Idea: I ran into this problem myself recently. I was moving to a new and much bigger apartment and I needed some furniture to populate my new place. I thought this can't be difficult! I set my budget and then started looking for furniture online, both new and used ones. What started being an easy problem, soon became nightmarish. Basically, I wanted to buy couch set, dining set and a bedroom set, and I had to search for them separately and every single time the total would go over my budget, plus I couldn't figure out what's the best combo deal I could get within my budget. So here is an idea: how about a furniture search engine which takes in your budget and items you're interested in buying and issues multiple queries to various furniture stores (and craigslist) and present you with a number of combinations which satisfy your furniture needs while staying within your limit. You could also provide a slack and engine would try to find you more options.
Reward: Peace of mind. Furniture hunting was never easier.
Bonus: The engine could be enhanced to take a delivery address and time as an input and provide you the end-to-end cost, and if you happen to select one of these options the furniture could be delivered to you at the time you wish for the price you're willing to pay.
Reward: Peace of mind. Furniture hunting was never easier.
Bonus: The engine could be enhanced to take a delivery address and time as an input and provide you the end-to-end cost, and if you happen to select one of these options the furniture could be delivered to you at the time you wish for the price you're willing to pay.
4 comments:
well.. the idea of furniture delivery will not work for some furniture selected from craigslist! cause craigslist is not exactly e-bay where ppl try to be punctual abt their selling-habits to get more points.. ppl at craigslist r just ppl who wanna get rid of stuff to make quick buck!
Tejas:
Good point. But there is a way to make this work. Sale of furniture and delivery are two orthogonal transactions. Craigslist could be modified to require range of dates the seller is comfortable, and the a delivery could be scheduled accordingly, again in a fully automated manner.
The idea is very convenient. Home Delivery sounds even more wonderful. Infact more than anything, it is too good to be true.
One problem with this search engine if used with craigslist is that when it comes up with a list that meets your budget, it automatically ignores the fact that sellers on craigslist are open to negotiation of price. If you had searched yourself, even if it was expensive, your persuasive skills could get the price down. The search machine would only see numbers not negotiability.
Well, you could always take your negotiation skills into account while issuing queries to the craigslist. That way, if your budget is $1000 and negotiation skills are 25%, it will search for furniture under $1250. Also, providing a slack is always a good idea.
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