Spinning up a great deal

COMET in the Newport Road was a bright, welcoming store. Lots of customers and plenty of staff in yellow shirts, making them easy to spot.
Before I’d even reached the white goods section, Terry had offered to help. “We’ve got some great offers on washing machines,” he began “and we even have one which takes a 9kg load.” The Hoover model he recommended (VHD9143ZD) was £369.99.
“This is extra-quiet, too, which is important. It has delayed start, quick-wash facility and is A+ rated for efficiency, so should save you money on your electricity bill,” he enthused. Temperatures varied from 90 to 30 degrees. “This is great as most new detergents now wash at low temperatures,” Terry continued. The maximum spin speed was 1,400, so great for heavy clothes like jeans, he added.
“We can deliver and plumb it in for you (£28.95 extra) as well as taking the old one away for a small charge of £7.50,” he went on. Escorting me over to a PC, he printed off the details for me.
“If you order today, we could deliver and install in two days’ time,” he confirmed. “It comes with a year’s warranty, but you can buy a three or five year warranty, which will cover you for everything including accidental wear and tear and we also offer credit terms on anything over £300.”
Terry handed me the details – jotting his name on the top of the printout. “We’ve got these in stock and we’ve got an additional 10 per cent off the price but this is for today only,” he said applying some closing pressure.
“In fact, if you pop back to sort this today, I’ll do the delivery and installation for £10 for you.”

Score: 8 out of 10

A new TV by the weekend

IN THE city centre, opposite the castle, Chris in the Sony Centre was quick to approach me.
“This is showing HD,” he said. “High definition is the new format that television is coming through now with Sky, so you can upgrade Sky to receive this quality of picture.”
“Just bear in mind you won’t be sitting this close to your TV, but let me show you the Freeview picture, so you can see how it would look,” he continued. “This is a special Sony Centre 40in model we’ve got in for Christmas called a 1080 progressive, which means the TV is constantly scanning to get you the best picture,” he enthused, “and this is usually £1,400 but we’ve got this on offer at £1099 with a free 5 year guarantee as well.”
This TV would, he claimed extravagantly, be totally future-proof. “It has two HDMI sockets and if you go with Sky later on you can then connect through this to get High Definition,” he explained. Freeview was built in and so no separate set-top box was required, he added. “Speakers are built in and it has the ability to be used as a PC monitor, too, if you need it.”
Chris asked if I needed a TV stand. “We’ve got a deal on a stand which is normally £250,” he said showing it to me, “but we could do this for £130 and there’s plenty of room for your DVD and other equipment.“
Delivery was next. “We could deliver and install (at £39.95) by the end of this week for you,” he said increasing the selling pressure. “And I’m happy to arrange the Sky upgrade for you and this will cost you an extra £10 a month, but this will give you the picture quality you see here.”

Score: 8 out of 10

Making the link

NEXT door to Comet I found Maplins. “These are a great idea to have in the kitchen or a child’s bedroom,” the salesman said pointing at the mini LCD TVs I’d stopped to inspect.
“This one (Nikkai 8.5in) is on special offer at £139 and has been very popular,” he continued. “They can be linked to your DVD as well as a larger TV somewhere else in the house and they have Freeview built in, so you can watch the additional channels if you haven’t got it already.”
The model on display was already linked into a larger 13in TV nearby. “So, when I change channels now, you’ll see this other set change as well,” he said demonstrating the feature. “It’s great for the Freeview, but just remember you’ll only be able to change the channel on the mini set so you might be dashing from room to room with your remote control,” he laughed.
“They are designed to either stand on a surface or they can be attached to the wall – which is quite handy in the kitchen for example.”

Score: 7 out of 10

Getting the picture

IN THIS department store I made my way down to the lower ground floor and a large Tec7 concession.
Richard greeted me as I walked past. “What size TV do you have at the moment?” he asked. “If you’ve got a 28in, then the 26in is the equivalent size,” he told me, pointing to a flat panel set next to us. “But you may find you have room for a 32in instead.”
Leading me over to a Panasonic (£899), he told me: “This is one of our most popular models, with Freeview built-in, giving you additional TV channels as well as various radio stations and has speakers at the side giving you a stereo surround sound effect,” he enthused.
“The picture on this set is much crisper and here we’re showing normal TV, so you’d really notice the difference when watching a DVD, as the quality would be even better.”
The set was HD-ready as well, he advised. “High Definition means you have more lines of code running down the screen giving a better quality picture.” Delivery was an additional £20 with installation another £20.
“To be honest, you’d be able to set it up yourself as you literally just plug in the power cable, put your DVD into the AV1 connection, plug your aerial in and that’s it,” he assured. “It will tune itself in and prompt you to press ‘OK’ on the remote most of the time.”

Score: 7 out of 10

Desktop PC or laptop?

