Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers

[jeffrey]

Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.

Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax...

Phone-Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers - WSJ.com

[bjl584]

Someone recently came into the store that I work in and did something similar. She had an Iphone with an app that read barcodes. She scanned the item, and her phone instantly showed her all the stores within a 20 mile radius that carried the same item and how much they were selling it for. After the initial feelings of, "that is really cool" passed, I realized that something like that is a real game changer. If all or even most shoppers were armed with a tool like that, retailers would be forced to respond with better deals. It would certainly make it a lot more difficult for them to charge a premium price for item XYZ when the store up the street has the same thing for $25 less. It's one thing to have to drive 10 miles to a competitor to check prices and shop around, it's a whole different ball game to have that information instantly at your fingertips.

[disneysteve]

There was just an article in Kiplinger's about the very same thing.

I can tell you that my wife and I have already saved quite a bit of money this way since getting our iPhones. For example, I wanted a car charger for the phone. We were in WalMart and they had one for $23.88. While standing there, I checked Amazon and found one for under $4. I ordered it right then and had it a few days later. A short time later, we got a 2nd one to keep in the other car and it was under $3. Both had free shipping and no tax. So for less than 1/3 the price of one at WalMart, we got 2 online, saving us about $41 and tax.

It is absolutely a game changer, as bjl584 said.