Seattle -- You walk into a store, snap a picture of a product and Amazon.com will tell you if it can get you a better deal. Amazon calls it transparent pricing. Store owners have other names for it.
Alki Bike and Board calls itself West Seattle's oldest and friendliest bicycle shop.
"We love having people come in. We always say our customers love us and we love them back," said Alki Bike and Board owner Stu Hennessey.
But Hennesy does not love a new application being offered by Amazon. Using the free app, anyone can go into Alki Bike and Board and take a picture of a bike they might want to buy.
Take a pic and find out what Amazon will sell that same product for. In other words, a business' showroom just became Amazon's showroom.
"It disturbs me that I pay rent each month and I support the property owners as well as putting the effort into the display work," said Hennessey.
Price checking apps have been around and retail groups have never liked it but when Amazon added a five percent discount to customers who use the app to make a purchase this Saturday, well that put salt in the wound.
"Don't try to hone in on everybody else's business. There are plenty of small businesses that are going to suffer because of that," said Hennessey.
But other small business owners say it's just how the retail game is played.
"It's a fair market, so if they want to try to undersell, more power to them, but I still think people like to come in and talk to people," said Michael Scott, general manager of Ward & Co.
Amazon calls it price transparency, a program customers can use to save money. But not all customers buy it.
"It's not fair. We need to support our small. Local businesses," said one person.
And with an estimated 95 percent of American consumers still preferring to shop in stores, there are plenty who agree with her.
Amazon is not the first online retailer to use price comparison apps. eBay launched its barcode scanning program last year.
To add a comment, please register or login.