JRX
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,630
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Post by JRX on Dec 30, 2010 17:23:38 GMT -5
Kirby vacuums. I'm surprised they haven't been sued into oblivion. Elaborate. If you think it's because of Nintendo, it's not.
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on Dec 30, 2010 17:59:46 GMT -5
Manga Entertainment.
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Glitch
King Koopa
Not Going To Die; Childs, we're goin' out to give Blair the test. If he tries to make it back here and we're not with him... burn him.
Watching you.
Posts: 12,710
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Post by Glitch on Dec 30, 2010 18:03:24 GMT -5
Kirby vacuums. I'm surprised they haven't been sued into oblivion. Elaborate. If you think it's because of Nintendo, it's not. It's not, but that would be such an icing on the cake. Kirby only sells door to door, and their sales man are very high pressure.(witnessed first hand since I worked for them for like a week) They trick you into letting them into your house by saying they're offering a free carpet cleaning.(sometimes they don't even say they're selling vacuums until after they enter and set up the display) The salesman will pretty much not leave until you threaten to call the cops on him,or until he finds out you can't afford to make monthly payments on their 2000 dollar piece of crap. Pretty much all their employees are convicts.(ex-con implies they want to get away from that lifestyle) Anybody else who works for them(and usually quits) is usually tricked into by adds and training that try to be very vague about what are actually doing for them,(they only say customer service) and by promises of making a lot of money. Most of the day is spent knocking on doors and working with people who get drunk or high most of the time. This is a simplified version of what goes on, but I am dead serious when I say their sales tactics gave me a better understanding of how date rape works. I wanted to shoot everybody else in that company van. There's a ton of stuff about this disgraceful company in articles and youtube videos.
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Post by Jay Carroll on Dec 30, 2010 18:51:56 GMT -5
K-Mart. I know they're not doing so hot lately anyway, but it feels like the kind of place you shop at if Walmart is too high class. Fun fact: Kmart bought Sears back in 2004. Their stock has been trading under $2 for the better part of 2 years. From working for Sears for 8 months in 2008, I still can't figure out how they're still in business. Everything they sell, you can get better quality or for cheaper somewhere else. Most Sears locations (that I know of) are at the end of a mall, where most people under 40 don't care to actually shop. They don't train employees to do much besides ring things up and not give a damn, they barely ever reward good employees, and management is made up of dumbasses and people who make unreasonable demands of low salary employees while holding your job over your head. I'll be glad when Sears holdings finally goes out of business, even if WalMart is the company that feasts on their dying assets.
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Post by Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite on Dec 30, 2010 22:55:54 GMT -5
And while not one company as much as independent stores, but im suprised porn shops are still open. When you think about it, anything you want you can get online nowadays and much less embarassing. At least with porno store people buy their stuff and then go "enjoy" it at home. The better question is why the eff are there still porno THEATERS!?!? Back in the days before the internet and DVD players/VCRs they were a necessary evil if you wanted to see moving picture of people doing naughty things, but now there's no reason to go unless you're just a dirty perv who likes being around other dirty pervs.
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Post by Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite on Dec 30, 2010 23:00:45 GMT -5
My submission CompUSA which is still a ghostly presence thanks to the internet, as is Tower Records. Tower Records was pretty damned good though, not so much price wise but in terms of what they had in stock, knowledgeable staff and just overall atmosphere. The Tower Records I used to go to is now an FYE and it's like they sucked all of the personality out of the place
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Post by Confused Mark Wahlberg on Dec 30, 2010 23:04:59 GMT -5
I don't really understand how Borders and Barnes & Noble stay in business.
They sell movies and CDs at about a 50% mark-up and they let you sit and read the books/magazines all day without buying if you want.
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BigBadZ
Grimlock
The Rumors Are All True
Posts: 13,923
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Post by BigBadZ on Dec 30, 2010 23:18:14 GMT -5
Small tobacco outlet type stores. I work for a large grocery chain and I have been told by customers that our cigarettes are almost a dollar cheaper than the tobacco outlets. And cigs are hella expensive already!
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Dec 30, 2010 23:26:30 GMT -5
Just a side note, but I have a Netflix subscription and use it well, but I actually miss rental stores.
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h
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,734
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Post by h on Dec 31, 2010 1:11:30 GMT -5
Dell computers. What a mess! ...but their customer service is excellent. You can wait on hold for 20 minutes to give your name and information to a guy, and he'll put you on hold for 30 minutes and then transfer you to another guy, who takes the same information. And then for only $75, they can fix a problem for you that would take almost 2 minutes of online research to solve on your own.
