Black Friday has passed.
What a racket THAT is. Retailers scream and yell at the public like a bunch of football coaches at 1/2 time in a close game in an attempt to stir us all into a buying frenzy.
WHEW!
Right on the heals of Black Friday comes Cyber-Monday (today) . . . the technology/geek/internet side of it . . . same thing, different team.
These strategies work on some folks. There are people who LIVE for these kinds of days and save their money and build their lists and study the ads and devise a military style strategic assault fueled by a visceral desire to kill the best deal that includes getting to the first store @ 3AM.
Most years, we hear of incidents of trampling when the store doors open.
I sleep through all of that, and yes “snoozers lose” on the lowest pricing . . . I believe they gain on getting a better experience.
3 weeks ago, a local Book store Davis Kidd abruptly announced it would be closing resulting in a HUGE public outcry. There are “Save Davis Kidd” facebook pages and petitions being circulated.
Why?
For 15 years, Davis Kidd has offered a LOT more than low pricing. With helpful “Librarians” at your service, you could find virtually any book in print, relax in a nice chair and read for a while, and have a nice lunch in the cafe. Davis Kidd supported local writers and artists with frequent book signings and talks . . . and would stock locally written books not published by mainstream publishers – Like my wife Debbie Guthery Owen’s book Ahh-Choo.
Davis Kidd offered service and consistency and good people . . . not the lowest pricing.
We are sad to see them go.
In the real estate industry, we have a similar occurrence. There are firms that are “LOW PRICE” oriented firms. Their business models “charge” very low fees to their associates and offer very high commission splits. Real Estate Professionals are their customers. These firms rely on a HIGH number of agents to survive . . . With higher number of agents, the level of service these firms offer declines . . . quality (or existence) of consistent training . . . optimal Broker support . . . Coaching . . . comfortable office environment.
There are customers (agents) for these firms just as there are people who thrive on the Black friday experience . . . looking for lowest pricing with little regard for the quality of the experience.
These low cost firms behave similarly to the retailers . . . they consistently yell and scream at the REALTOR public about their low pricing and communicate a message “Why pay more when you can hang your license with us at such a LOW COST?”
Interestingly, other real estate firms (like Pareto Realty) who “charge” a fair fee and offer a higher level of service . . . and do not rely on having a huge number of associates . . . and (we believe) ultimately yield a better experience for the “end clients” home Buyers and sellers.
And . . . we don’t have to scream and yell at the general public about our pricing . . . it’s not our carrot.
Thank goodness there’s room in this world for both models.
I’m just sayin’
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
Best,
b