My Moto Droid & XMas Shopping

I love gadgets and I enjoy playing around with new technology. I'm sort of in the anti-iPhone camp, too, mainly because of the network it runs on. Never really liked AT&T too much and would have at least tried the iPhone if Apple had the foresight to sever its ties with that weak network. I've been with Verizon for five years now and have no intentions of leaving. They're pretty solid as far as coverage. So when Verizon got the Google/Motorola Droid back in early November, I decided to wait a few weeks for the reviews to come in and make a decision. Everyone was pretty much fawning over the device, so I decided it was time to retire my Blackberry Curve and give it a shot.

One of the things I am most intrigued with is the phone's ability to use its built-in camera as a UPC barcode scanner. A simple app like ShopSavvy can be installed while you wait in line at the store and be up and running within 60 seconds - and it's free. What ShopSavvy and other similar apps do is scan the UPC code and then broadcast that code to the ShopSavvy servers. The servers identify the product based on the UPC code and then search both web and local sources for retailers with the same product. The end result is being able to see prices other retailers are offering.

For instance, I was in Best Buy (BB) looking for a micro USB cable. The only cable BB had was priced at $14.99. I thought that was high so I used ShopSavvy to scan the barcode and let it do its thing. Three sources came back, all but one of them were sourced from Internet sites. The best price? $4.99 with $2 express shipping. I ordered the product from my phone and walked out of BB empty-handed. In fact, I walked out of a lot of stores for exactly the same reason while Christmas shopping this season.

The operating system on this phone is developed by Google, so there's pretty tight integration between the device and things like GMail, Google Maps, Google Voice, Google Calendar, Street View, YouTube and so on. The Bluetooth in this device is a little buggy at times, but I cannot find too many faults with the phone. You might want to play around with a Droid the next time you're in a Verizon wireless store.

Eh....Loopnet

I think Loopnet is about to come undone pretty soon. I had been a premium member for nearly four years and I (like the majority of other brokers I know) dropped their paid memberships without a thought after Loopnet raised their fees through the roof in 2009. I started out at $59 per month back in late 2005. In 2006, membership fees went up to $69 per month. In 2007, it was $89 per month. In late 2007, I got a notice that 2008 premium membership was going to cost a whopping $129 per month. When I got my notice in October of last year that the 2009 fees were increasing nearly 80% to an astounding $230 per month for 30 listings (I currently have 30+), it was time to cut the cord and go back to lowly basic membership. In a declining market with fewer dollars for brokers to spread around, one has to wonder what these guys are thinking.

Maybe this is why, as of July, their paid membership is down nearly 20% vs 2Q 2008. I think you're going to see some significant declines in their paid membership by the time 09 3Q (due 10/26/09) and 4Q results are released. I don't know a single active broker who has agreed to pay these new fees. Loopnet's telemarketers started calling me around May of this year asking why I left. I'm not shy, so I let them know. I've stopped returning their calls since.

In retrospect, I cannot find one single lease or sale that has occurred as a result of my listings being on Loopnet. Before I terminated my premium membership, I surveyed all my previous deals over a 36 month period, and found nearly every single sale or lease came from one of two sources: the local MLS (Catylist) or a sign in front of the property. None came from Loopnet. That's why, unless they drop their fees significantly, there's little chance I'll go back to being a premium member. The review portion of Loopnet is not well policed, either. I've seen residential agents place items such as beach home and single family residental lot listings on Loopnet in the past - something I don't encounter with Catylist. Also, Loopnet severely restricts a broker's ability to send out prospect blast alerts when there are significant changes in a property's status - a feature Catylist allows. If history is any guide, being on Loopnet is strictly an academic affair, and any academic affair is certainly not worth $230 or even $130 per month to me.

The real irony about all of this is, if you're a basic member, you're only able to see 10% of Loopnet listing inventory during a search. Eventually it will get to the point where most casual searchers won't be able see much of anything at all because the majority of their users will be basic members. Because of this (and the constant nag screens advising you your search is "restricted"), I've stopped using Loopnet as a search tool entirely - it's basically impractical to me as a broker. I still enter all my listings into Loopnet, but I'm not holding my breath that I'll end up doing any business as a result of this. It's really a shame because Loopnet used to be a good listing search tool for brokers.

Anyone Care To Guess What THIS Will Do To Big Box Retail?

As much as I love technology, and I really love technology, I was frozen in my tracks after seeing this little gem of an application. Information is power, that's for sure.

Consider this: you're shopping for a television in a big box store. Let's say you find a 42" LCD that you love. The price is $1,499 in the store + sales tax. You whip out your Android-powered phone (i.e., Android = Google powered, it's available now at T-Mobile), scan the barcode of the product right there in the store and, within seconds, a list of online retailers shows up with the same product for $400 or $500 less with free shipping. Next to this is a button that says "Order Now?" What do you do? If it's me, I would order it from the online retailer without thinking twice and walk out of the store I was in. This is terrific and it is here NOW.



What struck me was the specter of what this kind of thing could do to brick and mortar retail. If physical stores cannot compete with this (and they cannot in my opinion), what will become of them? There are always people who will need things immediately (computer cables, DVDs, blank CDs, etc.), but when it comes to high margin stuff like televisions, digital cameras, and computers, life is about to become even tougher for retailers. Saving 30% and sometimes 50% by shopping online is pretty significant. Yes, buying products online has pretty much always been less expensive, but now a person can just point their phone at the product and have the information in seconds.

With the Apple iPhone and Amazon.com, all you need to do is take a photo of the product. They've gotten that smart. Pay attention to the video below at 1:17. Just take a photo of something like a TV and it will figure it out for you.



Will the world end up with fewer retailers and more fulfillment centers eventually? Time will tell and I would reason to guess we are headed in that direction. Not everyone uses this technology...yet. All it takes is a modest amount of consumers to stop buying high margin items from big box stores. Most of these stores are in trouble as it stands already and this could be the tipping point. I speak from a bit of experience as I was in the music business for over a decade and watched profits erode as MP3s and file sharing cut out the need for distributors. That's another subject, but that experience is still pretty fresh.