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percymania
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Percymania will live forever! Oh yeah!
Posts: 17,296
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Post by percymania on Dec 31, 2010 2:53:31 GMT -5
ChuckECheese is so lame these days. Just buy your kids a Wii and order some Pizza Hut. More fun and probably cheaper too.
Radioshack I think survives on cell phones and cell phone accessories, mainly. That seems to be the main product, anyway. I remember the last time I went there I looked for some speaker wire then I laughed in the salesperson's face when I saw how much it cost. I then went home and ordered some online for half the price.
To add another store to the list: OFFICE MAX
I drove by the other day, and I saw at least 6 employees standing around and not one customer inside. Meanwhile, every other store in the vicinity was packed. I had the instant feeling that their days are numbered.
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BR329
King Koopa
Support the WWF
Posts: 11,477
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Post by BR329 on Dec 31, 2010 3:17:33 GMT -5
ChuckECheese is so lame these days. Just buy your kids a Wii and order some Pizza Hut. More fun and probably cheaper too. Radioshack I think survives on cell phones and cell phone accessories, mainly. That seems to be the main product, anyway. I remember the last time I went there I looked for some speaker wire then I laughed in the salesperson's face when I saw how much it cost. I then went home and ordered some online for half the price. To add another store to the list: OFFICE MAX I drove by the other day, and I saw at least 6 employees standing around and not one customer inside. Meanwhile, every other store in the vicinity was packed. I had the instant feeling that their days are numbered. Wow! OfficeMax is still in business? They closed the only one down here ten years ago and I thought the whole company went under. I'll add Office Depot. I remember they moved near hear about 5 years ago. Went inside once and there were two other customers inside. They lasted about two years before it became a staples and they place is always booming.
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Post by Long A, Short A on Dec 31, 2010 19:29:10 GMT -5
And while not one company as much as independent stores, but im suprised porn shops are still open. When you think about it, anything you want you can get online nowadays and much less embarassing. At least with porno store people buy their stuff and then go "enjoy" it at home. The better question is why the eff are there still porno THEATERS!?!? Back in the days before the internet and DVD players/VCRs they were a necessary evil if you wanted to see moving picture of people doing naughty things, but now there's no reason to go unless you're just a dirty perv who likes being around other dirty pervs. Sometimes you have to "smoke break" during work. Most of the porno shops where I live have porno theaters connected to them. These places are packed during lunch hour on a weekday.
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Post by KStrick on Dec 31, 2010 22:56:01 GMT -5
I don't really understand how Borders and Barnes & Noble stay in business. They sell movies and CDs at about a 50% mark-up and they let you sit and read the books/magazines all day without buying if you want. I HATE Barnes and Nobles. Long story short. They offered the complete Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Blu Ray pack for $19.99. I bought it immediately. I'm so used to Amazon.com, where they e-mail you EVERYTHING. So I'm waiting 2 days for an e-mail about "we received your payment" (which they did, it was taken out of my account), nothing. Finally, three days after the purchase, I received an e-mail from Barnes and Nobles that says only "Your order has been canceled". Nothing else. I took a Technical Writing class (which was pretty much professional writing course), which had a chapter dedicated to "why did you do this e-mails" (for both consumers and retailers), so I sent them a very meticulous, but polite e-mail asking them why it was canceled. Another day or so later, I received an e-mail saying "we didn't have it in stock. Sorry". Again, that's it. I asked if they were going to reimburse my purchase, or offer something else as an apology (citing the recent example from Amazon.com, where there was a problem with a pre-order for Dead Rising 2, so they gave me half off for Marvel versus Capcom 3). A few hours later, a more professional (and higher on the chain, obviously) e-mail came back. He did apologize for the payment issue, and sent proof of a reimbursement. He then stated that "you should look around at our other fine products". I sent an e-mail stating "if you couldn't meet the request I had, going so far as to almost cheat me out of money, how could I, in good faith, trust your company again". I never heard from him again, but got an automated "how was our service" e-mail. I've NEVER given anyone (or anything) "firewall 1's/Very Poor/Unacceptable" before, but that's the first. I'm willing to accept people are people, and they err. I'm willing to accept electronic problems. But the last thing a publicly traded company should allow is this much leg work for the consumer to attempt to be made right by their fault. I've also been added to their "spam-a-lot" list, so every e-mail from them promising "AMAZING DEALS AT B&N" I block as spam, another e-mail gets sent to me immediately after. Back when I lived in Cheyenne, and I wanted books, my options were either Barnes and Nobles or waiting for Amazon.com to ship (2 days isn't bad, but still). With no WiFi in the area, Kindle and the iPhone are rendered useless. My concluding e-mail with them stated that I was disappointed and refused to ever use them again for any reason. To this day, I refuse to even look at their wares, keep pushing their daily e-mails to the spam list on my e-mail account, and talk to my friends about not using them for book purchasing. ...that, and like you mentioned, bud, the