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Barriers to purchase may be lower than you think
December 26th, 2008Me and my wife met in Tampa, Florida over 10 years. I had an interesting time in Florida, being a transplant from New Mexico, it was quite the culture shocking experience. While we now live in New Mexico, and my wife is now over the culture shock that she faced, we are pretty happy here. There is one thing that could use some work in the beautiful Albuquerque area, and that’s the seafood restaurants.
Wy wife has spent over 30 years in Tampa before she was dragged across the country to the middle of the desert. She loves seafood. There isn’t alot of seafood in New Mexico. Burritos, Yes. Crab legs, not so much. You can imagine the excitement she felt when during a trip to WalMart we discovered you could buy gift cards to restaurants. In between the gift card for Chili’s and Applebee’s was one for Eat at Joe’s Crab Shack. We had no idea there was a Crab Shack here in New Mexico. We rushed home and looked on the interweb to find our Albuquerque Crab Shack location only to find that there isn’t one.
I understand that you could buy one and mail it to someone in another state, but by having this card in there for a restaurant that is 8 eight hours away in another state doesn’t do me much good for local family or friends. What this has essentially done has made me not buy ANY gift cards from WalMart because I have no idea which ones I can use here and which ones I can’t. If that sounds a little silly to you, then I suggest you talk to your customers more. You’d be surprised the things that make them not buy.
This whole thing could be cleared up with a sign, or some section devoted to local or non-local chains. That is all it would take. Its the simple things that can reduce the barriers to purchase and give you more share of wallet.
Tags: barriers to purchase, gift cards, share of wallet, walmart