Store Charging $5 for "Just Looking"

Apparently that link you posted charges $5 to look at too, cuz I got a "page not found"

 

Link is broken. Perhaps they're charging $5.00 just to view the news article.

 

Whatever happened to "Looking's free, touching will cost you"?!

 

Fixed.

 

I wonder how they can enforce that....if I were asked 5€ just to look I would tell the seller : you just make sure that I will never buy items from your shop ever.

 

So they are posting someone at the door to collect five dollar? Thats not a welcoming environment at all. **** em.

 

I would love to see them enforce this. Some jerk off tells me I need to pay $5 for looking...I'm going to tell him to go **** himself and walk out. He puts his hand on me, that's pretty much assault.

 

This seems like the worst idea ever. I don't know how many times I have been out doing something, then just decided I would drop in and check out things at like Best Buy, with nothing in mind, then buy something. The $5 cover charge would keep me from going in. Also, what about when you go into a store with a specific thing in mind (like when I go with my wife to a store and they don't have the right size/color/style of jeans that she is looking for)? You go in planning on spending $20-$100 on stuff, and they don't have what you want that day, so you leave. In most cases, you will go back again one day to see if they have it, but not if they are charging $5 to look around.

 

I assume because they have too many people not buying and just looking. If I own a place I kind of get it, but word of mouth always helps sales moreso.

 

If they are worried about people looking at the physical item and then leaving to buy it online, why not put up price comparisons of their items with online prices? That would be much more customer friendly and helpful.

I'd never enter a store that planned to charge me $5 if I didn't buy anything.

 

Yeah this is dumb, but if they're charging people at the door, how is it different than us going to a comic or toy convention? In fact, $5 is more reasonable than most major comiccons, and you get your money back if you buy something, which is what you don't get at cons.

Now, if I browse and not buy anything, and somebody tries to collect $5 from me later, msichief and public disturbance will ensue.

 

But its not a comic convention or toy convention... its a food store.

 

Doesn't seem like a good plan to combat showrooming at all.

All this will do is alienate potential customers. Any sales they might get from possible browsing is gone.

Possibly people aren't buying their products/food because the prices aren't competive enough.

 

If it's the kind of food store I think it is, the people who go there basically treat food the same way many of the people here treat comics and toys.

 

They eat them?

 

At conventions, you aren't so much paying for the right to shop, but to be part of the event itself or the activities/environment. I am willing to pay to go to a comic convention, but if my comic store started charging me to come in, I would probably find a new place.

 

Also, conventions aren't open all the time. They only come around once a year or so (periodically). A grocery store, even a specialty grocery store, is open year round. Gaining access to it isn't like going to an "event."

 

"OMG, they have salted capers here! I've been wanting to use these in something for ages."

"Hi, I'm looking for balsamic vinegar. No, not that kind, the kind with the infused figs."

 

Whoops. Wrong thread. Yeah, 5 bucks rule sucks.

 

If I were told to pay $5 dollars I would simply say "no" and run the hell out as fast as possible.

 

Oh this store is going to get so many new customers, i can feel it

 

I never go out anymore, so this is pretty irrelevant, I won't even pay cover at a bar or club unless I KNOW there is a really good drink special (half off everything, quarter beers, etc), so I am sure as hell not going to pay to look around and maybe buy something at a store.

 

I was going to say, they'd have to charge you before you even go in to have any hope of enforcing this.

Heck I went to a restaurant one time and asked to use their bathroom so I could take a look at the kind of food they were serving people on my way through. So terrible I left and went someplace else.