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Internet Binary Heroes: Try Your Luck at Best Buy
Rob Mach (Blog) - December 31, 2007 3:03 PM
Print 32 comment(s) - last by bohhad.. on Jan 3 at 2:32 PM
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I hear Staples does the same thing.
By PAPutzback on 12/31/2007 3:15:31 PM , Rating: 2
I guess the question is why is it so odd. Doesn't it cost less to sell product from one warehouse than to stock a storefront and have employees handle the product, deliver it, deal with sales tax...

Best Buy just needs to do what Fry's does and get rid of the internet access in the store.




By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 12/31/2007 3:17:19 PM , Rating: 4
I just log onto CircuitCity from a BestBuy laptop and show them how the price is cheaper -- and then BB price matches it. I got a Canon SD850 IS for $240 after CC price match; BB had it for $300.


By PAPutzback on 12/31/2007 3:22:43 PM , Rating: 2
Great camera. I paid 247 at Newegg this christmas. I'll have to see if BB lets me access the outside world when shopping.


RE: I hear Staples does the same thing.
By fk49 on 12/31/2007 3:34:08 PM , Rating: 5
What if bestbuy starting making fake circuit city/newegg/etc websites on their network?


RE: I hear Staples does the same thing.
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 12/31/2007 4:22:05 PM , Rating: 4
Copyright infringement, Newegg, CircuitCity, etc.. would sut the pants off them.


By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 12/31/2007 4:48:59 PM , Rating: 2
Or they could take the easy route, and just not offer pricematch :-P


By Master Kenobi (blog) on 12/31/2007 5:02:59 PM , Rating: 3
Thats an intelligent, easy, straight forward resolution. That isn't Worst Buy's policy. They will instead find an extremely complex and convoluted way to deal with it.


RE: I hear Staples does the same thing.
By BladeVenom on 12/31/2007 5:45:47 PM , Rating: 4
They are more likely to just block those sites, or give you a 404 error.


By marvdmartian on 1/2/2008 10:11:46 AM , Rating: 2
That's why, as a backup, I always bring a printout of the page from my browser's window, which conveniently also shows a time/date stamp on the printout. That's worked for me, at my local BB, more than once. :)

In fact, my town (of ~100K people) is small enough that we have one BB and one CC......and they see me in there often enough that most of the time, if it's something inexpensive like a dvd, if I mention the price at the other store, they don't even bother checking it out, they just pricematch it for me. Nice to live in a smaller city sometimes! :)


RE: I hear Staples does the same thing.
By 16nm on 12/31/2007 6:49:38 PM , Rating: 3
Speaking of deals... Where are all the Daily Hot Deals??? I would think that at the end of the year like this there are some deals to be had. I know there are those that like to b!#@h and whine about the Daily Hot Deals articles, but I am not one of them.

So what's happened? Don't give up on these, please.


By Alexstarfire on 12/31/2007 5:12:23 PM , Rating: 2
It's not, but they are the only store that does it. That and you can't check how much it would cost if you bought it from them online while you're at their store. If it's the net, or looks like it, then it should be their real website. You don't see Fry's or any other store that makes a fake website. If they check a price in-store they have this DOS like inventory system.


RE: I hear Staples does the same thing.
By Flunk on 12/31/2007 8:49:40 PM , Rating: 2
I wonder if BestBuy would like us to start making our own fake websites for price match. It is fairly easy to fake that stuff with host name redirection.


By bohhad on 1/3/2008 2:32:31 PM , Rating: 2
thats a beautiful idea... best buy couldnt even complain about it, they do it themselves


Ain't it the truth
By Tedtalker1 on 12/31/2007 3:14:45 PM , Rating: 2
I so wish we had a FRY's where I live.I wonder if they franchise?.




RE: Ain't it the truth
By PAPutzback on 12/31/2007 3:20:00 PM , Rating: 2
We have a Fry's here in Indy and the fact that when I am browsing for a new motherboard or other item and want to see the reviews there is no way to do so. So I have to write down there inventory, go home and check the reviews and then go back and make my purchase. I understand they would not want me to see a lower price at newegg when I go to see a review on a product but chances are I already went there and have small list of what I might want.

They're all crooks. I am so glad compUSA is on the outs they were the worst and it finally caught up to them.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By BladeVenom on 12/31/2007 5:47:20 PM , Rating: 2
But with less competition, Best Buy and possibly other B&M stores will get worse.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By 16nm on 12/31/2007 6:53:01 PM , Rating: 2
But competition is alive and well. At least now there will be more volume at CompUSA's competitors so we might see some better deals in the future.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By mindless1 on 12/31/2007 7:28:36 PM , Rating: 2
Increased sales causing lower prices? I want to live in that alternate reality. Maybe if talking about some smaller outfit that throught the sales increases can negotiate a better price from suppliers would it be true, but generally not for these major competitors.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By Shining Arcanine on 12/31/2007 10:01:11 PM , Rating: 2
Economics of scale tends to lower prices when sales increase.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By Keeir on 1/1/2008 12:22:21 AM , Rating: 3
Your a little confused.