horrible mark-up on all CD's and DVD's. For me, I'm surprised most brick and mortar book stores are still in business. EDIT: My roommate is a part of one of those "scam door-to-door" companies. He sells knives. However he doesn't own a car, and I refuse to drive him anywhere. But I've listened to him talk on the phone with "friends from class" trying to peddle these knives off on other people (which you can find at a better deal, better quality at any store within pretty much WALKING distance in Lubbock. One thing about Texans, we love our sharp things...). I spoke to my older roommate who has lived here for a while, and one of the other individuals who lived in my apartment before I moved in worked with them to. I refuse to belittle my roommate for his decision, with as much vigor as he has for this "job", anything I say wouldn't be taken at face value with him, so it's one of those things I have to watch him fall, then pick him up and help him understand why it was a mistake. I feel bad for the guy. For "working" so many hours, he barely scrapes in $20 a month or so. If I donated plasma again, I'd make more than that in an hour of my time. I've even been tipped more than that at restaurants and at the Texas Tech Museum (when I volunteered there as a tour guide for the dinosaur exhibit).
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CM Dazz
King Koopa
Chuck
Posts: 10,475
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Post by CM Dazz on Dec 31, 2010 23:38:51 GMT -5
I drove past a Chuck E Cheese today that I haven't been in, nor thought about for 20 plus years and I was shocked to see the lights on and people going inside. I don't have any children, so I don't Know what is popular with the 9 and under set, but I find it hard to believe kids are clamoring for that cardboard esque pizza they sell or to hear from that creepy robot band, but they must be turning some sort of profit. Also, how the hell is Radio Shack still around?!?! They were never that great of an electronic store unless you were in the market for a remote control car that would stop working 2 weeks after purchase or a cheap metal detector. The only possible explanation I can think of is that they're a front for a drug cartel. We brought my then four year old nephew a couple years ago. It was the first time he'd ever been there and he LOVED IT!!! My wife and I had a helluva time playing skeeball while we were there too! It was the first time in ages that I was inside a Chucky Cheese. There are two of them close to me, and they're always packed. Actually I see commercials for Chuck E. Cheese all the time. They did away with the animatronic band and such I think. One friend takes his kids there a lot and he said they said something about the kids not eating because they were watching the band too much or some bulls***, so they took them out.Who cares if the kids are eating their food or not? They can take it home. It's not like they had vegetables or anything. The band was still there and it was pretty much his favorite part. Radio shack is a good place I go to get various audio/video cables/connectors. Most of the time the shit I'm looking for you can't find at a Best Buy etc.
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Post by Son of a Pregnant Dog on Jan 1, 2011 1:13:50 GMT -5
Elaborate. If you think it's because of Nintendo, it's not. It's not, but that would be such an icing on the cake. Kirby only sells door to door, and their sales man are very high pressure.(witnessed first hand since I worked for them for like a week) They trick you into letting them into your house by saying they're offering a free carpet cleaning.(sometimes they don't even say they're selling vacuums until after they enter and set up the display) The salesman will pretty much not leave until you threaten to call the cops on him,or until he finds out you can't afford to make monthly payments on their 2000 dollar piece of crap. Pretty much all their employees are convicts.(ex-con implies they want to get away from that lifestyle) Anybody else who works for them(and usually quits) is usually tricked into by adds and training that try to be very vague about what are actually doing for them,(they only say customer service) and by promises of making a lot of money. Most of the day is spent knocking on doors and working with people who get drunk or high most of the time. This is a simplified version of what goes on, but I am dead serious when I say their sales tactics gave me a better understanding of how date rape works. I wanted to shoot everybody else in that company van. There's a ton of stuff about this disgraceful company in articles and youtube videos. I actually had one of these salesmen try to sell me meth. What the hell. Come to think of it I'm sure anyone who does that job probably only actually makes real money by selling drugs. Radio Shack seems to be pretty much a cell phone and accessories store 'round my way. Don't go there on a Friday afternoon, as you'll be stuck behind endless customers getting prepaid plans and never get to cash out, let alone get service. Blockbusters are gone around my way, but I've seen at least one still around- it was in the commercial center of a rural town in distant NY state. I've heard about this Little Caesar's comeback- but they still haven't come back to my area yet. I hate chain-restaurant pizza but I have a dim memory of liking their stuff like 18 years ago and want to see if I was actually right there. Any small independent supermarket-type operation that is not already converted to a Latino or other immigrant food mart is dead or dying. I remember by my count six different supermarkets we were regulars of as a kid and they're all gone now- either replaced by immigrant marts or closed outright. All supermarkets I know of now are 'upscale' operations in wealthy communities, leaving the only option for my American-raised self of modest means ... Wal-Mart. Which is a shame since I won't buy Wal-Mart meat (it's often bad) and some of the products I like aren't carried and I'd have to go all the way out to rich-town to get.
