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Price being the same, do you buy in store or online?

SuperStroke
I've been reading about buying locally and I 100% agree, and would be willing to pay a bit more, but only if it is a locally run, Mom and Pop place. The big box stores don't do it for me at all for the bigger ticket items. Although they do have to be Brick and Mortar and pay for rent, etc, they don't make their money on the big ticket items, like expensive clubs. They make all their money on the small stuff that mostly gets bought locally like clothes, balls shoes, tees, practice gear, etc, which I will always buy in the store.

Honestly, the big box stores can actually afford to sell their bigger ticket items for what you can get them for on E-Bay, but they don't, because *most* people who go into those stores aren't as savvy as the ones who hunt online for deals, and will buy anything the store guy tells them is the flavor of the month. Case in point, I was just at a place who insisted to me that Cobra had not decreased their prices on the Fly Z clubs. He showed me the "Sale" ticket that said the Driver I was looking at was $329. He was really pushing this until I pulled up the price on the Cobra website on my phone and showed that it had come down to $199. Now who knows if at the register it would have shown the actual reduced price, but that kind of thing irks me.
 
Most of the time I buy from the place that has the best pricing, which also usually ends up being online.
 
Prices being the same and me not feeling lazy, I'd buy in store 75% of the time. I'm lucky enough to have the TGW HQ here in town although they don't pull merch from the warehouse as readily as they used to (stupid management decision after some theft).
 
Depends on what it is and whether I need the "Playability Guarantee." If I know what I want and there are no fitting issues or potential for returns then mostly online, but when I replaced all of my clubs this summer, I stuck with Golfsmith locally because I thought the fitter did a very good job, I wanted custom shafts and better grips and I could play the clubs and bring them back if they didn't work for me on the course. Paid 15% more plus tax over online retailers on my Mizuno irons (mainly because a particular online retailer includes Mizuno in their sales when they probably aren't allowed to) and maybe 10-15% plus tax over eBay on my Callaway GBB driver and 3 wood so it certainly cost me to have the comfort and flexibility but I valued it and made the conscious decision to go that direction - in fact I ended up doing some exchanges on a few wedges, a hybrid and a putter so got some benefit. I hadn't replaced my clubs in decades (literally) and don't plan to do so again for a while and comfort with a long term decision was worth a couple hundred dollars to me.

Mostly though, as with other products, I would otherwise go by price and that probably means online.
 
In the store as often as possible.
 
In store and local if I can


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Store. I've made it a policy of trying the club before I buy, up to the point these days that I can't convince myself to buy a club that I couldn't try on the range.

This policy has been beneficial to me since it stops me from buying on impulse. It now also takes considerable justification (with myself) to endeavor a new purchase.

Even for something as simple as a putter - I had the length adjusted to fit me (Karstens are length-adjustable),
I had my balanced checked (slightly faced balanced) and rolled in a few putts up to about 8 feet.

Less money spent, wiser buying decisions, less unused clubs hanging around the house.
 
I'd love to see sales stats on this, I'd bet the online sales are ahead by a good bit
 
If price was the same I would definitely buy from the store. I hate to wait for shipping.


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I'd buy online because I can usually wait for shipping. I witnessed three separate incidents of WTF driving in the 2 mile trip from my apartment to work at lunchtime so I'll avoid dealing with the general public whenever possible.
 
Depends on the store. If the prices were even close to the same, I would rather deal with local, in case it needs to be returned or exchanged.
 
If after taxes it will be the same I'll buy local. most of my stuff is bought online though.
 
If the price is the same as online as it is in store, I'm buying it in store. But as it is, 99.99% of the time this is not the case (at least when it comes to golf stuff).
 
brianmk24 said:
I'd buy online because I can usually wait for shipping. I witnessed three separate incidents of WTF driving in the 2 mile trip from my apartment to work at lunchtime so I'll avoid dealing with the general public whenever possible.
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#jerseyproblems
 
Instore where possible. If there is a large disparity though I have to go online. For example my local club sold me the 915 D2 at the same price as online so I grabbed it there, they can't compete on ball prices, so I always order online, as with gloves etc. They just add up too quickly when the price is too high.
 
I like to check the only independent golf store in town before giving my money elsewhere. Plus I can have it in hand on the spot.
 
I'd buy more locally if there weren't such insane deals available online. eBay and CPO make it so tempting. My driver and wedges did come from stores locally, because I got such good service when looking that it, in my mind, made up the difference.
 
Rare to find same price, but if so I'm supporting the local bricks and mortar biz. Sometimes I'll even pay a little more locally - just depends on the spread
 
I'll buy from the store if the price is close and I can get there (time-wise).
 
I am like most people when it comes to the "have to have it now" feeling. With that being said, I've seen some people who have said that they will pay more to get it in the store. I don't get that. Not attacking anyone but why would you pay more knowing you can get it somewhere for less money? I like the guys in my local golf shop, I really do. And if I know they've provided me with great customer service and the price for what I want is not that much higher then it would be online, I'll pull the trigger. I can't say that I've ever left a store feeling good about buying $100 worth of golf stuff knowing I could have bought the same stuff for $75-80.
 
In store for sure. I don't want brick & mortar golf stores to go away, they're my main opportunity to try out clubs.
 
Gianna1025 said:
I am like most people when it comes to the "have to have it now" feeling. With that being said, I've seen some people who have said that they will pay more to get it in the store. I don't get that. Not attacking anyone but why would you pay more knowing you can get it somewhere for less money? I like the guys in my local golf shop, I really do. And if I know they've provided me with great customer service and the price for what I want is not that much higher then it would be online, I'll pull the trigger. I can't say that I've ever left a store feeling good about buying $100 worth of golf stuff knowing I could have bought the same stuff for $75-80.
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Is that factoring in shipping and the like?

That is something else to consider as well. If your club isn't in perfect shape when received, you have to pay to bring it back and all the hassle that is involved in that. Much simpler to bring it back to a store and stand right in front of somebody during the exchange ... so for me, it's about a $25 to $30 swing before I say "Hmmm, time to consider buying online." and I say that knowing full well most of my club purchases ARE online.
 
Brick and mortar would be my preference but they are never the same price on equipment. I can't remember the last new club I bought at a retail golf store. I have bought a few clubs through my club the last few years but those were a putter and two wedges and I got the standard 20% discount off of retail that they give us. The other 40+ clubs I've bought in the last couple years were all from eBay. I just picked up 56 and 60 degree Wilson Staff FG Blue PVD wedges for $29 each last week. The cheapest I could find them in the two large golf stores in town was $109 each. They are barely used, no more wear than than they would get from being in my bag for a few weeks. The good news is I buy a lot more equipment than I normally would if I had to pay retail which means I spend way more than I did before the days of online and eBay.

I do buy clothing, gloves, grips and shoes at local retailers for my daughter and myself so they are getting that chunk of my business.
 
Gianna1025 said:
I am like most people when it comes to the "have to have it now" feeling. With that being said, I've seen some people who have said that they will pay more to get it in the store. I don't get that. Not attacking anyone but why would you pay more knowing you can get it somewhere for less money? I like the guys in my local golf shop, I really do. And if I know they've provided me with great customer service and the price for what I want is not that much higher then it would be online, I'll pull the trigger. I can't say that I've ever left a store feeling good about buying $100 worth of golf stuff knowing I could have bought the same stuff for $75-80.
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It's funny you should say this, because I have the exact same feeling sometimes. I am one who will buy it at the store only if the price is close to online, or if the CS experience is so good that it justifies whatever the difference is (this has only happened twice now, for the record).


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