If sales at a store increase, the the cost of overhead for the store for each sale decreases. But the store is under no obligation to automatically lower prices. Remember, the company wants to maximize profit per store or profit per investment. If anything, if people started shopping like crazy at best buy, they would RAISE the price to try to take advantage of the precieved increase in demand and attempt to pocket the extra profit from the economies of scale.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By Xerio on 1/1/2008 12:24:42 PM , Rating: 4
Economies of scale tends to lower COST when PRODUCTION increases. This is on the supply side of the equation, not the demand side. See http://www.investorwords.com/1653/economy_of_scale...

A perfect example of this is the game console market. Although there has not been talk of the Wii's costs decreasing (which they should be), it is public knowledge that the Xbox 360's production costs have decreased. Although the retailers do have some price control, the manufacturer can also choose not to lower their price in order to maximize profits. Why would anyone, in their right mind, lower the cost to the consumer when they are selling all they can build at the current price (See the Wii). You can call this greed; I call is business.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By Schadenfroh on 12/31/2007 3:36:12 PM , Rating: 2
Same, I would not mind a CostCo either!


RE: Ain't it the truth
By SilverHair on 12/31/2007 4:02:12 PM , Rating: 3
I just have a Worst Buy close to me. I most always check them right after Newegg, just to be sure. I've been surprised once or twice by BB. I am more than willing to wait a couple days for shipping after checking BB's pricing.

Fry's would be great but that is a 5 hour drive one-way. Not a good option unless visiting family!


RE: Ain't it the truth
By mendocinosummit on 1/1/2008 2:35:13 AM , Rating: 2
The closest Fry's, CC, Best buy, and anything (including mom and pop) that sells hardware is at three hours away, but I am better off driving four hours to Las Vegas. So, just be thankful you have a quick fix at hand.


RE: Ain't it the truth
By ninjaquick on 12/31/2007 4:21:56 PM , Rating: 2
i lived 5 minutes away from one and it was like a weekly think to go there and just bask in the glory of an electronics megastore. seriously tho, the frys ad is pretty much the only thing worth getting a newspaper for nowadays.


Personally..
By agentjka03 on 1/1/2008 2:09:29 PM , Rating: 2
I shop at Best Buy frequently, and they have yet to "pull the wool over my eyes".




RE: Personally..
By zombiexl on 1/2/2008 12:52:38 PM , Rating: 2
By saying you shop there frequently, some may assume the wool has already been pulled over your eyes.


By Hakuryu on 12/31/2007 6:06:52 PM , Rating: 3
is because of things like this. I've had 2 seperate instances of 'shady' practices at the Best Buy near me. The first was charging me $50 over the price of my camera, showing me the higher price on their in-store website (which I got refunded after I left and printscreened the real price and brought it back).

The 2nd time was just 3 days ago... had an ad for a Sansa 8GB MP3 player with a 1 year free subscription to the BB music store. I asked for the player and the sales guy got one then moved toward the register... until I asked about the 1 year free and he said "Oh yeah" and went back and got the free card ($135 normally).

I do buy most of my stuff at NewEgg or similar sites, and have to say these sites seem much more customer friendly than any store like BB or CC. If only there was instant shipping.




Heh
By nowayout99 on 1/1/2008 2:32:26 AM , Rating: 3
I didn't know Best Buy employed people old enough to grow mustaches. Mine doesn't. Other than that, good one. ;)




secrets secrets are no fun.
By Armorize on 12/31/2007 5:41:08 PM , Rating: 2
I have never ran into a problem with their internal website dealy, but about 60-70% of the time best buy has higher prices than newegg does. I find it easier to buy my major components from newegg than to go into BB,CC, or compusa. I got a G5 mouse on sale for $19 at compusa just before the G9 came out then they shot the price back up to $49. Unfortunately I dont think its ever going to get easier for the consumer to buy things for next to wholesale prices all the time, your going to have to shop around regardless but thats what makes it so fun. most of the time you can buy things cheaper from an online store with shipping then u can driving to the store and picking it up from the shelf yourself.




Hmm...
By DeepBlue1975 on 12/31/2007 11:28:46 PM , Rating: 2
Use ODIOGO in this post and all I got was the title reading.
I expected some strangeglish trying to interpret the drawing.

This text to speech makers have no sense of humour, I'd really expect some nice stupid behaviours and purposeful mistakes out of that kind of software.

Anyway, happy new year!
Hope every single one of you can find your techie best buy in this virtual circuit city, before your actual electronics fry or someone tells you that you need a new egg (which would be quite an amazong thing to happen, specially when you're docking on the e-bay).

I know, alcoholic drinks are not an excuse to say stupid thinks...
That's why I don't drink any alcohol whatsoever.




Best Buy
By pillagenburn on 1/1/2008 4:05:05 AM , Rating: 2
I've not had any problems at Best Buy, personally.

I'm tempted to ask them if they'll price match Newegg on a Haans G 28" though :) $500 28" monitor would be sweet if i could get it locally!

But the simple economics of the situation are this:

newegg has warehouses, best buy has storefront and more payroll. Best Buy's expenses are inherently higher. I think they make up for a lot of that by offering a wider range of products than Newegg. More home appliances, more home theater/electronics etc.

If newegg finds a way to lump free shipping in on a massive refrigerator.... that will be the end of Best Buy as we know it :P




"So if you want to save the planet, feel free to drive your Hummer. Just avoid the drive thru line at McDonalds." -- Michael Asher









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