---
title: "A personal shopper for electronics"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/a-personal-shopper-for-electronics
published: 2012-07-09
summary: "I'd love to hand someone the job of choosing and buying my gadgets, with no ties to any store. I'm just not sure I'd pay for it yet."
---

# A personal shopper for electronics

![](https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/a-personal-shopper-for-electronics-1.webp)

It occurred to me that it would be nice to have someone I could entrust with choosing and buying electronics. There's more and more personal tech: all sorts of gadgets, tablets, headsets, plus home appliances, office equipment and so on. Not to mention specialized needs, if you run a business, say.

Why isn't an ordinary salesperson, or a favorite electronics chain you trust (think online store), enough?

Store salespeople:

- are tied to their own range
- can't dig into your needs deeply enough, especially given how developed (or rather underdeveloped) our market is
- have neither the chance nor the motivation to, say, google and read the forums about how a particular gadget performs

If companies that take on these functions exist, they're hard to find: only by trial and return.

I'd like this person to find the best solution to the task I set, within a given budget.

And the service has to be very transparent. An electronics shopper can get discounts in specialist stores (and could even place orders in their own name), receive the devices and check that they work, while making it absolutely clear that they aren't "tied" to any particular supplier.

This idea is probably not very viable, since I'm going only by my own needs. The thing is, I'm very utilitarian about shopping and get no special kick out of the search, the agonies of choice and the thrill of the first night of unboxing. Even less out of googling whether this thing can, mmm, make shawarma (wtf?). On top of that, I don't have budgets big enough to make mistakes when buying and not sweat it.

For all that, I'm not sure I'm ready to pay for a service like this right now. Maybe in a few years, when I'm richer :)

What do you say? Is this realistic? Would you use it?