this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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I'm starting my own small computer store. I'm not a pro, just an enthusiast fed up with horrendous prices for low quality hardware and nearly no choice of brands.
This is going to be just an hobby store but I would like to see some return for my time invested.
If I see you at Best Buy, trying to clear the shelf of the latest widget so you can upsell it at your boutique venue for 3x the sticker price, I'm still going to believe you're going straight to extra hell.
If I see you on Temu or Aliexpress, picking up specialty hardware in bulk and then undercutting Best Buy right next door, I'll put a word in with St. Peter when you get to the Pearly Gates.
Well, I'm an atheist so, for me, its either lights out or hell, if the other side is in any way correct.
I jumped right unto importing. Small scale, mostly consumables at the moment: thumb drives, SSDs, cables, mice, the likes.
I test before I sell; if it fails me, it's not worthy to market to customers: better a returning customer giving me hell to get the best deal out of me than an one time sale and a lasting bad reputation.
Only thing I have to buy localy it's keyboards; we're a small market and it's hard to get our layout in small quantities.
Just out of curiosity, who is your supplier? Is there some middle-market wholesaler for this kind of stuff or do you just order it online from a bulk retailer?
Online.
For my market, during the pandemic, prices were simply leveled. Importing or buying on local wholeselers was the same.
Currently I can get up to 50% lower prices if I import. And if I go bulk, on some items it gets ridiculous.
Good luck with that. But there's practically no money in hardware. We sell things, and our suppliers can't get it to us in bulk for the same price you can pick it up on Amazon. Our customers are technophobes who only buy from us so they can ring us up when they can't plug it in.
Custom software and services are the only places we make money.
Thank you for the warning.
Brick and mortar is rapidly dying... Especially for computer hardware. Look at circuit City, radio shack, best buy... They're either dying or dead. Make sure your market research is really solid!