High Street Suicide?

So at the moment I am suffering from a temporary disability that makes stairs rather difficult. Today I find myself in a bookshop wanting to get to the 1st Floor. It’s a relatively modern building on a busy street and I ask for the lift only to be told there wasn’t one or any other way for me to get help. I could start claiming disability discrimination but instead decide to vote with far more economic effectiveness and I tell the store an online retailer will get my custom.

The staff were not rude nor particularly unhelpful but its a good example of how the High Street is driving customers away. Actually, they had a lot of options to facilitate me and my purchasing power without installing an elevator but clearly lacked the imagination to employ any of them.

There was of course the straightforward solution of asking me what type of books I was interested in and bringing them to me to browse whilst I enjoyed a complimentary coffee in the ground floor cafe the store has. However, the store is often busy and this would probably not be cost effective on a daily basis.

A more strategic move would be to offer me access to their store directory via a mobile web interface. There I could peruse book choices, make a short list and then if I wanted to browse more in-depth get someone to fetch them for me. Or I could order copies, which were not in stock, without any staff interaction so cheaper for the store in the long run. This of course could be available to any customer, so not only accessible but inclusive as well.

The mighty Amazon.com already offers its customers the chance to shop via a mobile web browser. This means whilst I am in your book store coffee shop I could well be making price comparisons on your rivals websites and more importantly purchases. Where does that leave you?

The mobile web offers the High Street the chance to make the most of the best of the desktop web whilst still offering face-to-face service where it’s needed. My experience in the bookshop today could have been so different but they chose to loose a customer rather than meet the challenge.. seems like commercial suicide to me, especially in the current economic climate.