Sexy title eh? Spending money is hard work! Well it was for me when buying a set of wheels recently.
Again, it’s the same in New Zealand with a whole bunch of low-performing unprofessional car yards with a few switched on operators scattered amongst them. Samoa seems a little the same from my recent experience.
A week or two ago I started the hunt for a vehicle. Sure I could phone a mate or two in New Zealand and get them to flick me up a set of wheeles but it’s good to support the local economy and I wanted to make a few mates in the process, so this is what I did.
I called a whole string of car yards by phone and called in, in person.
“Hi! My name is Dennis. I’ve relocated from New Zealand and I’m looking for a WHITE Prado, preferably an auto diesel, although I’d look at any other options, but it must be WHITE. Have you got one or could you import me one?”
That’s typical Dennis: straight-up, efficient, focussed but ready to listen.
Nobody got back to me. I’ll say that again, Not one of the yards got back to me with ANYTHING. One yard, an Indian guy with a Samoan partner (you’ve gotta have a Samoan partner to do things over here) went as far as to tell me exactly what the PRICE would be for a white one and a non-white one. I thought that was actually cool. He was onto it – or so I thought. But even he didn’t bother to follow through even though I called in to his office a SECOND time to ask how he was getting on. It’s now three weeks and as I posted a moment ago, we’ve secured a white Prado, but from a New Zealand guy who has been doing business up here for a couple of years.
Aha! I hear you say. A Kiwi connects with a Kiwi so that’s just patriotism. Oh no it’s not! I dealt with somebody who got me what I wanted. He sent me emails with progress reports on his buying at auctions. He knew my budget and what I wanted and he got it. I think it was about nine auctions that he bid on before he got one for me. I could have been dealing with a guy from Kazakstan for all it mattered to me. I just knew what I wanted and some dude had the wherewithall to make it happen.
Who knows in a week or two or ten, one of the car yards may get back to me. They will have missed out of course, but really I don’t think any of them ever will now.
Mr Businessman, whereever you are, how do you make it hard for your customers to spend their money? I just wanted a car and went the route of least resistance.
As I work with the local people here, I will be finding ways for Palagi to offload their pingas in Samoa. Sure I’ll grab a few of them as they pass through my hands, but if a tour bus has say 20 people on it and they stop at a village that has only three carved bowls for sale, they can only ever sell three bowls. The other 17 Palagi are just not going to wait until next week for them to come back, or even meet at the flea-market to do business. I’m sorry, the Palagi is just not in that space.
Just like McDs makes it so easy to spend another 10% with an upsize, Samoa has to make it easy for the Palagi to lighten his pocket. Based on experiences thus far, and especilaly with this big-ticket item, they have a L – O – N – G way to go.
And remember – so do many other countries in the world, thank you! I just happen to live here.
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