People do not seem to understand how the Internet and search engines work; they also seem to have forgotten the concept of catalogs. On a near daily basis I’m faced with a customer with either their phone in hand or at the ready with a Google result for an item listed on *******.com, expecting us to have it in stock and on the sales floor. Earlier today, a couple of guys came in looking to get a push mower listed at the top of their Google results for $128. The one guy asked me what was up with Google showing that we had a cheap mower, yet none of the mowers we had on the shelf were under $300. I couldn’t take not being halfway smart anymore, and explained that when using Google or any search engine, it may pull results that aren’t necessarily in the store, and may only be available online; I then followed it up by saying, “Remember the Sears catalog? Just because it’s in the catalog doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in the store.” He said he understood that, but wanted an explanation of the pricing. I then explained that sometimes the company offers separate sale prices for items purchased on the site, and ships them directly to the customer address. I should’ve, but didn’t go further; I feel I should’ve told him that, like Amazon, not all listings are sold or fulfilled by the company, but by a third party seller, like Joe’s Refurb Mowers. I get the feeling though that the guy would be another one of those that would want to claim false advertising, bait and switch tactics, etc.
I don’t know. It just irks me that, here we are, thirty years into e-commerce, and God knows how far into concepts like mail order delivery, and the general consumer is so incredibly lost and stupid.