Opening the Big Box

1. As I open the retail "big box", I will introduce you to the reasons why you should and should not shop there. As with anything in life, they do have their advantages however they also have their fair share of disadvantages.

Lets start with the reasons why you SHOULD shop retail:

• Retail stores are convenient
• Retail stores are ideal for an impulse buyer
• Retail stores are great for heavier items or items that have a high return potential.

However the con's outweigh the pro's. Reason being, Overhead! Online marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and Zipzoomfly.com have much lower overhead since they do not have a storefront so they pass the savings on to you. Here are some reasons not to shop retail:

• Expect to pay 30%-50% more for the same exact item
• Expect to know what you want because reviews are hard to come by.
• Along with lack of knowledge on the plethora of products a retailer sells, now you have to deal with not even knowing if the price is worth it or not.
• You have to pay sales tax
• The varieties are limited

I am going to throw you a great example of why not to shop at your local electronics store. Lets take an HDMI cable. BB will sell you that HDMI cable for $59.99 however they have under $5.00 into it. I do not believe that this is fair however it is the price to pay for convenience. You can easily go to Amazon or eBay and get that same cable, even monster cable for under $10.00 shipped.

Long story short: Retail does have its advantages however I would only go if it was something that isn't discounted much anywhere such as Video Games and Ipod's. However it is also feasible to buy items retail if it is very heavy such as big screen TV's, UPS's, and other items that have high problems or that are very difficult to return.