Maybe it's me ?

[jennifer0918]

A local cd friendly vendor in my city who I located through Chicago gender society website disappointed me,I walked in looking to buy breast forms and was aiming for something a little bigger to go with my body frame,and the intention in my case was to make my gut (beer belly) less obvious.
I processed to ask the sales associate and she was happy to help but when she said $400.00 I was wondering maybe i should go on line and check.In my case being a closeted cd and having a SO it's impossible for me to get anything in the mail.
My last pair I paid $70.00 checked that same vendor but they went out of business.I would hate to think that maybe these vendors are taking advantage of people like myself who can't get mail at home.Just a tought ladies I don't maybe I'm wrong maybe these forms are of higher quality I don't but the feeling I got was thus "your in the closet?"you pay more ...

[Dana44]

Perhaps but brick and mortar store generally charge more to stay in business. Can you get a mail address at a ups store or similar in your area. You can set that up for your fem self and get stuff sent to there. I had stuff as large as a diesel radiators go my ups store and no problems.

[Lana Mae]

I do not know but I got mine from Janet's Closet thru Amazon and 44 C was over $200. This is not a cheap "hobby"! LOL Dress tech hip pads in big girl size are almost $400! Someday!! Hugs Lana Mae

[Tracii G]

Did you bother to ask if they had any that were lower priced?
CD sites selling items are usually higher priced and thats why I buy only womens items.
How would they know you are in the closet unless you told them?
Tip: don't discuss personal stuff to SA's.

[jennifer0918]

I'm going on amazon or ebay,and yeah not a cheap hobby

[Judy-Somthing]

I got my last three pair through the (Breast Form Store) on line for about $120 a set.
I wait till the holidays and tell family members not to open any of the gifts I'm having shipped to the house.
So far I haven't gotten busted but I did get a nice bust.:)

[JenniferMBlack]

If you go through amazon have them shop it to one of their lockers, then you just stop and pick it up

[Lorileah]

I assume you didn't buy them? Let me ask a quick question. You need a car You go to dealer A who sells mostly upscale high end cars in a neighborhood where rent and overhead is high. They say it will be "X". So you either want that car and can afford it, want it and can't afford it or go elsewhere to price shop. Did the dealer take advantage? So you do some research, you find a broker who works out of their house-less or no overhead. That car is 20% cheaper. Are they more benevolent? Profit for both ends up the same. Also now compare car to car. Certain manufactures have levels of quality. Let's say dealer X sells Lexus but down the road or even the same place sells Toyota. Still a nice car, half the price, same options. Do you live with Toyota? Maybe your previous breast forms were Yugos and these were Bentleys

Perspective of someone I know who has a brick and mortar store that has supported the community for years. People come in, try on wigs (or beast forms) which takes time (is money) from the vendor. They look at the label, politely say "Gee thanks" and walk out and daGoogles it and purchases from ebay or whatever, where that vendor has not spent any time with you. You have now cost the first vendor money, they have to pay rent and employees and taxes and try and make a profit. Who took advantage?

It comes down to what you want and what you need. If your situation doesn't allow you to have it shipped, then you "need" the vendor to have a place of business. Why did the vendor you bought from before go out? Probably because of low margins, trying to be as nice to people as possible and then having said customer buy elsewhere. Have you noticed there are very few video rental places now? Welcome to internet shopping

[Helen_Highwater]

I've bought forms online and it's fair to say that the quality does vary. My last pair, again bought online were probably double the price of what I've paid before but are a step change in fit, feel and just how natural they look. Sometimes it's just a matter of you get what you pay for. As others have said, buying from a shop gets you personal service.

If it's the case the same item can be bought online for a tiny fraction of what the shop wanted to charge then you're right, you're being ripped off. If the difference is relatively small then you're paying for personal service. These days if you're a retailer and you don't have an online presence then sadly you're almost certainly doomed to go out of business. That's the way of the modern world.

