it is pathetic

DID YOU EVER HEAR OF A RETAIL STORE CATERING TO THE OUTDOOR MARKET NAMED SHIELDS?

Today I learned that shields are not actually a retail store as a business but rather a store that sells kiosk space for companies to display their products.

They charge for the space and insure the goods on display and do sell the goods as if they were the retailer. But all of the goods contained in the building belong to the company placing it there. Shields then send payment to their customers every 90 days.

They shields does not own one item.

I have noted for several years that shields has been growing; i.e. setting up what I thought were retail stores all over the country, but they are just large spaces to set up kiosks. From what I have been told the costs are pretty high.

Are other companies such as Bass Pro, Cabelas, rei, ll bean, and who knows how many others doing the same thing? The end result is a big loss for consumers.

If all of these so called chain stores are just kiosks that will mean the consumers who go into the stores will speak with some floor person who is basically ignorant of the products being asked about. If the floor person were to actually advise the potential consumer that they should check into a product that does not exist in the retail space and management finds out the floor person will most likely lose their job.

I wonder how long this has been the way these store locations have been operating, not as stores but kiosks. Do these kiosk operators tell the cities that they go into how they conduct business or does it matter they still get the same incentives?

This is a reason why when you buy a product at one of these kiosks and you have reason to return it the kiosk is very difficult to deal with. I believe they probably tell the customer to go back to the manufacturer. This may be the reason that rei and ll bean changed their policy about returns.

The kiosk operators have no need of merchandising managers as is necessary for true retail stores. Unless of course you realize they only need sales people to rent kiosk space. What a joke!!!

Nike, north face, Columbia, and who knows how many other brands are renting kiosk space but it must be huge. I was also told when you go to the register even the candy is not owned by shields.