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Attention senior citizens: you better shop around
© by Mike Keenan 
Businessman Sy Syms died recently at 83 years of age. Sy's favourite slogan was: "An educated consumer is our best customer." Syms expanded his company into a clothing chain that now operates 30 stores in 13 states from Illinois to Florida, with four stores in New Jersey, including the corporate headquarters in Secaucus. From his modest roots, Syms, born Seymour Merinsky, lived in Brooklyn, served in the U.S. Army and went on to attend New York University under the GI Bill. He started out as a radio sportscaster.
I always liked his concept of an educated consumer, and I will explain why. Recently, I was dropping off a few boxes of books that I had written to OISE in Toronto. OISE is the acronym for Ontario Institute of Studies in Education. It's located on Bloor St., right across from Varsity Stadium where I once played for Westerns's football 'Stangs against the Blues, several centuries ago. The librarian was to meet me at the curb to help unload the books. It's a busy street, so when I arrived, we tried to be quick. She was too quick. The heavy cart that she was holding got away from her, lumbered over the curb and its sharp edge hit the side of my car, producing a noticeable dent. After I had finished sobbing, the librarian told me that she would pay for the damage. Now, we get to the Sy Syms part. I decided to obtain a few quotes, and to be fair, try a local shop in Niagara on the Lake. The owner there looked at my car, spent several minutes placing input into his computer screen and handed me a quote for $978.00. After the ambulance departed and the paramedics had revived me, I thanked this would-be multi-million-dollar shop owner and advised him that I would seek out a few more quotes. "Okay," he said. "Ours won't be the cheapest, but we will do it right." There was something inherently flawed about that pitch, something Sy Syms would not easily countenance. I headed for St. Catharines, and guess what? For $197.00 total, the car was repaired to perfection. This is the problem for seniors. Some simply do not take the important precaution of obtaining multiple quotes when they want something repaired whether it's the fence, bathroom, driveway or whatever. This, as you may readily observe from my experience, is dumb. Miriam and I had a lovely aunt who recently passed away. Her theory was that anyone who attended her church would be the appropriate person to do the job. If she needed her toaster or computer or TV repaired, she would merely find a businessman who shared the same pews. Again, Sy would not be amused. Just because someone shares the same pew with you does not mean that you are dealing with a salesman who is going to give you an appropriate price. After my car was repaired, I was tempted to drive it to the scene of the near crime in NOTL and ask the shop owner why he tried to gouge this senior citizen, but I decided to forgo the experience. I suppose it's a lot like the airline business. You get on an airplane, and if you ask three different people what they paid for their tickets, you likely get three different amounts. That's the case because airlines employ several buckets of tickets and with their powerful computers, are able to adjust bucket prices based upon quantity, time of purchase and other factors. Would you like something to eat, earphones, a pillow, a seat that reclines, etc.? The important lesson is to heed Sy Sym's advice and shop around. You do not have to pay the full price that is suggested to you. You can negotiate a better price, and, if you do insist on some loyalty based upon church or geography, you can ask at the very least for a price to be matched. |
