A brief rant here.

I needed a particular cable.  None of my local merchants carry it (I’m big on supporting local business), and I was in the middle of a project so I needed it right away.

I decided to check national merchants who had nearby locations by going to their websites, which is pretty easy.  (Shameless plug: NetBooks subscribers will have this capability for their businesses within a few weeks.)

I found a merchant that was relatively close, and had the product in stock at a reasonable price.  So I hopped in the car.

But when I got there, I discovered that the price was more than double what they’d shown online.  A clerk checked and the posted price was accurate.

For them, this was a double loss:  (a) I didn’t buy the product, so they lost the sale, and (b) it left me feeling like this merchant was trying to “game” me - much like what the airlines tend to do with variable seat pricing.

Is there any way this is smart business?

As I’ve pulled NetBooks together, I’ve had innumerable people try to warn me off, saying things like “small business people are flakes/unsophisticated/unreliable.” And my personal favorite, “80% of small businesses fail within two years.”

I don’t know where this ‘conventional wisdom’ comes from, but things like this seem to develop a life of their own.

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