[suzanne]

I don't commit to a dress purchase unless I'm dead certain it works on me. That's why brick and mortar stores still have a place. There's too many ways to go wrong with an online purchase, including the service charges. Almost invariably, a dress looks different on the website model than on me. Something that catches my eye often looks like crap on me and many's the time a dress that I've overlooked is actually a winner. The brick and mortar fitting room is my second best friend, after a really knowledgeable SA who knows my style personally.

[Krisi]

Yea, lots of people go to a retail store, ask for advice, test the product and then leave and buy it online. It's pretty shady to do that. The retail store is paying rent and paying people to work there. If you are going to buy it after getting their advice and taking up the staff's time, you really should buy it from them.

You can get cheap breast forms on-line. Like so many other things, you get what you pay for. My forms are about $300, but they look and feel like real breasts, not like someone in China poured silicone in a mold and popped it out.

Water balloons make reasonable breast forms if you do it right and they are cheap. Maybe you should check into that.

[jennifer0918]

Lorileah

Ok I understand the dealer part I must have been in that store 5 minutes I still can't see how 5 minutes of there mortar and bricks did I use??? The girl said $400 and I left now if I was supposed to tip her for showing me forms please let me know,I went in there expecting to spend $150,here's another case a very popular vendor in the cd community in my area I tried on a few dresses and I liked one but I notice a price tag on it from the Salvation army for $6,and the other dresses had a different price tag different style tag.I took of the $6 tag and asked the girl how much was this dress?she looked and looked and said hold on let me ask the owner,she came back out from the back and said it is $100 I smiled and said no thanks.

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I just feel some vendors vulture on the fact that some in the cd community are afraid to go to a woman's store and feed on that fear.Clothing no biggie I go Ashley Stewart, lane Bryant, Sears,and Walmart with no problems when I want to try on something I ask and sometimes they politely refuse because too many customers but on a slow day they let me try on cloths and I buy.

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You can get cheap breast forms on-line. Like so many other things, you get what you pay for. My forms are about $300, but they look and feel like real breasts, not like someone in China poured silicone in a mold and popped it out.



$300 is ok not $400 I'm sorry .

[Lorileah]

Interesting. So you think the amount of time you spend there is pertinent? Maybe their landlord would decrease the rent if only X number of people spent X amount of time in the store. I would suspect you have never owned or managed a business

New scenario: you own a bar. Customer A comes in gets a beer, doesn't watch your TV or use your wireless, drinks it quietly and leaves. Customer B (whose wife doesn't like him drinking and doesn't allow alcohol in the house) comes in, watches Monday night football, plays darts, distracts the bartender keeping them from other customers, has one beer and leaves. Do you charge more? Or the same?

My world (I am a veterinarian and these actually happened to me). Client A came in with his own vaccines, asked me to inject the dog...for free. Client B came in and asked me questions for 30 minutes about food for his dog, never came back. Client C says I should charge less for surgery because the guy down the street will do it for half the price. Large state University charges me $20K for school (it's 5 times that now) to learn how to inject a dog, nutrition classes and surgical skills. Who is taking advantage?

As a customer you have the right to not buy when you shop, as business owners we understand that. We on the other hand have the right to set prices. It would be awesome if we could be altruistic and give you what you want for the price you want. Unfortunately there are a lot of people before us who aren't so benevolent(landlords, distributors, state licenses and taxes...). Most retail places have a standard markup. Often referred to as "keystone". Some (like your local grocery) double or triple keystone. You honestly don't believe your favorite clothing store marks things down 80% and takes a loss do you? If they were, you would never see those clothes on the sale rack, they would be donated to charity or put in a dumpster. Yet, I wonder if you ever complained about that dress you bought costing you 39.99 (and now you can know it cost the store like Kohl's or Penney's about 5.99). Niche and boutique stores often mark things up higher because they don't get the wholesale discount Costco does.

