Come On

You can almost sense the desperation in the retail community. As I have written previously, the offer that the product is free if the retailer cannot match the price is at best bizarre...Then again so are promises of $500 back or 15% or whatever

At the same time, you have a very real chance of losing your money at a faltering store if you are placing a deposit on a significant item for future delivery

Protect yourself with some simple steps:

A. I will not shop anywhere without a personal recommendation from a friend/expert or very positive social media posts: Look at Yelp, Citysearch, AngiesList for aggregate posts

B. Empty stores are usually empty for a reason

C. I question a price that is way lower as it usually means there are hidden fees somewhere else. People make this mistake when choosing contractors and then become slammed with change order increases

D. I love the phone. Call the company. Look for return calls, etc. Think your contractor will wait on the phone for more than 2 minutes....Think again

E. Maybe its just me, but dirty, unkempt stores are a precursor to lousy service later

Be careful out there.....