The problem with Brick and mortar stores.

[tryhard techy1169]

The biggest problem i see with physical brick and mortar stores is they are meant only to buy products. the show systems they have set up are literally there to show you what the system looks like in person and show ads on thats it!

you can't test the hardware, you can't play games, you can rarely access the internet and you can't get the systems unlocked by staff because they have advertizing contracts with the OEM's. i experienced this today at my local best buy. i literally had hands on access with a 8700k/ RTX 2080 system with a 240Hz asus monitor and i could do NOTHING with it. i could get on the internet and nothing more. to a tech guy like me who is stuck with older hardware and love the newest tech this is infuriating. to have such powerful hardware in front of you and not being able to test games on it is torture.

 

would it not be more beneficial to the customer to see what the computers can actually do? to experience the 240Hz glory in games? even if each system was locked down to one game wouldn't that be better then the current ad locked systems? there has to be a better way to let people experience the tech before they buy it.

[mr moose]

As opposed to online stores where they let you experience a product first hand before you buy it?

 

 

[Dkunky]

I always download Cinebench and test them. Gives a good idea on noise and how binned the chips are for those units. That and I'm an impatient bastard and will shuffle out the money for that on site transaction. 

[tryhard techy1169]

1 minute ago, Dkunky said:

I always download Cinebench and test them. Gives a good idea on noise and how binned the chips are for those units. That and I'm an impatient bastard and will shuffle out the money for that on site transaction. 

i tried to download steam on one machine and ran into a admin auth window i couldn't get passed. same happened when i tried to install HW info off my usb flash drive. i doubt i could have gotten cinebench to work either.

[Ryujin2003]

3 minutes ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

i tried to download steam on one machine and ran into a admin auth window i couldn't get passed. same happened when i tried to install HW info off my usb flash drive. i doubt i could have gotten cinebench to work either.

The computers are often either off network or on network. If on, you definitely wouldn't want any jackass customer to gain access to the network. And even off, those systems often get boxes up and sold as open box. You need to know that they haven't been messed with.

 

If there weren't any admin restrictions, I'm sure people would be more than happy to put sexually and racially offensive things on the PCs because they could. And your can't have that either. So yes, as much fun as it would be, the few questionable people ruin it for the majority.

 

Also, the #1 reason is because the shelf space for displays is PAID. An ASUS gaming machine is displayed because ASUS wants you to but it, not the store. ASUS paid to have their computer there, and paid to have it displayed with a specific software load. The OEM Machines come preloaded with display content. It's not the stores fault it's lacking, it's the manufacture. They paid money, so they are in control of how it's displayed.

 

The Admin features are built into the display mode. It's not a fully functional version of Windows. It's for display only. You can look up how to enable display mode on your OEM Windows load of you're interested.

 

The ads are there because the OEM was paid to display them... Again, the store isn't in charge of that.

 

I used to work at one of those block and mortar stores.

[mr moose]

17 minutes ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

i tried to download steam on one machine and ran into a admin auth window i couldn't get passed. same happened when i tried to install HW info off my usb flash drive. i doubt i could have gotten cinebench to work either.

 

There are very good reasons for locking display systems down to prevent people downloading or walking in with USB's full of god knows what.

 

It's just nature of the product,  there is no real practical way short of trade shows to test these products.  You have to rely on reviews and consumer forums for valid information.

[tryhard techy1169]

5 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

The computers are often either off network or on network. If on, you definitely wouldn't want any jackass customer to gain access to the network. And even off, those systems often get boxes up and sold as open box. You need to know that they haven't been messed with.

 

If there weren't any admin restrictions, I'm sure people would be more than happy to put sexually and racially offensive things on the PCs because they could. And your can't have that either. So yes, as much fun as it would be, the few questionable people ruin it for the majority.

 

Also, the #1 reason is because the shelf space for displays is PAID. An ASUS gaming machine is displayed because ASUS wants you to but it, not the store. ASUS paid to have their computer there, and paid to have it displayed with a specific software load. The OEM Machines come preloaded with display content. It's not the stores fault it's lacking, it's the manufacture. They paid money, so they are in control of how it's displayed.

 

The Admin features are built into the display mode. It's not a fully functional version of Windows. It's for display only. You can look up how to enable display mode on your OEM Windows load of you're interested.

 

The ads are there because the OEM was paid to display them... Again, the store isn't in charge of that.

 

I used to work at one of those block and mortar stores.

This is very insightful, thank you for sharing. it's extremely disappointing that the systems are locked down but you make very good points, systems would without a doubt be abused to show who knows what on them. i still can't get past the fact that those high refresh rate monitors will probably never get to run past 60Hz showing ads and a display version of windows. it's the ultimate tech tease and it kills me.

[Mira Yurizaki]

28 minutes ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

you can't test the hardware, you can't play games, you can rarely access the internet and you can't get the systems unlocked by staff because they have advertizing contracts with the OEM's

Because they don't want people doing God knows what to the computers, like setting up a password locked screen saver with something vulgar on it. And those working in the store likely don't care about computers as much as you do.

