On Dec. 24, Toby Andrews writes:

>I too believe you should try to buy locally,however, when I purchased my
>scope, I did end up using a mail order company in Chicago,which was $624.00

>less than the local dealers price. How much is the local dealers time worth?

Ouch! Obviously there is a limit and different folks will have their own
opinions on where it starts to hurt. I have found that local merchants
will very often bargain with you, which is one thing many people don't
even try. It seems that a common mode many people are in is to expend a
lot of energy shopping around until they find the cheapest outlet and then
buy from that discount outlet. Often with things like cameras and
electronics they have gone in to a retail shop to decide what they wanted
and then left. Then complain that the minimum wage, part time high school
kid working at _____________(fill in your favorite huge discount chain
here) doesn't know anything about what their selling. It seems this mode
is quite common with people who make a pretty good wage, too.

My point was not to get on the case of people who buy via mail order but
to speak to the idea of valuing the service that a local, specialized
dealer can provide and to recognize that if they are not supported in a
real way, then they will be driven under. I wrote it because so often all
I hear is the notion that you should shop where you get the best deal.
There is an unintended consequence when the entire purchasing public acts
on that notion and that is that the independent merchants disappear from
the scene.

Ed Schulz
Everett, WA
eschulz at eldec.com