bet is the one who offers the best price. Would it be wrong to buy it at an even better price on-line? Immoral?
I buy on-line when there is no local dealer or buy from the dealer who gave me the most help. I try to buy from local dealers for the same reason I buy tires from the closest tire store. I like to support local small businesses because I want them to stick around (in my own interest - nothing to do with morality).
(4) You're on vacation and you visit a high end dealer to listen to the latest thing. You fall in love with it and spend an afternoon there. But, its too big to carry home, you don't want to pay for shipping and you prefer to be able to take it back to your local shop for service, so you leave the store fully intending to buy it back home. Is that moral? I say only if you tell the shopkeeper that you're on vacation and not a buyer before the demo and he volunteers to share his time with you.
Some of the dealers from whom I buy actually do business over the internet rather than locally, but I buy from them because they answer my questions, over the phone or by email. I wouldnt ask them any questions though if their prices weren't good, and that's the bottom line. If a local dealer wants to stay in business he needs to offer service and competitive prices.
(1) You visit your local high end salon and listen to speakers you can't afford. You spend a lot of time and ask a lot of questions and because you're a nice guy the dealer spends his time with you knowing, because youve been honest with him, that you cant afford to buy from him. Maybe he'll refer one of his customers to you with a used pair for sale. Later on, you see the speakers advertised on Audiogon for a song and buy them. Nothing wrong with that as long as you were up-front with the dealer and he knew he was volunteering his time. But wrong if you gave him the impression that you were a buyer.
(2) You visit your local dealer and listen to a pair of bargain speakers that you know can be bought on-line at a discount. The retail value ($300) is not enough for the local dealer to spend time with you and give you much of a discount. The dealer is a jerk, has BO and a foul mouth. You still gotta buy from him and not try to save a few dollars going elsewhere, unless he called you a name or insulted your family.
(3) It is, imo, wrong to go to a store and give the impression that you are interested in buying a product from them when you intend all along to buy from someone else. But what about comparing the same set of speakers, say, to different competitive products at different dealers. Three stores all sell Speaker A. You compare it to Speaker B at store 1, Speaker C at store 2 and Speaker D at store 3. You decide to buy Speaker A. From which dealer do you buy Speaker A? My bet is the one who offers the best price. Would it be wrong to buy it at an even better price on-line? Immoral?
I buy on-line when there is no local dealer or buy from the dealer who gave me the most help. I try to buy from local dealers for the same reason I buy tires from the closest tire store. I like to support local small businesses because I want them to stick around (in my own interest - nothing to do with morality).
(4) You're on vacation and you visit a high end dealer to listen to the latest thing. You fall in love with it and spend an afternoon there. But, its too big to carry home, you don't want to pay for shipping and you prefer to be able to take it back to your local shop for service, so you leave the store fully intending to buy it back home. Is that moral? I say only if you tell the shopkeeper that you're on vacation and not a buyer before the demo and he volunteers to share his time with you.
Some of the dealers from whom I buy actually do business over the internet rather than locally, but I buy from them because they answer my questions, over the phone or by email. I wouldnt ask them any questions though if their prices weren't good, and that's the bottom line. If a local dealer wants to stay in business he needs to offer service and competitive prices.