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Downtown area remains desert for cheap products
AJ Maclean
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Lori Jagielski, a University of Wisconsin senior, has been shopping at the Walgreen’s on State Street regularly since she moved into an apartment above the store three years ago.
Jagielski said since she does not have a car, she opts to live on State Street so she can run to stores such as Walgreen’s without the hassle of a long bus commute.
“The only problem is that things are more expensive on campus than they would be if I could drive to a Wal-Mart or Target off campus,” Jagielski said.
When it comes to computer accessories, Jagielski may have a point.
According to a recent price comparison between retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and State Street businesses such as the University Bookstore’s Digital Outpost and Walgreen’s, consumers could expect to pay higher prices at the downtown stores.
This is a major disadvantage for students who do not have a means of transportation making comparison shopping possible, according to Jim Rabbitt, director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a recent speech to UW journalism students.
“When you are on foot on campus, you are not going to go shopping very far,” Rabbitt said. “You are kind of trapped in a lot of transactions. You need something and you just don’t have the wherewithal to get out to somewhere where you might find a better price or a better product.”
Jagielski agreed and said, in addition to a lack of transportation — time and effort play a role in her purchasing decisions. Jagielski said when she needed a jump drive for her computer, she knew she could get a better deal at Best Buy, but she paid more at Digital Outpost to avoid the hassle of taking a bus to the west side.
According to an informal survey, students like Jagielski who shop at Walgreen’s for smaller items such as computer and TV cables or batteries end up paying significantly more for these items than consumers pay in stores off campus.
For example, a package of eight AA Duracell batteries costs $4.87 at Wal-Mart on the west side of Madison, but costs $7.95 at the Digital Outpost and $7.49 at Walgreen’s. A spindle of 50 TDX rewritable CDs costs $19.99 at Best Buy in the West Towne Mall, and $34.95 at the Digital Outpost. Walgreen’s did not carry the TDX CDs, but its price for a spindle of 30 Memorex CDs was $10 higher than the same package at Digital Outpost, directly across the street, and $10 higher than what a student could buy for 50 Memorex CDs at Wal-Mart.
While Walgreen’s prices were higher on all items compared, including phone line cords, VCR cables and ink cartridges, Digital Outpost was able to beat some of the prices of its off-campus competitors.
At Digital Outpost, data network cables that connect computers to Ethernet hubs were half as much as some cables at Best Buy and Wal-Mart, though each store carried a different brand of cable. A 25-foot cable at Digital Outpost was $9.95, compared with $21.99 at Wal-Mart. Digital Outpost’s 14-foot cable was $6.95, while Best Buy charged $9.99 and Wal-Mart’s cord rang in at $17.99.
Carol Hively, spokesperson for Walgreen’s, said the cost of doing business in a particular area contributes to the cost of individual items in the store. Prices even range from one Walgreen’s to another, she added.
“Because our stores are so small, our distribution is a little more expensive,” Hively said. “Bigger stores can ship entire boxes of goods at a time. But at the distribution center, we have to pay people to open boxes and ship one, two or three items at a time.”
“Our location on the corner [of Lake Street and State Street] is more expensive than other areas,” Hively clarified, adding the cost of rent is one of the reasons prices are higher at this store than places off campus.
Hively said she was unable to speculate as to why Digital Outpost had significantly lower prices and occupied a corner lot directly across the street.
While Jagielski said she is stuck paying higher prices because she cannot afford to have a car on campus, other students choose to move further off campus to make owning a vehicle less expensive.
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There’s this thing called the internet which I use to buy the majority of my computer / electrical stuff. Not only is there zero travel time involved, but the prices are almost always lower. I spent 30 seconds looking online and found a 50 pack of blank cd’s for $13 shipped to my door. And I didn’t even have to put on my coat.
As long as you’re willing to wait for the shipment you’ll be able to do a lot of shopping online. When you shop at Walgreens you’re really paying for convenience. Everybody already knows this. Now the real question is why is this newsworthy and why wasn’t shopping online considered an alternative to Walgreens?
So the person lives on STATE STREET but can’t be bothered to use their FREE BUS PASS and go to Wal Mart?