Comments on: The Search for Wikinomics Continues http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/ i eat pixels for breakfast. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:07:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Rideau http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-632 Rideau Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:09:43 +0000 http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/#comment-632 Hello Chris, first I sincerely apologize for the negative experience you recently faced here at Chapters Rideau.As a major Canadian retailer we are always striving to offer exceptional customer service,unfortuneately in this case we did not live upto that standard.After researching when we had actually received Wikinomics it appears that all copies were shelved on the main level.Our merchandizing standards are that minimally two copies should also be placed in the subsection it belongs to,obviously this was an error on our part and subsequently we did not locate the book in an efficient manner.Chris I would like the opportunity to restore your faith in Chapters Rideau and offer you a gift certificate to thank you for this feedback.Could you please provide me with an alternate means to contact you,perhaps a phone #, as I would like to discuss this further. Thank you in advance Tim Francoeur General Manager Chapters Rideau Hello Chris,
first I sincerely apologize for the negative experience you recently faced here at Chapters Rideau.As a major Canadian retailer we are always striving to offer exceptional customer service,unfortuneately in this case we did not live upto that standard.After researching when we had actually received Wikinomics it appears that all copies were shelved on the main level.Our merchandizing standards are that minimally two copies should also be placed in the subsection it belongs to,obviously this was an error on our part and subsequently we did not locate the book in an efficient manner.Chris I would like the opportunity to restore your faith in Chapters Rideau and offer you a gift certificate to thank you for this feedback.Could you please provide me with an alternate means to contact you,perhaps a phone #, as I would like to discuss this further.

Thank you in advance
Tim Francoeur
General Manager
Chapters Rideau

]]> By: Chris http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-594 Chris Fri, 19 Jan 2007 02:03:58 +0000 http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/#comment-594 Good points Ian. It would definitely take a drastic decrease in the cost of RFID tags, and a slight advance in the technology - something more akin to <a href="http://www.dust-inc.com/" rel="nofollow">Dust Networks</a> implementation, and the insertion of some sort of standardized identifier (RFID or dust) at the publisher/printing level for something like this to be cost effective. I'd still like to build a proof of concept for fun, if anything, just to have some experience with RFID implementation. Good points Ian. It would definitely take a drastic decrease in the cost of RFID tags, and a slight advance in the technology – something more akin to Dust Networks implementation, and the insertion of some sort of standardized identifier (RFID or dust) at the publisher/printing level for something like this to be cost effective.

I’d still like to build a proof of concept for fun, if anything, just to have some experience with RFID implementation.

]]> By: ian http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/comment-page-1/#comment-582 ian Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:27:58 +0000 http://www.christaggart.com/2007/01/17/the-search-for-wikinomics-continues/#comment-582 The main problem is money. RFID tags are currently 20 to 40 cents a piece, and with the massive in-store inventory and turnaround of a typical giant bookstore, they could burn through a lot of cash to implement this feature. Even if they could do it and still make a profit, I'm not sure if the benefits would be worth the cut margins. The readers are not so cheap either, and one on every shelf would add up as well! The other annoyance is that RFID readers are not perfect, so occasionally books would go "missing" in a real-world implementation. My impression of Chapters/Indigo is that they are poor for book "hunters", but more suited for people who are in a browsing mood, to discover something they might not think about. I'm not sure whether or not management has figured this out, though. The main problem is money.

RFID tags are currently 20 to 40 cents a piece, and with the massive in-store inventory and turnaround of a typical giant bookstore, they could burn through a lot of cash to implement this feature. Even if they could do it and still make a profit, I’m not sure if the benefits would be worth the cut margins.

The readers are not so cheap either, and one on every shelf would add up as well!

The other annoyance is that RFID readers are not perfect, so occasionally books would go “missing” in a real-world implementation.

My impression of Chapters/Indigo is that they are poor for book “hunters”, but more suited for people who are in a browsing mood, to discover something they might not think about. I’m not sure whether or not management has figured this out, though.

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