31–40 of 151 posts
This sounds like http://shopping.google.com/ . Type in fitbit for example and you'll see local store listings.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/technology/22shop.html?_r...
http://googlemobile.blogspot.ca/2010/03/in-stock-nearby-look...
As a side note to anyone who comes up with an idea - any idea. Do some research. Go out on the street and talk to some (for this idea the one the OP has) merchants to vet the idea. See how hard it is to get in front of a decision maker. Whatever effort it takes you as a student or someone doing research it will be magnitudes harder when you are actually selling something (business owners tend to have a soft spot for students and younger people who they see as non-threatening). They love to help people with their research. They aren't so eager to talk to salesman.
This is a terrible idea[see edit]. What incentive is there for any store to use this system when they're providing their data in a single easy to query location? Brick and mortar stores have custom because of brand loyalty, a large part of brand loyalty is saying "I shopped around twice and both times x was cheaper, I'll assume x is always cheaper and use them". Now imagine if every time a consumer wanted something t…
I don't necessarily think that it completely ruins the idea though—bigger brands wouldn't suffer from the same problem and if you could get more than a few in, the momentum would start to build.
To be honest though, this post was less about the idea and more about reflecting on thought of committing to a big idea at a young age. It's cool to see all these people giving real, and great, feedback on the idea, but I think that's kind of overlooking the idea. As many have said, there will always be huge ideas, and all ideas will always have problems—maybe that's why I don't yet feel comfortable committing a huge chunk of my life to just one.
As the OP, I might get torn up for writing this, but I thought it was worth sharing.
You could argue that EBay has something like this already, including the ability to search within your location. Its just that the majority of their products are second hand, but there is commercial sellers of new products on there too. The main impediment to ideas like this are getting the critical mass of users to make it worthwhile for both the buyers and the sellers.
This is a terrible idea[see edit]. What incentive is there for any store to use this system when they're providing their data in a single easy to query location? Brick and mortar stores have custom because of brand loyalty, a large part of brand loyalty is saying "I shopped around twice and both times x was cheaper, I'll assume x is always cheaper and use them". Now imagine if every time a consumer wanted something t…
I agree with your main point that small stores might not like such a system but then to assume that all buyers will make a decision based solely on price is flawed.
This is a terrible idea[see edit]. What incentive is there for any store to use this system when they're providing their data in a single easy to query location? Brick and mortar stores have custom because of brand loyalty, a large part of brand loyalty is saying "I shopped around twice and both times x was cheaper, I'll assume x is always cheaper and use them". Now imagine if every time a consumer wanted something t…
But hey you know you'll always get some constructive criticism no matter the idea, and that's definitely worth something.
Now we just need a smartphone-based AS/400 and we're back in the 90's again.
You could argue that EBay has something like this already, including the ability to search within your location. Its just that the majority of their products are second hand, but there is commercial sellers of new products on there too. The main impediment to ideas like this are getting the critical mass of users to make it worthwhile for both the buyers and the sellers.