Subject: [Tweeters] re: spotting scopes
Date: Aug 24 13:55:57 2011
From: Patti Loesche - loes at uw.edu


A plea to those shopping for optics: consider buying where you try
them out. Seattle Audubon, Captain's Nautical, and Anacortes
Telescope, to name three excellent local suppliers of optics, are not
Amazon showrooms. These proprietors of course aware that much of their
foot traffic is from people who come in for hands-on experience and
then proceed to buy the same item online.

I spent a lot of time at Captain's Nautilus when I needed to replace
my lost binoculars. The owners are highly informed and very generous
with their time and knowledge. Before providing their optics for the
public, they check everything out for damage and misalignment that
sometimes occurs during shipping (more often than you might think). I
view this knowledge, time, and quality assurance as added value to the
binoculars I bought. You receive none of these things when you
purchase online.

High-quality optics are not cheap, but it may be false economy to
think that you'll save significant money from buying online. You will
sacrifice the opportunity for informed, face-to-face service and
product support. And as we all know, shop-here, buy-there practices
put the survival of our local bricks-and-mortar stores at risk. Please
consider whether this approach is really the best way to save a buck.

Stepping off of soapbox now.

Patti Loesche


On Aug 24, 2011, at 1:17 PM, dave templeton wrote:

> another place for hands on stuff is captain's nautical supply in
> seattle:
>
> on the web at captiansnautical,com. address and hours:
>
> Seattle retail store at 2500 15th Ave West (a mile south of the
> Ballard Bridge)
> 8AM to 5:30PM weekdays, 9AM to 5PM Saturdays, closed Sundays and
> major holidays.
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