I’ve been thinking about this for a while:

Shortly after I moved to Charlotte, I received my tax rebate check. Because I spent the last whole year working, it was significantly more than I was used to. That’s when I bought my TiVo HD DVR (Which I absolutely love; we have one back in Fairfax, and my apartment wasn’t a home without one) from the Sears at Carolina Place Mall.

The TiVo HD DVR has an MSRP of $299.99, and has been at this price point since it’s release in 2007. I paid a significantly (and inexplicably) discounted $149.99 at Sears.

You would think this would endear me to Sears, wouldn’t you? I have no other real experience buying from the once-great retail giant, and a deal like that out of the blue sure sounds like a great way to make a customer for life.

No, in fact, I think my experience there shows how out of touch Sears is with how retail reality is these days. Not only am I still left wondering why the store chose to take such an obvious loss on the TiVo (according to their distributors, D&H, the wholesale cost to Sears is $255, at my price a $106 wash!) but I am reluctant to re-enter the store at all, thanks to the experience of actually buying the TiVo itself. 

The guy working the electronics department made me feel like a second-class citizen when I declined their questionable one-year warranty, and paid with a debit card. Also, if the unit turned out to be different than what I was expecting, I was to pay a 15% restocking fee. Even discounted, were I to return the unit, I would never see at least $14.99 again.

Despite having six or seven units on the shelf, complete with embarrassingly large security harnesses, I was still forced to pay for the product, sight unseen, then go pick up my unit at the merchandise pickup area. To actually receive the product, I had to find another clerk, hand him a ticket and my receipt, the only proof of purchase I had, and then wait ten more minutes. This implies to me a lack of respect for the customer, and for their valuable time.

The TiVo HD is everything I could have asked for, and I got a great deal, but buying it taught me a valuable lesson about business, one that I think is worth sharing with the world: Just because you have the best price doesn’t mean you’re the best.

I would’ve been stupid not to buy the unit at that price, but what I should have done is take advantage of the Price Match Guarantee at any number of stores and spend my money elsewhere. I no longer wonder why stores like Sears are always so precariously balanced on the brink of financial insolvency despite their size and buying power. They just don’t understand what my generation expects from a retailer.

When our parents’ generation disappears, so will the Sears’ and Kmarts of the world.