According to the article Best Buy will begin matching online prices by Amazon and other internet retailers in March if the customer asks them to at the time of purchase.
This news reminds me of a time I was in a local Circuit City shopping for a new TV. I asked the sales guy if he could match an online price and he laughed and said no. I commented that this couldn’t be a good policy for Circuit City and he replied that CC was doing just fine. Six months later CC was gone with the wind.
Do you use brick and mortar stores to ‘showroom’ (examine products in person) before placing an order for the product at a cheaper price with an online seller?
Not usually. There aren’t too many things I need to get hands-on with that I will buy online.
I can’t see Best Buy coming anywhere near online prices for much of anything. The price disparity for 90% of what they carry is too great. (And when it comes to things like phone accessories and cables, it’s sometimes 50:1 or more.) I can wait a day or two for Amazon or B&H to deliver it, free, for as little as half BB’s price.
There was a camera store in my old hometown that had a huge banner space along one wall of the parking lot. One of their standard banners read “Jones Cameras is not your Internet Showroom!” (Which comes from understandable frustration, but they were dicks to deal with anyway. Three or four counter guys who were just too busy to spend any time with you over even a major purchase.)
My one experience with matching online prices was with a local speed shop, a very well-established and old-school one. I’d price stuff on JEGS and Summit, then go see if they had it in stock, and they’d usually match the price with a reasonable addition for shipping costs. It was worth 5-10% to get it right away, sometimes.
One of the things I prefer about buying things online is that the selection is much, much better than at any physical store. As such, using a store as a showroom is, to me, defeating the purpose.
Until they pass some new sales tax laws brick-n-mortar stores are still going to have to compete against on-line retailers offering no sales tax.
I bought a lawn tractor on-line that included free shipping and saved over $200 in sales tax.
While you can’t put hands on it, you can research the crap out of it - prices, maker, reviews, even browse operating manuals and more. And choose from 10, 50, 100 versions or models instead of 2 or 5 (or 1).
Other than groceries and gas, I’d guess that we buy over 90% of our purchases online. Even somewhat ridiculous things like tires, remodeling components and appliances. The tiny downside of having to wait vanishes with the cost savings and selection.
Around Xmas I printed out an Amazon ad for an item with a price at $80. I went to BB and the item was $100. I asked the floor dumb-dumb if they would match the price. He said no. Then at the register, I asked again and the guy said yes. So I got the lower price.
BB is hurting and this is a good idea. Guys like going out on the weekend, playing with items and making impulse purchases. If BB makes a big deal and plays up this angle, they will do good.
Tax savings are often secondary to pricing and free or token-cost shipping. We are likely to have to start paying online sales tax soon (I mean my state, but it will be universal in a few more years) and I both applaud the leveling of the retailing playing field and will continue to buy most stuff online.
But yeah, I’ve bought this or that item specifically to get the tax savings.
I don’t. If its something I need to see/handle/try on, I always buy it where the sales person gave me the advice. I’m willing to pay for one on one assistance.
If its something I can research and buy online, I usually just do that thing.
This is not news; BB and other B&M stores have, for years, offered to meet the price or split the difference or whatever if you found another store with another better price on the exact item. Trouble was, Best Buy would sell the 922Z model and CostCo would sell the 922Y. Totally different item. :rolleyes:
And, I am prepared to be shocked if one of the 19 retailers they’re going to match prices for is… their own online store, which has a different pricing structure (usually lower) and selection (usually better).
I do, and just did it yesterday. I was researching washing machines and found the one on Amazon that I wanted to go with, but still wanted to kick the figurative tires. Used the “find a local retailer” feature and there was an independent appliance place about 20 minutes away. I checked it out and liked it, and asked them if they’d match the Home Depot price- which itself was lower than Amazon’s, but HD didn’t have any in the store. I fully expected them to say they couldn’t, but they came back and offered me a price that was about $50 more than HD, but also offered $90 in rebates. Totally works for me. Only difference is I have to install it myself, but I’ve installed a few of them before so it’s worth it to me.
I don’t do it on purpose - most times I have an idea of what I want already, and I do my research online, and then purchase it wherever it is cheapest or whoever’s salesfront (online or real life) looks least skeevy.
However, I have on occasion been wandering through stores IRL and seen something interesting that I wasn’t looking for, but thought looked interesting.
Being that I wasn’t looking for it, and have no idea what other options exist, or if the price listed is reasonable, I usually photo-archive it, and then when I’m back home, THEN I look it up. Most times, I find better options online anyway, or better prices for the item in question. Rarely do I find that the random thingie I saw in the store is the best incarnation of said thingie, and at the best (or competitive minus shipping) price.
The whole point of online shopping to me is not having to get off my ass and go to a store, going to the store to browse would defeat the whole purpose.
I’ll use online shopping to narrow the field and give me some idea of what the options are likely to be, then (for things like computers or other bigger-ticket items I’d buy at Best Buy) I go to a store and get my hands on it. The best online review in the world won’t tell me what the keyboard feels like when I type, or how much noise the computer actually makes. I’m willing to pay a little extra for something I only buy every five years or so. It has never occurred to me to be even remotely reasonable to ask one store to match another store’s price.
I went in there for a USB extension cable. I could buy one online for about a buck and a half but then I would have had to pay 3 bucks in shipping. It kinda irked me that I had to pay significantly more in shipping than the stupid cable was even worth. Plus, with BB the cable was right there, I could plug it in and start using it that night. So if I had to pay 6 or 7 bucks for the cable at BB it was worth it for the convenience.
BB wanted close to 50 bucks for it.
That’s why I don’t go to BB any more. If BB is hurting it’s because they’ve done it to themselves.
I went to Radio Shack. They wanted 24 bucks for the cable. I paid the 3 dollars in shipping and waited a week.