Tuesday, May 1, 2012
How To Find A Great Auto Repair Shop
Don't choose a shop just because of convenience. Once you have determined that the shop is qualified, Convenience is a plus. But only after has a good reputation and backs up their work with a good warranty. Remember that a good shop may be convenient but the most convenient shop may not necessarily be the best shop for you.
Don't pick a shop based on "special offers". OK, we all do it. It seems to be the market trend nowadays. You want your shop to be competitive, of course. But even more important you need to have the job done right. Unfortunately it is all too common for many shops to bring the car in the door with a loss leader and then charge a higher amount as the work progresses. This is due somewhat to the nature of the industry. But, if you see a price that seems unrealistically low it probably is. You will be better off going with a shop that gives you professional service and backs up their work. Quality will win out over low price every time. The savings will come with a longer lasting and more trouble free repair.
Don't pick a shop just because they look like "good old boys". Poor choice. Some of those good old boys are great. Others have never moved out of the past and can't cope with today's vehicles very well. Get recommendations and proof of qualifications rather than looking for a good old boy shop.
Choosing a shop based on a low "labor rate". This is one of the worst ways to choose a shop. Price shopping for a service this way just does not make sense. There are just too many variables. Only one of those is the price. And the final price may not be even remotely related to the "labor rate". If you need an idea of cost just ask for that and not the labor rate. If you base your buying decision on the "labor rate" you may find a shop that gives you a low rate, takes longer and charges you more for the job than you would have paid at a higher rate shop. The end result could be a shoddy job for about the same price as you could have paid for a professional one.
They can get me in right away! Oh really, then they must not be that busy. If that is so then maybe they are really not that good? Sometimes a good shop can get you in quickly. Often they are booked up for a day or two in advance due to their reputation though. This could really backfire on you if you end up in a shop that is never busy because they are doing terrible work. Getting your vehicle back soon is important. But, getting it fixed correctly is even more important. Wouldn't you agree?
They can get it done right away. A good job takes some time. A good shop can reduce that time but they cannot eliminate it. Most people do not realize the amount of time their vehicles must be in the shop for certain jobs. Choosing a shop based primarily on this criteria is usually a mistake. Some shops will, unfortunately promise anything to get the job. That does not mean that they will necessarily deliver on that promise once the job has started.
They don't have very many staff or support people so they can charge me less than a shop that does. Again, this reasoning is faulty. Most modern facilities have a ratio of almost one support person to each technician in the shop. This allows the technicians to do the maximum productive work without undue interruptions and distractions. Therefore the entire procedure is more efficient. With too few support people the production staff will spend way too much time doing tasks not directly related to the services or repairs on the vehicles. The end result will often be lower quality work due to interruptions and higher prices because of an inefficient business model.
My neighbor went there and he said they were great. Actually this is one part of a good plan to choose a good shop. However, before you buy into this recommendation ask a few more questions. What did your friend have done? How many times has he been there? If he had any problems how were they resolved? If he went in one time for an oil change and you need a transmission repair, there may be a problem here. Make sure the shop is qualified to do the type of work that you need. And try to find a shop where an acquaintance has been to more than once. Recommendations are an excellent way to find a good shop. Just make sure the recommendation is qualified.
They seem really nice and I feel that I can trust them. This is actually a very good sign. A feeling of trust is very important when dealing with a service or repair shop. Just be sure that this is one good component out of several. Some folks are very good at schmoozing you on the front counter. That, in itself does not mean they are a good shop. You need to take more into account than that. You need to find out if they are qualified and give you a good warranty as well as a good feeling.
Jumping around to just any shop for small jobs until you need something really important. Not a good idea at all. There are shops today that can and will take care of almost all of your vehicles needs. If you establish a good relationship with them on the smaller jobs they will be much more likely to get you in and treat you right when you need a larger job. Some shops won't even talk to you for an emergency job unless you are already and established client of theirs. Start with an oil change to check out the shop and to help you decide if that match is right.
Get those recommendations from friends and neighbors. As I said before, just make sure they are qualified. Any shop can have a few folks that have had a bad experience or a bad attitude. However, they should be a very small minority of the total clients. Take into account the personality of the person that is giving you advice before you decide not to consider a shop that seems OK to you.
