Buyer Beware!

I do a fair amount of online shopping. I don't understand why some local online retailers charge the exorbitant prices that they do, and still charge for delivery on top of that.

Point in case: I was looking for a yoga mat, so I thought I'd poke around online.  I found a "Yoga for beginners" kit that looked quite promising. But the price. The price just seemed a bit steep.

So I looked at the online store of a local sports retailer. And boy was I shocked to see that their price was about 1/3 of the other retailer.

In fact, here's a screen grab of the Super Expensive and probably Gold Coated product (taken on 8 April 2013 around 15:00):

And a screen grab of the Plebian Dry Bread and Water product (taken at the same time as the above one):

(Click the pic to make it bigger). It's the exact same product. Mat, block, strap thingie and DVD. Same manufacturer, the works.
Retailer1 even has the cheek to claim that normal Retail Price of the Gold Plated product is R1 430, but because they love you so much, they can slash it to R1 261.

Meanwhile, local sports retailer is offering it for R399. Ok, they'll charge you for delivery, but unless they charge R862 for delivery, you're still making a pretty decent savings.

So what is my point? Shop around. Check out more than one online shop. Any online retailer that offers free delivery? Instant A. Any online retailer where you can use E-bucks? Instant A. I've found Retailer1 to be notorious for hiking up their prices. I've done a number of price comparisons, and every time they've wound up being at least 25% more expensive.

Just because you're shopping online, doesn't mean you need to accept the first offer.

Nuff said.