Craigslist Saves the Day…Again
I woke up MLK Day excited about the snow trip my girlfriend and I had planned. However, much to my dismay, the horrific thunderstorm that materialized over the night hadn’t passed, which meant one thing and one thing only…
We would need tire chains for extra traction once we got to the mountain.
Of course I had one of those “Got Dammit” moments because I had no tire chains and didn’t expect I would need any.
So I fired up my MacBook and opened up Safari to do some price checks for tire chains at local retailers. I plugged the search term “tire chains” into Google (it would of been a waste of time to look in the Yellow Pages…that things only updated once a year), then clicked the shopping link, and was taken aback by the outrageous prices I was seeing.
At this point, our snow trip looked like it was washing away.
I couldn’t find any local retails who were selling tire chains at an affordable price, and while I did find a couple of online retailers who were selling tire chains at affordable prices, I needed them NOW!
And that’s when I got an idea…
What if I added a geographical modifier to my search query?
So instead of searching for “tire chains”, I added “tire chains los angeles”.
Much to my enjoyment, in the top 10 results was a listing on Craigslist for tire chains at a GREAT price.
The listing was very concise and efficient, giving me everything I needed to make a prudent and timely buying decision. It even had a picture!
After I got in contact with the seller, I was out the door and in my Ford Explorer, headed up the street to pick up the tire chains, keeping our snow trip alive.
So what’s the lesson to learn here?
Online Marketing is alive!
Consumer like you and me are looking for great deals online for goods we need today, not tomorrow or next week. I was ready to spend my money on the first retailer who had what I needed, but none of them had a strong online presence with concise information that would allow me to make a sensible decision.
It amazes me how small businesses and individuals get it, but big business doesn’t. Maybe it’s the bureaucracy that goes into creating these big business and the red-tape the limits constant flow of information.
Unfortunately for big business, the Internet has leveled the playing field and now small businesses and individuals can compete and win sales over the bigger businesses that don’t have a strong online presences and just don’t get it.
Kudos to Craigslist and the individuals and small businesses that use it on a daily basis to steal sales away from commercial, corporate America.
Tagged as: craigslist · mlk day · snow chains · tire chains
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