Contact some independent sources. Start with a call to or visit the websites of BCAA, the BBB or the local Chamber of Commerce for a list of member shops. The B.C. Automotive Retailers Association is another source of shops committed to customer satisfaction.
Next phone some shops from your list above and ask some questions. Call them to get a feel for how they answer the phone and how you are treated on this first contact. Tell the person that answers the phone that you are looking for a qualified shop for your vehicles. Ask if they can spare a few minutes to answer some questions. If you catch them at a busy time ask for a good time to call back.
Next, ask them what services they can provide. Ask them if they have any industry affiliations such as trade associations. Ask if they have a code of ethics and if they follow it. Ask them how many of their technicians are certified. Ask them how long their technical staff has been in the industry. Ask them how long they have been in business. What is their standard warranty for most jobs. One year is a minimum standard. Ask if they have a technical resource like Alldata or Mitchell on Demand to access service bulletins and recall information.
Evaluate the call: Were they nice or rude? Did they seem distracted when they were on the phone with you? They should be able to handle your phone call with grace. If you like their attitude and answers so far go to the next step. If not go back to your abbreviated list and start again with the shop with the next most qualifications. Keep up this process until you find a shop that feels right to you and then go on to the next step.
Visit the shop. Drive by at first and see if it looks like a place that you would want to leave your vehicles. If it passes that test, park in their lot and visit the office. Note how you are treated, the look of the office and the attitude of the staff. They should look professional and be friendly, courteous, helpful, and efficient and act like they want your business.
Look for certificates on the walls that show government certifications and other affiliations. Let them tell you a bit about themselves. Ask the history of the shop and so on if they have time. Ask if they have any handouts that would help you to decide if they could be your shop. Let them know that you are looking for a shop to take care of your vehicles needs. See how they react to that. A good shop will appreciate your research and will be glad to start a new relationship with a potential good client.
Ask if you can meet the owner or the shop manger. If they are not too busy ask for a quick tour or a look at the shop. See if it looks clean and organized. Get a general feel for the attitudes in the shop.
If the shop passed so far schedule an appointment for an oil change or other minor service.
A note of caution here: If they can't or won't set up an appointment for service you probably don't want to pick them as your shop. A shop that does not set appointments usually does not focus on preventative maintenance and is more of a "breakdown shop". This is not what you need if you are going to get the best bang for your service and repair dollar. Also, getting you in quickly without an appointment usually means that getting you back out on time with a quality job is not very likely. A well-run shop will schedule appointments and also be able to handle some minor emergencies. If they cannot get you in for an emergency they should have a contingency plan such as rental car availability or a shuttle service to your home or work to help you when you need it.
Keep your appointment. Call ahead and reschedule early if you cannot make it. A good shop will appreciate that courtesy. Make your final decision after your first appointment. They should call you up and send you some follow up information to solidify the relationship. A really good shop will ask you to fill out a questionnaire to make sure that your service was good. They will also ask you for input to help them make the business better for you and their other clients.
Your final decision. If the shop has met all the above criteria to your satisfaction reward them with your loyalty. Schedule your oil changes and other preventative maintenance services with them. You will be glad that you took the extra effort to locate a GREAT shop when you have an emergency. You won't believe how much less stressful it can be to have your own shop that you can trust with your vehicles from now on. If the shop did not meet all of your standards or if you had a funny feeling about them you will need to start all over with step one again until you find a shop that you can make your own. Sometimes it is not just the shop itself. Occasionally you may have a personality conflict with someone at the shop. You don't want or need to go to a shop that you feel funny about. Look around a bit until you find one that treats you like a friend.
Scott Waddle is the owner of Precision Auto Service in Langley BC. With years of technical and practical experience tucked under his belt Scott publishes a timely newsletter with tips and advice on how to get the best out of your vehicle for all the years you own it. For the best advice on auto care Scott invites you to subscribe to his newsletter at http://conta.cc/dSKWez
Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping is an excellent way to make extra money. In fact, some people make a full time living doing it.
There are many mystery shopping companies that will pay you to shop, eat at restaurants and take part in focus groups.
A mystery shop consists of getting paid to go into a business without the employee's knowledge and reporting back to the mystery shopping company.