I would bet, if you could speak to the breast store's owner, they are looking solely at profit margin and not taking advantage of someone whose wife won't let them dress,. In other words, they would charge me the same as you and I don't have to answer to someone at home

[Micki_Finn]

Lorileah, As a merchant I understand your frustration, but there are people who just don't "get" retail and how it works and never will no matter how you explain it to them because "the customer is always right".

Some battles just aren't meant to be won.

[jennifer0918]

Micki so $400 is a fair price ?

[Pat]

It's probably worth noting that the vendor who sold you forms at a low price is now out of business. But there's also a quality question unanswered. I know of forms that trade in the $400 range and above and they're worth it. I know of forms that trade under $100 and they're worth that. Maybe you're comparing apples and oranges. As to stores victimizing clients because they "know" the clients can't go elsewhere. Sounds pretty thin. But if it were the case, they wouldn't be in business long.

[jennifer0918]

I saw the same breast forms on breastform store.com for $175,unbelievable. .SMH

[Micki_Finn]

Jennifer, I don't know if that was a fair price because I'm not familiar with the exact product or the shop you bought it from. I do know that retailers never succeed by over charging their customers, especially in the modern era when one is a pocket away from a google search for comparable prices. Just because YOU don't feel that you should pay the price the retailer is charging doesn't mean it's a "rip off". Your lashing put at something you don't understand is a pretty good object lesson though.

[AllieSF]

Ok, I have to enter this discussion. I bought two nice unworn (one used only a few times) wigs a few years ago from a cancer victim that decided that she did not want to wear them for her own personal reasons. I bought both of them for $300.00, and they cost her over $400.00 each. She had followed her cancer care service providers recommendations to check out the wigs at that store. They were good wigs and I really doubt that they were originally worth much over $200.00. Oh, and the store had cut out the brand name tag with model name just to prevent the buyer from actually researching what that high priced wig was really worth in the market place. My daughter in law bought a breast form to replace the one she had cut off. They charged her $400.00 for one form! Those respectable breast form and wig stores for cancer victims do take unfair advantage of those suffering ladies because they know that the insurance companies will reimburse their clients for all or most of those costs. Pity the unfortunate cancer victim who has limited or no insurance. Yes, that poor merchant being taken advantage of by Lookie Loo's, makes me so sad. All companies in this cyber age know that they have to compete with online shoppers and those that come into their stores to actually see the product before buying it elsewhere.

I bet many here don't buy the clothes nor their appliances at the first place the walk into. You go in, check it out, go someplace else check it out and so on until you understand what you are buying and what the competitive prices are. Then you make your decision, whether buy from a store or maybe on line. So, using your logic, we should have purchased at that first place where we asked the most questions even if they were much higher priced. Financial advisers and personal finance columns always recommend that we shop around for the best prices.

Now for us CD/TG's who are getting started without a lot of courage to buy in person, a CD/TG friendly store is a great place to start. But when they charge twice as much for an inferior product to what you could find out in the real world, then who is taking advantage of whom. Yes, I get that we are paying to keep them in existence for the ones who are not ready for real life shopping, but when is too much too much? I was one of those newbies that went into one of those "T" specialty stores when I first started. I was very open and honest when I told the SA/Owner upfront when she first approached me that I was just starting out and was trying to an understanding of what I needed and how much it might cost. That was before I looked at anything. Later after trying on a bra and set of forms and said thank you, I got the ugliest look from her. She was pissed that I didn't buy, when she already knew that I wasn't going to. She lost a potential good customer.

I do try to buy locally when I can, and when the price difference is minor. However, I feel no obligation and believe that no one should feel that.

[Krisi]

............... $300 is ok not $400 I'm sorry .

Why are you sorry?

If you are comparing the identical forms from the same manufacturer and the same size, $100 is a pretty big price difference. If they are not the same, it's apples and oranges and there's no way to compare.

Try to keep in mind that a store that caters to crossdressers doesn't sell the volume of merchandise that Walmart sells so they have to make a bigger profit on each sale. The same goes for the manufacturer. Far more TV sets or cell phones are sold than breast forms.