THIS large bright store on the Newport Road was buzzing with staff and customers. Making my way to the back of the store, I was soon joined by Steve.
“Tell me what it is you want to do on your PC?” he asked, “as this will help determine whether you’d be better with a laptop or desktop.” Internet, emails and word processing were my main requirements.
“If you’re intending on working for longer periods you may prefer a desktop, as this will allow you to sit correctly rather than slumping over a laptop on the sofa,” Steve argued. “Let me show you a model that is very compact and will do everything you need,” he said, taking me round the showroom to an Acer (£579).
“The small unit is easy to store, has a dual-core processor, plenty of memory (which can be upgraded later if required), lots of space on your hard drive, a DVD rewriter and will do exactly what you need,” he enthused.
Software support was available at £8 a month, Steve added. “Just bear in mind whichever model you pick, you’ll need to add about £100 for your Office software, and another £50 for a standard printer,” he cautioned. There were plenty in stock, he assured. “I’m here until 8pm tonight or pop back to see me.”

Score: 7 out of 10

Measured approach

THE selection of fridge-freezers on display included a couple of American style models.
A salesman sitting at his desk nearby jumped up and came over. “We’ve got the Hotpoint (£799), which includes a water cooler and dispenser, or this Beko (£499), which has been a very popular model,” he began. This was available in silver but would cost an additional £100, he advised.
“There’s plenty of storage space in both the fridge and freezer,” he continued, opening the door to show me inside. Delivery was free and could be organised in a few days. “We can take your old appliance away, but there’s a £10 charge for this,” he added.
He suggested I first checked the space available at home. “Not only do you need to make sure this will fit, as this is deeper than a normal style fridge-freezer, but also check that it will actually get through your front door,” he warned, “as we’ve delivered before and found we can’t get it in the house.”
Handing me a Beko brochure, he smiled. “I’ll mark the page for you and all the dimensions are here so you can measure up before you pop back.”

Score: 7 out of 10

Focusing on good advice

A SALESMAN looked up and offered to help immediately. “You’ll get a good compact digital camera for around £70,” he said recommending an Olympus FE210.
“This is very easy to use as it’s fully automatic. You can also select various options, such as landscape, scenery or portraits for example,” he continued, taking the camera out from the display case behind him and handing it to me.
“It even has instructions telling you how to use it, which you can read from the large two-and-a-half inch screen on the back ” he added, turning it over in my hands to show me. “And it takes AA batteries, so you’ll always be able to buy some if you get stuck while you’re out. The only thing you’ll need to go with it is a memory card at £14.99 and perhaps a case, which we have at around £10,” he added.

Score: 7 out of 10

A Richer experience

THIS small store was packed with equipment, including a good range of LCD TVs.
Two salesmen were behind the counter – one already with a customer. The second caught my eye and offered to help. “The LG 37in (£799) means it will have full HD resolution, which indicates the maximum number of pixels for a better quality picture,” he began.
“Manufacturers such as Philips and LG, I think, make better TVs than Samsung,” he commented, “although the Samsung has got the design right and they are very pleasing on the eye, but the LG has brilliant picture quality.”
He handed me a Richer Sounds leaflet. “We can deliver locally and at no extra cost,” he added. And installation? “Oh yes, we can sort that out for you as well.”

Score: 6 out of 10

All noise, no notion

THIS large store was busy with customers but no salespeople to be seen on the shop floor.
Looking around, I spotted one saleslady at the till and another two behind the customer services desk. I made my way to the extremely noisy TV section.
Some TVs were showing the Currys promo channel, while others were tuned to different channels – but all seemed to have the volume cranked up. To top it all off was the deafening sound came the roar of cars speeding round a racetrack.
Turning round, I found this was coming from an X-Rocker multimedia chair, plugged into the TV next to it, running a Ridge Racer game. A young lad was busy vacuuming the department around me and apologised when he had to move the lead out of my way to prevent me tripping over it.
But nobody bothered to approach me.

Score: 0 out of 10

Rushed off their feet

THIS large store (and very much a new-look Jessops) was set up on two floors, with professional camera equipment upstairs and digital cameras, camcorders and processing downstairs.
There were more than half-a-dozen self-service machines where you could download your own images, and a long queue at the counter, where Jessops staff were processing pictures for customers.
Staff were kitted out in smart black uniforms and certainly looked the part. Six salespeople were serving customers at the various different sections downstairs with queues at every counter.
Sadly, such was the SWOC (sheer weight of customers), there was not a hope of being served here today.

Score: 0 out of 10

Well, Cardiff was well worth the £5.10 toll charge. The city put on some sparkling sales encounters. Top of the list were Comet and the Sony Centre, where Terry and Chris really gave the impression of enjoying their selling.
But, in spite of a couple of falls at Currys and Jessops, the thing I liked best about my trip to Cardiff was the smiles that accompanied almost every sales encounter. Attention levels were also extremely high and waiting around to be served was non-existent. Someone once said that selling was the transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another and there was certainly plenty of enthusiasm flying around in almost every encounter in Cardiff.
So, all in all, an enjoyable day with very high selling standards.