STAYING LOCAL

SmartMoney - May 1, 2007 –

The internet can help find the best price on almost any product. But what if you want to buy and item in person? A crop of new search engines lets shoppers search stores in their zip code for specific items in stock; some will compare prices too. To see how well they work, we searched for a Sony Vaio laptop in San Jose, Calif., on four sites and called each store to compare our results.

One site, ShopLocal.com, got a perfect score: It gave us four nearby stores, all of which had the Vaio in stock (the best price: $849 at Best Buy). Yokel.com told us we’d find the Vaio in 12 local stores including Best Buy and Circuit City, but only seven of them actually had it. Two other sites were big misses: NearbyNow.com directed us to stores that had other Sony products. And at Slifter.com, we were given just one “local” result-a store in Chula Vista, Calif., a seven-hour drive away.

A NearbyNow rep says the site’s search is limited to 13 malls; a spokesperson for Slifter says the site works better when the search is broad. Bottom line: Local search sites are an okay first step, but it’s a good idea to call before heading out the door.