A focus group is when you get paid to sit down with other people who are also getting paid and discuss new products or services.
Mystery shopping jobs and focus groups are easier to find if you live in or near a large metropolitan area.
After you do a mystery shop you answer some questions and file your report with the mystery shopping company. These reports are usually set up as a series of questions and often can be completed quickly.
The reason they have mystery shops and focus groups is so that companies can get feedback on their employees, products and services. That way they can see where there might be problems and make the necessary changes to improve things.
A few years ago I had some free time and I wanted to make some extra money. I took a course, How to Become a Mystery Shopper, at a local community college. After completing the course I registered with a few mystery shopping companies online.
You can do a search on Google for "mystery shopping." Bypass the mystery shopping websites that are trying to sell something. You want to find the mystery shopping websites for the actual mystery shopping companies. These mystery shopping companies will never charge you any type of fee to register or to do mystery shops or focus groups.
Be sure to read all the free mystery shopping information you come across. There is an art to being a good mystery shopper. Basically you are like a reporter. You will never add your feelings or what you think to a mystery shopping report. Your job is to just answer the questions, report the facts and describe what actually happened during your shop.
You never want to give your own recommendations. That is not why you are hired. If the mystery shopping company wants a consultant, they will hire one. All they want you to do is to answer questions with just the facts of your mystery shopping assignment.
Once you find a few mystery shopping companies you can then register with them. They'll contact you by email whenever they have a mystery shopping job in your area. You'll only respond to the emails when you want to do the shop. Otherwise you can just delete the email. You get to pick and choose the shops you want to do.
A couple of years ago I did some apartment shops for the Jancyn Evaluation Company that took me about half an hour to complete. Since they paid $25, I was basically being paid $50 an hour.
You can register with the Jancyn Evaluation Shops Company. They may pay more than $25 today for apartment shops since it has been about two years since I've done an apartment shop for them.
Jancyn also does a lot of shops and surveys for the Ross Dress for Less retail stores. I'm not sure if Jancyn still has a business relationship with Ross, but I once handed out survey forms in one of the local Ross stores here in the Seattle area and made $500 for about 30 hours of work.
Here's the URL for Jancyn if you'd like to register with them to do some shops. http://www.jancyn.com
Another mystery shopping company that I get a lot of email requests for shops for is the Secret Shopper Company. They seem to specialize in shops for Veterinary Clinics. They pay $15 plus up to $100 payment NOT including tip + $10. The only catch is that you have to own a cat or dog, which I don't, but maybe you do. Here's their URL http://www.secretshopper.com
OK, I've saved the best for last. Fieldwork specializes in setting up focus groups for some of the biggest companies in the US. They pay $50 to $75 for a focus group meeting that usually lasts about an hour.
The last one I did with them was for some research for eBay. They were trying to come up with a name for a new category on their website.
Fieldwork is located throughout the US in major metropolitan areas. You'll have to visit their website to see if they are located near where you live.
It's great if you have children since Fieldwork does a lot of focus groups involving children. Perhaps you can talk your kids into splitting the fee with you. Again, the pay usually works out to be about $50 to $75 an hour.
Unfortunately I have no children, but the next time I get an email for a focus group for children I'll borrow a couple of my neighbor's children. Here's the link for Fieldwork. Fieldwork.com
Now you have a basic idea of how the mystery shopping and focus groups work. Start searching for more mystery shopping websites and get paid to shop, eat and taking part in focus groups. It's easy money!
Barry Stein is the owner of aWebBiz.com where he offers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of business and a Free Newsletter on Internet Marketing. To find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.aWebBiz.com
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included with an active hyperlink to the aWebBiz.com website.
Is this A Good Time To Sell Your Body Shop Business?
Have you ever asked yourself the question? "Is this a good time to sell my business?" That is a question every business owner asks himself, every time he has a bad day. I once received e-mail from the editor of the Auto Body News, asking me that key question. "What is happening in the market today? Is this a good time to sell? " My quick answer was "These are very interesting times."
Of course that answer doesn't tell you anything that you can get your teeth into. So! Let me clarify my answer. Since I have been selling body shops for nearly 5 years, I have seen many changes in the body shop industry. One thing that hasn't changed is that there have always been an abundance of both sellers and buyers. The buyers have always been, and still are picky about what they were looking for.