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Post by i.Sarita.com on Jan 1, 2011 1:24:28 GMT -5
Any place that sells CDs.
I know people claim they will never not buy them, but I don't know if I know anyone who actually spends money on CDs anymore. They either just buy the albums online, or steal them.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2011 11:24:41 GMT -5
A lot of Radio Shack's, at least around here in PA, have regeared themselves to more or less a cell phone store. That's part of the reason my friend who worked there ended up leaving. Also, back in the 80's and even into the 90's some they were THE place to go for good electronics. If you wanted a CB, VCR, stereo components or whatever that were going to last they were the place to go to. My grandfather was a chief electrician and my dad career has been a lot of mainantance/repair jobs and both of them used to swear up and down by the stuff they sold. If something did go bad, it was likely a $5 or less repair like a new fuse or resoldering. But with Best Buy (and even Circuit City when they were around) as well as Wal-Mart and K-Mart getting better brand stuff in... Radio Shack's definitely taken a huge hit. I'm surprised Sears and K-Mart are still operating at the levels they are, tbh. I hate Sears. Every store I've been in has been filled with a-hole employees, retarded return policies, pressure to upsaling, and fairly lousy prices especially now that Lowe's and Home Depot are around. Granted, they have the Craftsman brand... but DeWalt is better in most instances. And like Radio Shack, they'll likely be around for a while longer as the older generations will continue shopping there. K-Mart I love, but their stores are always pretty barren and most people I do see there are doing what I am... almost solely browsing clearance. I do love their video game marketing now and I think it will help them out. All three of these were staples of my childhood. It was a huge deal to go to any of these places. (My parents lived and died by Sears. My mom still waxes nostalgic over "those huge boxes of powdered laundry soap that lasted over a year". Sears to me was "Ugh, Toughskins pants and clothes. Fun!") But, Kenmore washers & dryers are no longer exclusive to Sears these days. Radio Shack is the most disappointing. I went last year with my wife, because she was getting our daughter a cool little "starter phone" for her birthday. I went in there to browse while it took over an hour to get that mess straightened out. Hmm, Cell phones. Cell phones. More cell phones. Ooh, I think that's a Wii over there. Satellite radios. Wire for your surround-sound, wire for your satellite. Maybe ONE RC Hummer in a beat-up box and a couple of kids' home little scientist sets. No "build your own crystal radio" set, no short-wave radios, no cabinet speakers, no "boom-boxes" with cassette players (some don't even have a place for CDs; it's all iPod stuff), no computers. No TVs! In other words, anything I might have interest in was GONE. Oh, I could go on-line if I wanted it bad enough, and pay 3 times what I could get through the C. Crane catalog. (And I can buy an actual cassette player at Wal-Mart. That's funny.)
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bob
Salacious Crumb
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
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Post by bob on Jan 1, 2011 11:40:11 GMT -5
And while not one company as much as independent stores, but im suprised porn shops are still open. When you think about it, anything you want you can get online nowadays and much less embarassing. At least with porno store people buy their stuff and then go "enjoy" it at home. The better question is why the eff are there still porno THEATERS!?!? Back in the days before the internet and DVD players/VCRs they were a necessary evil if you wanted to see moving picture of people doing naughty things, but now there's no reason to go unless you're just a dirty perv who likes being around other dirty pervs. I think the main reason porno stores are still in business is that depending on where you got to find porn on the web some sites are loaded with viruses and what not that will kill your computer so I think people would rather pay the $20 or whatever for a porn DVD then the hundreds of dollars a new cpu would cost
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Post by Red Impact on Jan 1, 2011 11:44:16 GMT -5
Radioshack often has those weird accessories that are useful and you wont' find elsewhere. When I was a reporter, I went there to buy an accessory for my desk's land-line that allowed me to record phone conversations during interviews. That's not something I could find anywhere else.
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