Did a Fleet Feet feed my brother a line of BS? (Read 1766 times)

i don't get why it's hard to believe that garmin doesn't want to stock 305s all over the place or even in one place. they want to sell them online or direct to customer only? so, they have made a decision about fulfillment strategies and how they supply retailers. maybe FF was providing unauthorized discounts so garmin doesn't allow them to order and resell, garmin only allows them to sell what garmin chooses to stock there. manufacturers and wholesalers make decisions about how they stock retail outlets all the time and some of these decisions are about the overall fulfillment picture, and not about one individual store or chain.

 

I suppose one of those scenarios could be possible, though it seems sorta unlikely, given that the 305 seems pretty widely available at other big and small retailers and about half the price of any of the comparably-equipped models FF was carrying.  The 305 still strikes me as the most popular/top-selling Forerunner model (at least from what I see in discussions around here and elsewhere and what I see on people's wrists at races)...and it is also one of the cheapest, given the available features and included HRM strap.

Really, who knows what was going on at the FF your bro went too.  I know my FF does not carry the 305, but does carry the 205 which I talked my wife into.  The FF manager I spoke with when my wife was trying on the Garmins said that they choose to carry the 205 instead of the 305 because it's the bigger seller of the two due to cost and since they are identical besides the HRM, chose that over the 305 to carry.  They figured if somebody was really into the HRM, they'd buy a different Garmin they have in stock with that feature.   Thing is, there are so many different models they just can't carry all of them.  Plus, they carry the timex too. 

 

Really, who knows what was going on at the FF your bro went too.  I know my FF does not carry the 305, but does carry the 205 which I talked my wife into.  The FF manager I spoke with when my wife was trying on the Garmins said that they choose to carry the 205 instead of the 305 because it's the bigger seller of the two due to cost and since they are identical besides the HRM, chose that over the 305 to carry.  They figured if somebody was really into the HRM, they'd buy a different Garmin they have in stock with that feature.   Thing is, there are so many different models they just can't carry all of them.  Plus, they carry the timex too. 

See, that makes sense.  And it's their right as a retailer to carry what they believe will meet their customers' needs best.  I'm assuming their stock is pretty similar chain-wide.

So when that sales associate tells a customer that they can't get it from Garmin (instead of "sorry, we don't carry that particular model") it could potentially mislead a consumer into believing that the unit is simply not available, period (ie discontinued, which is what my brother took it to mean, since he isn't especially familiar with the Forerunner product line--I checked Garmin's website when I heard the SA say this, since I wondered if maybe it had recently been discontinued and was about to go order myself another one, were that the case).  So the customer ends up purchasing a different unit that may cost more and/or not meet their needs as well...then later discover that they were misled.  Doesn't seem a particularly ethical way of doing business, IMO.  My brother was all set to purchase a different Garmin model until I told him to shop-around and look online and gave him the Amazon.com price quote.

 

Amazon, Target.com, and Wal-Mart.com always seem to have good deals on Garmin's anyway.  Your brother is probably better off.

Definitely.  Man, I think I paid $200 for mine--AFTER $50 rebate.  Only reason I bought it was that it ended up being only $8 more than the 205.  Glad I did, now.  Didn't know 3 years ago how handy it would be as a bike computer.  Kid brother wants to use it for running and on his bike -- indoors on the trainer or outdoors.  None of the other Forerunners (with the exception of the 310XT -- too $$$) would work well on the bike--screens are too small (and he has shit for eyes).