The perfect shop in the eyes to the buyers is (A) one that has a customer base and a revenue stream that is reliable and isn't dependent on the owner being there to retain each individual customer, and. (B) doing a volume of at least $100,000 per month, but really much more. Large volume sellers think that if they have a DRP (Direct Repair Program. This is where the insurance companies set up a relationship with the body shop to do all their clients business. Much like an HMO in health insurance) contract, they have what the buyers want.
This may be true but the contracts are not automatically transferable, and a buyer will be very unhappy if the DRP leaves after paying money for this "reliable revenue stream." Smaller volume sellers, on the other-hand, not having corporate accounts, dealerships or other contracts still have hopes of getting lot of money for their shops. The average shop I run across is only doing about $300,000-$500,000 annual gross income. So what we have is a situation where a lot of buyers are looking to buy a shop, but there are not a lot of shops available, that fit what they are interested in.
This year, one change has occurred. There are fewer shops available than at any time in my career. Not fewer of the large volume shops for sale, that is fairly stable, but fewer of the small mom and pop repair shops that have not been in heavy demand. The reason, I believe this has happened is because of the booming economy. Low volume shops are doing better than they have in years. They are making money, and do not feel as much pressure to close down. They still would like to get out, but when they find out that their 5,000 sq. foot shop which is making them a $100,000 net profit, is only worth $100,000 on the open market they decide to keep on working.
As always, the shops doing $1 Million to $3 Million per year gross income is still in demand. The price alone still is the main factor, in determining if these shops will sell. A good example of this is what is happening in lower Orange County. There are currently a couple of shops in Lower Orange County that are for sale, by the owners. They appear to be very profitable but the asking price is too high and the buyers all know it. Even the fact that these are the only shops available for sale in this prime area has not changed the fact that buyers just refuse to over pay.
Last year I was marketing a high volume shop, in Ventura County. The buyers refused to pay the asking price, even though the volume was there. Why? The profit wasn't. In this situation, the buyers would not pay for the volume and stability of income unless the net profits were there. They didn't assume that they would make a profit where the current owner was not. It appears that buyers of today are very careful. I believe they do not trust their own ability to get business and are too careful.
To clear up any confusion about what kind of buyers we are talking about, lets break the buyers up into categories. The first category is the consolidators. There are two large ones in Southern California but they are not the whole market. I have talked to out of state consolidators that have inquired about moving in to the So California market. Consolidators want shops that fit their model. That model sometimes changes but basically they will buy a shop if it fits their model.
If it doesn't, they will not touch it. The price by itself doesn't turn their interest on or off. We do not have enough space to discuss what this group will buy, in this article. It is enough to say, " If your shop fits their criteria they would have contacted you and expressed interest. If they haven't contacted you, they are not interested." Period! They know their market place and who is in it.
By the way, if I owned a shop that a consolidator wanted, I would never sell to them. Being a professional negotiator for 20 years, I find the requested seller financing terms totally unacceptable. When I have found out about these sales, after the fact, I am amazed. I had buyers for the same money, or more, without the seller being at risk, but no one asked me.
The second category is the multiple location shop owners. Usually with one or more DRP contracts shop that wants to expand into more areas. They are very interested in the sq. footage of the shop, and its ability to handle over $2. Million Gross Income per year. This buyer only looks in limited areas. The areas being where they have been offered a DRP contract. When they are looking, they need it now, while the window of opportunity is open to them. If they can't find it quick, they will not need it at all. Recently I had a multiple shop buyer who had made an offer and was negotiating a shop in West Los Angeles. By the time we finished the negotiations, the DRP contract was gone and so was the buyer.
The third category is the buyers who have worked in the industry before, but do not currently own a shop. Also in this group are the buyers who have family in the industry, and money is no problem. This buyer believes " If it doesn't have a DRP, forget it. If it has a DRP and isn't making much money, also forget it". If it has a DRP, and it is making money, they are interested but only at what they consider is a fair price (In their eyes). This group I have successfully changed their mind at how they analyze what a good shop looks like and on occasion have bought shops with "a steady reliable income", other than insurance contracts.
