I can comment on this from both sides of the counter, so to speak.

As a consumer, I hate shopping full stop, but have tried to buy the groceries online and discovered that the folk that do the shop on my behalf 'pick' as opposed to 'select' so most of the fresh produce went back! and I had to go there anyway. Clothes need to be tried as the manufacturers can't seem to decide on a standard sizing policy. More substantial purchases is where I stand on the other side of the counter...

As a (past) supplier of expensive hifi equipment and security systems for vehicles, I understand that a small business cannot hope to compete with the internet BUT as part of the price the customer should receive top notch after sales service and product knowledge. For example, folk who have come to us and wasted an hour or so of MY time, using MY knowledge of some 22 years in the industry, to help them decide on a particular system, then go and purchase it from the net to save a couple of hundred pounds (on a system of perhaps £2-3000) THEN, bring it back to us and ask if we would install it!!!!!! and they also tend to come to us when it doesn't sound right or goes faulty under warranty and request that we sort it free of charge!!!!!! because we deal with the manufacturer

There is nothing more satisfying than to stand and listen to Jo Public ask for informataion (thele small paramiters say) that are not supplied and tell them to go back to whoever they gave their money to

So, for cheaper items - CD's, DVD's, books etc, the internet is fantastic, but if you need knowledge and service, go shopping

Hi H, now that's what I thought would happen when I did my first Tesco shop online, and yet every time I have got the best and freshest (is that a word?!) produce, especially the veg and certainly the bread, it was fresher than I've ever seen it on the shelves. It made me wonder then whether in fact they don't actually go around the shop with a trolley like we have to do, but instead pick ourshopping from the newly arrived goods out the back? It certainly made me think this way at the time, I had never seen such fresh produce as I got anyway, but maybe I was lucky. I have shopped for groceries about 10 times now and it's always the same, apart from getting the odd bottle of wine which I didn't order, but didn't bother to send it back!!

I quite agree - but it's not what we get all that often! In my local electrical store, what we get is often just a re-hash of the manufacturer's advertising puff, and that's no better than it needs to be!

When I bought my stereo (online), I had already found out what I wanted to know about the "bits"; I had them listed, and all I wanted the shop to do was supply them - I wasn't looking for expertise. What I did get was a harangue (word chosen deliberately) about how I ought to buy from him, because the Net dealers were "all fraudsters". I didn't think that this was sufficient justification for a 100% higher price.

And, as I posted earlier, this same shop couldn't provide the backup for the washing machine we bought from them. We had to get an independent repairman to do that. Some day, I may need the stereo repaired, but I'd probably have to call on an independent for that, too, no matter where I bought it!

Independent high street traders may not be able to compete on price, but they ought to be able to outcompete on things like repairs (under guarantee or not). This one clearly couldn't.

The second shop (the one with the blank CDs) simply has no idea of stock control or assistant-knowledge. The same shop supplied the optical mouse for the laptop, but to find out if the mouse would work with it, I had to take the laptop into the shop to try it, because nobody could tell me.

However, on the other side, I've been trying one site for an up-to-date version of Norton AV for Mac OSX. I've e-mailed them three times and haven't had an answer yet.

Snorri

I'm with you Snorri. I started off with books and CDs ages ago - usually browsing the books in a local WHSmiths/Waterstones, noting the ISBN and then seeing if I could get it cheaper online. Now there's also eBay ......

Argos reserve online is also good, as are PCWorld's Collect@Store - you can get some good deals with the Collect@Store system, web prices with the benefit of no mailing costs. It must be quite galling for the managers to have to sell something at the Collect@Store price, when their stock is priced higher.

Except when it's the 'Saturday boy'.

Oh yes indeed Roy, and the Saturday girl! Come to that, the Sunday boy and girl too, they're just as bad!

What are you trying to say Mrs Dadswell?

You know what I mean, surely????? I had a run in with the Saturday girl last week-end didn't I????

I know, I know, just in one tonight mate, Valerie Voice wont come back and it's affecting me :smt048

Oh, that's why you've been on here all day and night then, so you can "talk" in silence,if ya know wot I mean!