 

32 minutes ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

would it not be more beneficial to the customer to see what the computers can actually do? to experience the 240Hz glory in games? even if each system was locked down to one game wouldn't that be better then the current ad locked systems? there has to be a better way to let people experience the tech before they buy it.

For a particular niche product like a high refresh rate monitor, sure, it should be given a setup that can show it off. But for the most part, people don't really care what computers can actually do. If it goes on the internet and Netflix or whatever streaming service of choice they use, it does the job. Who cares if it gets a million bogomarks?

[tryhard techy1169]

7 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

There are very good reasons for locking displays systems down to prevent people downloading or walking in with USB's full of god knows what.

 

It's just nature of the product,  there is no real practical way short of trade shows to test these products.  You have to rely on reviews and consumer forums for valid information.

so it would seem, it's the sad reality we must live with. almost all the products i looked at today i have watched reviews of and have already made up my mind about purchasing in the future. the only thing i didn't get to test out was that 240Hz monitor, all because other people could potentially ruin the shopping experience for others.

[tryhard techy1169]

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Because they don't want people doing God knows what to the computers, like setting up a password locked screen saver with something vulgar on it. And those working in the store likely don't care about computers as much as you do.

 

For a particular niche product like a high refresh rate monitor, sure, it should be given a setup that can show it off. But for the most part, people don't really care what computers can actually do. If it goes on the internet and Netflix or whatever streaming service of choice they use, it does the job. Who cares if it gets a million bogomarks?

thats a very populist non techy view which is what the stores will mainly be focused on. but at the same time with that view in mind why would they bother having such high end tech in the store in the first place? if you have high end hardware on display there should be some sort of way to try it out just like a bunch of other stuff there. i got to try out headphones, i got to test out keyboards, i can get hands on with laptops and phones. there has to be some sort of way to get the tech lovers out there limited access to tech that is already on display if they want to.

[Princess Twilight Sparkle]

The one I go to used to have mining rigs set and running for around $10k each, each also had signs not to touch! 

[tryhard techy1169]

1 minute ago, Princess Twilight Sparkle said:

The one I go to used to have mining rigs set and running for around $10k each, each also had signs not to touch! 

that is certainly the first I've ever heard of such a thing. i wonder if they sold any mining rigs.

[Mira Yurizaki]

47 minutes ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

thats a very populist non techy view which is what the stores will mainly be focused on. but at the same time with that view in mind why would they bother having such high end tech in the store in the first place?

Because there's a market for it.

[mach]

3 hours ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

This is very insightful, thank you for sharing. it's extremely disappointing that the systems are locked down but you make very good points, systems would without a doubt be abused to show who knows what on them. i still can't get past the fact that those high refresh rate monitors will probably never get to run past 60Hz showing ads and a display version of windows. it's the ultimate tech tease and it kills me.

If the display units are not demo devices sent by the manufacturer/distributor, they are probably from the actual inventory of the store, opened just for display purpose.

If you allow customers to fiddle with them they wear out fast. And the margin for computer parts is just too thin to allow disposable demo. They'd want to sell those as open box/ex-demo eventually.

[imreloadin]

3 hours ago, mr moose said:

As opposed to online stores where they let you experience a product first hand before you buy it?

 

 

Came here to say this exact thing.

Last time I went to best buy their 8700K machine didn't even have a damn BIOS password on it, so needless to say I booted into it and set the multiplier to 54 and rebooted. Interestingly enough it was stable enough to boot into Windows, not sure what kind of vcore was being thrown at it though since I just left it on auto lol...

[NineEyeRon]

Quote

 

The problem with Brick and mortar stores

 

You can blow and blow and blow but they surely won’t fall in...

[straight_stewie]

So you're complaint is that stores are primarily concerned with selling you things?

 

I mean, it would be nice if display models were interactive, they are with sound systems and televisions, to a point, but that's really not a problem with brick and mortar.

[Ryujin2003]

11 hours ago, tryhard techy1169 said:

thats a very populist non techy view which is what the stores will mainly be focused on. but at the same time with that view in mind why would they bother having such high end tech in the store in the first place?

Have you met 99% of the consumers? Their money is just as good as yours.

[Donut417]

On 3/25/2019 at 8:16 PM, Ryujin2003 said:

definitely wouldn't want any jackass customer to gain access to the network

When I worked at Sam's club in electronics all of our machines were on the public WiFi network. Generally they aint going to connect these machines to their corporate network. That would be dumb. 

[LogicalDrm]

Not the point I was expecting to see. Anyway, if the store is trying to sell higher end stuff, they will show it off at LAN parties where people actually have time to "play around" with them. Many stores, even here, have setups to test out monitors and TVs, some audio gear and peripherals. But overall testing of rigs and laptops is done by reviewers. As you really need few days to week to find out whats done right or wrong with system.

 

Now, what I thought you were gonna say about was why don't these stores work anymore. To which answer would be that online sales are so much easier to everyone. Smaller shops can't hold huge warehouses and compete in pricing. So essentially only thing keeping them alive are part and peripherals sales, support, upgrades and small business administrator contracts.