The fourth category is the person that just wants a shop. They will do what they have to, to afford a shop that will work for them. This group is the working body man or auto repair shop mechanic. Because of their limited funds, this buyer will only pay what he or she feels the equipment is worth. They will pay nothing for goodwill because they believe that the seller's customers are not stable and will leave when the ownership changes. Are they wrong?
In Conclusion: There are a lot of buyers out there. My database has over 250 current names of body shop buyers. There is currently a shortage of shops for sale but mostly in the properly priced category. Most days I feel like a marriage broker with a lot of plain brides and a few beauties. The dowry for the beauties is more than most good-looking boys will pay. The balance of the girls may not be pretty, but some of them can sure cook. . Anyone want to get married? "Have I got a girl for you"
Willard Michlin is an Investor, Business Broker, California Real Estate Broker, Accountant, Financial Distress Consultant, Well known Public speaker and Administrative/Business Consultant. He can be contacted at his Ventura, California office by calling 805-529-9854 or by e-mail at kismetrei@earthlink.net. See other article by Willard at [http://www.kismetgroup.com]; kismetrei@earthlink.net
Choosing the Right Online Shopping Cart
Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you'll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace.
The greatest challenge is to find the perfect ecommerce shopping cart solution for yourself and/or your client. This task can be very overwhelming, considering, if you type 'shopping cart' into Google.com, this search alone returns over 14.4 million hits! Most of us don't have the time to sift through more than a few pages of a search engine to find what we're looking for.
For the last 3 months, much of my time has been devoted to researching as much shopping cart technology as I could get my hands on. In general, shopping cart software ranges in price from free to over $2000 for a single license and web hosted carts range from $5 to hundreds of dollars per month. The studied carts cover the spectrum of all web programming languages (ASP, ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, Flash, Java, JavaScript & Perl shopping carts) and provide limitless features as a whole. The problem is that locating YOUR perfect cart with YOUR specific features can be a big task.
But no fear, just follow this guaranteed step-by-step guide to locate it:
The Top 10 Steps to Finding the Best Online Shopping Cart
Cost
How much money do you have to spend on an internet shopping cart? The nice advantage is that there are shopping carts with hundreds of features and they don't cost you a dime. They are generally open source products. The only problem is that these same "free shopping carts" can take hours of installation time and be fairly difficult to configure. For a monthly fee, web hosting shopping carts are made for users with little programming experience and allows them to have an online storefront presence in no time.
Hosting vs. Software
There are two options in selecting your overall shopping cart solution. Either you get shopping cart software, download it, install it on your web server, then configure the shopping cart OR you get an online storefront (aka a hosted shopping cart) where the configuration is very basic and the required setup time is minimal. If you have some programming skills, I recommend buying a script and installing it on your own. The nice thing is that you pay a one-time fee for shopping cart software and the license is good for a lifetime. It's approximately the same price to have a hosted solution for a year compared to most one time shopping cart license fees.
Supported Gateways
What do I mean by gateways? Gateways give shopping carts the ability to connect and securely process credit card orders in real-time. Not all shopping carts are created equal. Make sure that your client's merchant account is supported by the cart you select. I have found that almost all carts support the larger online payment processing companies, such as Authorize.net, PayPal and Verisign.
Shipping Options
Will you be shipping physical products? If so, there are shopping carts that have built-in real-time shipping options through DHL, UPS And USPS. Often times, the cart gives the user the ability to view tracking orders and order status all from within your secure shopping cart web interface. Also, there are shopping carts with options to ship digital goods as well (files, programs, pictures, music and others).
Technical Support
What kind of technical support does your shopping cart offer? If you choose to purchase a script, be sure to also subscribe to the shopping cart creator's newsletter, so that you can stay on top of future updates to the software. Be aware that technical support is generally available on a pay-per-incident basis, as a yearly fee or in the rare case, free. Be sure to know what kind of customer support guarantee the shopping cart comes with.
Security
Please, only buy a shopping cart if it supports SSL (secure socket layer), with 128-bit encryption. As an online storefront, remember that you are responsible for the safe transfer of sensitive information (credit card and bank account information) that is processed through your store. If any of the sensitive information is accessible (stolen) from your website, you could be liable. Be sure that you're purchasing a secure shopping cart solution. Ask the creator's of the shopping cart what they do specifically to protect the secure transfer of sensitive information.
Style Compatibility
Can you customize your shopping cart to look like your website? There needs to be a seamless transition between your website and your shopping storefront or your customers might get hesitant in purchasing your products. There should be similar colors and style layout to look professional and believable.
Extra Features
I just wanted to mention some of the other features that I have discovered, which might be a critical point in determining the shopping cart you want.
Affiliate Program - Offer your own customized affiliate program through your shopping cart software. Quickbooks Integration - Many carts allow direct integration with Quickbooks.
Newsletter & Mailing Letter Managers - The ability to stay in touch with your current customers and keep them returning to your online store.
Custom Taxing Options - Create taxable or tax-free products and have the ability to add various global tax options at checkout.
World Languages & Currencies - Shopping cart language translation and support for world currency might be a necessary feature for your cart.
Error Free
You mean shopping carts can have errors? Of course. A private UK-based web testing firm found the following, after studying a large group of UK online shopping carts for a period of one month (24/7):"The majority of UK web sites are guilty of leaving e-consumers stranded at the checkout empty handed, once they have already spent valuable time browsing and selecting goods to purchase. This is due to erratic functionality within shopping carts, at a critical step in the online purchasing process."
"E-consumers are prevented from making purchases on UK web sites for 9 hours and 30 minutes a month on average, (115 hours a year)." "80 per cent of web sites perform inconsistently with widely varying response times, timeouts and errors - leaving consumers at best wondering what to do next and at worst unable to complete their purchase successfully. This is potentially costing e-retailers millions in lost sales from consumer frustrations." ([http://www.scivisum.co.uk/report/ecommerce/])
Be sure to see what other users are saying about a shopping cart that you might be interested in purchasing. Any shopping cart errors could cost you thousands of dollars in sales. Get a stable and secure cart.
Shopping Cart Directory
The following is a link containing a directory of shopping carts that are categorized according to each of the above-stated steps. Make shopping for shopping carts a breeze!
Shopping Cart Directory
If you have any questions or comments about this article, please contact the author.
Evan Stevens ([http://www.evanstevens.com]) is a professional web developer. This article reviews ecommerce online shopping carts.
Need The Key To Smart Shopping? Start Online!
Recall your last Shopping experience and list out the shopping traps, you got caught up with. Compare against this standard list of common shopping mistakes, shoppers tend to commit:
a) Forgetting your grocery list or shopping list, back home
b) Not sure, which are the items, you're running short on
c) Enticed at the sight of all 'New Arrivals' and other displays at the store
d) Tickled by the idea of saving smart with "Huge Sales" and other such captions
e) Missed on one of the 'Most Needed Items'
f) The "Impulsive shopping disorder"
g) Your kids running all over the store persuaded you, into purchasing a stack of unwanted stuff. Of course, you couldn't say no to him!
h) You lost track of your shopping budget, going overboard!
i) Comparative shopping syndrome: Other shoppers give you pointers on what else you could need
j) Not so well Informed Store Assistants! Web could have been better than this
k) Long queues & waiting lines at the check counters. Time Out!!!
l) Jam-Packed parking lots, at the mall. And that extra effort, gas and the swelling bills.
Honestly, if you had committed even 3-4 out of these 12 most common shopping mistakes, it's time you should look up to web for rescue. Don't you agree overtime, your over indulgence robs you off the much needed cash at hand? Or else, shocks you with blown up credit card bills, at the end of every month. More often than not, the shopping trips culminate into a nightmare, with not so planned and unorganized indulgence at the shoppers end. 'Online shopping' on other hand is one where you still have a controlled shopping environment and as such, comparatively lesser chances of splurging & regretting, later on. Nevertheless, the disadvantages that accompany are as crucial to the shoppers. For instance: insecure online payments, home delivery concerns, mishandling of the stuff by shippers, late delivery, loss of shipment, visible differences in the item displayed online and in the shipment, received and much more.
Well, how about balancing your offline shopping with a little online planning? That means you can still evade a lot of differences, anxiety and shopping mistakes by combining a few web elements (or say tools) into your shopping activity. Make your shopping more planned, organized, more manageable and more fun. This is how you could do it:
1) Prepare a list of items you need to shop for. I knew you always did! But this time, I want you to do it over the web. Go online, open up a spreadsheet or a word document and quickly list out your items. Print and take them along. Follow closely, with the requirements you have listed out.
2) Shop online with smart gadgets and carts. This means, you can directly log on to your favorite stores like HomeGrocers.com or TraderJoe or any other store, you like for grocery and other related shopping. And simply, create your online shopping lists. Print them and carry it over wherever you go.
3) Try Shopping 2.0! In case, you don't have a preference for stores and wish to shop at a combination of stores offline or online, use web applications and shopping tools like 'Shopping List' at Infodoro.com or Froogle at Google.com. These web based shopping lists could be created, managed, stored and even accessed online. This is the biggest advantage, if you had been forgetting your shopping lists back home. You can login and access it anytime and even over your cell phone.
4) Creating a shopping list not always means, only jotting down all items you need. This is anyways what your brain can easily store, process and recall. What could still slip off would be stuff like quantities, brands and the stores, from where you need to get an item. Utilize shopping tools like Shopping Lists and Froogle, to create an organized shopping list with items, item descriptions, stores, quantities, categories and more details you wish to capture.
5) Shopping Smart is not always about faster and organized shopping but also saving all the dollars you can. You got it right! I was coming to coupons, you could always redeem for items at the stores you shop at. After all, why end up paying more when you know you could save with coupons. Just make sure you are on the look out for coupons from your previous purchases and that in the newspapers and do carry them along when you go shopping. There would still be many, who will forget to carry them or completely miss on making use of it, while standing at the counters and making payments. The solution is to store all your coupons in a Shopping bag, no matter whenever you get your hands on one. Make it a ritual and keep doing it always. This way, next time you go shopping, you won't have to at least forget them back home. And to remind you of the coupons when paying off the bills, simply list coupons or add coupons to your online shopping list. That means, indicate 'Coupons' next to items you have it available for. And do keep an eye on your 'Shopping list' when paying off the bills. This way, you'll definitely utilize your Coupons and save a few dollars. Web applications like 'ShoppingList' at Infodoro and even online shopping stores, have a section for coupons on their online shopping list tool and shopping carts.
6) Prioritize your Items as 'Most needed' to have a quick list of the immediately needed items. Again, web and a few desktop shopping applications help you filter your shopping lists by 'Most needed' items like for Coupons. Use these web applications and you'll realize the shift in your overall shopping behavior besides purchasing & spending patterns.
7) Make Specialized Shopping lists sorted by Category and Stores. To make you shopping chore more manageable, you can always consider staying focused. You can split your list of items and share some of your shopping tasks with your family members, children or spouse. Web applications allow for sorting of your shopping lists and segregating of items by stores and categories in ascending or descending orders. Using web, you can forward one half of your shopping list to your spouse to let her pick up stuff from a store next to her work place and you can take care of the other half with stores, on your way back home. This way, you save time and don't have to struggle with parking problems, at all stores you stop by. You can also sort your lists by item categories and decide what are you good at & what could be taken care of by your children or partner. Suppose, you can be quick and more decisive at grocery shopping whereas someone else in your family can do well at merchandise shopping et cetra. Splitting your list by categories and sharing some of your shopping tasks with others, would also save you a lot of time, gas, efforts and struggle with the not so supportive store staff.
By integrating a little web usage in planning for your shopping tasks, you can easily spare yourself a lot of time, efforts, gas and the mistakes that you keep repeating always. What's the harm, if you could optimize your personal time, with a little planning online? Use web to your advantage, be it concerning tasks like shopping or planning shopping! And next time, you come across a baffled shopper, don't forget to offer tips and tricks that could make him smarter too.
"Enjoy Smart Shopping with Shopping 2.0, setting in!"
Smita S. is a web 2.0 enthusiast and a shopping freak! As a web marketer, with Infodoro (a social network) at http://www.infodoro.com, she is exploring the web for better opportunities to make personal information more secure, valuable and better managed. If you as a shopper would like to make you're shopping more manageable and fun, try your hands at Infodoro "ShoppingList", a free web 2.0 shopping tool. 'Create, Manage & Share Your Shopping Lists, Online'