do sales "matter" to an apple store?

[Nutella]

hi, i'm going to be making a significant (to me, at least!) purchase, and there are two apple stores in my city. i'm wondering if apple stores care if they make the sale or lose it to the other store (or to somewhere else entirely). do they have quotas or make commission? i'm asking because i'd like to request a slight "accomodation" in order to get my business (sorry i can't be more specific here), and would like to use a little leverage if i can let them know i'm ready to walk.
thanks for any advice :)

[CanadaRAM]

Good luck.
Obviously an Apple Store location has to make money, so they rely on making at least a minimum number of sales a month. The staff as I understand are not on commission. You are not likely to get any discounting on new Apple CPUs.

An independent reseller has the freedom to set their own prices, however Apple's wholesales are usually within 3% - 5% of the retail price (and Visa or Mastercard will take 2% of that) so the reseller makes little or nothing on the sale of the Mac. Where you can do some dickering is on the third party add ons and software. For example, if you are planning to buy extra RAM and a carrying case MS Office and a box of DVD-R's, give the independent reseller a chance to calculate a price on the whole bundle, and you may save a bit.

Suggestion: Don't march into a location and demand money off of a Mac or you'll walk... that will earn you a well deserved cold shoulder.

[ohcrap]

The best I could do was when I bought my 15" Powerbook G4. I did not save a dime on the machine, but I did get a few discounts on about $200 worth of accessories, including the BT Mouse for about $20, and a couple other things. Discounted RAM was out of the question at the particular store I visited. :rolleyes:

[thomasp]

Staff in the Apple Stores in the UK aren't on commission, and are very reluctant to budge on anything (as I found out when trying to buy a PowerBook).

However, what shocked me is that when I phoned around other shops/companies to check prices, Apple made the least effort to sell me the protection plan!


If you want to try to negociate a price, try an independent seller (by this, I mean a shop that sells Macs but isn't the Apple store, not an individual person selling their computer)

[imjmn]

I have bought from the AS before. One time the Ti667 had a dead FW out of the box and they called another store to find a replacement. I went to the other store to pick it up with no problems. My latest is a PB1.67/1 gig/80HD/SD. they gave me the educational discount (I am not a student nor teacher), 512 extraRAM, AppleCare/.Mac renewal for <$2700. That included sales tax. If you want AppleCare (recommended) then let them know that you can get it online for $250 or so and they will likely give you the discount over the regular price of $349. Go in to the store knowing what you can get it for on-line so you can negotiate from a position of power. The worst that they will say is NO. How many dates have told you NO. No Big deal and buy it elsewhere. Don't get an attitude with the sales folks and they will likely give as they can make some concessions. They guy who helped me was just sales and not a manager. Obviously he was give the authorization to make some deals and did not need to consulte with anyone. Don't worry about the AS quotas. Just make a deal that works for you. Tell them what works for you but be fair. They also know what you can get it for elsewhere.

[Cloudgazer]

A friend of mine thought the best place to buy a mac was Malaysia, as it is one of the best shopping meccas in the world.

My friend is also a gifted talker and usually manages to hagggle with even the most stubborn operators. :rolleyes:
However, he was in for a shock in Malaysia, as the Apple stores there would not budge on the price, and weren't impressed with his haggling abilities.

He did manage to get a free Apple keyring for his efforts. :D

[Demon Hunter]

hi, i'm going to be making a significant (to me, at least!) purchase, and there are two apple stores in my city. i'm wondering if apple stores care if they make the sale or lose it to the other store (or to somewhere else entirely). do they have quotas or make commission? i'm asking because i'd like to request a slight "accomodation" in order to get my business (sorry i can't be more specific here), and would like to use a little leverage if i can let them know i'm ready to walk.
thanks for any advice :)

If you are buying multiple machines for your business, there is a good chance they will give you a quote and some kind of discount. This will not vary from store to store, however... they usually have the same business rep.

Apple Stores don't work on commission. Managers will differ on what they "need" in terms of their sales numbers.

[Nutella]

thanks for the responses everyone!
if i come out of this experience with any helpful tips, i'll be sure to pass them along :)

[Sdashiki]

Apple store employees, the doods in the colored shirts, dont get commission. But their sales is recorded and if you arent pushing .mac and AppleCare you get a talking to. But not fired.

And if you, or the whole store usually, reach a certain quota for a quarter, each employee gets a gift, like shoes, ipods etc.

[wdlove]

Apple store employees, the doods in the colored shirts, dont get commission. But their sales is recorded and if you arent pushing .mac and AppleCare you get a talking to. But not fired.

And if you, or the whole store usually, reach a certain quota for a quarter, each employee gets a gift, like shoes, ipods etc.

Of course incentives are always helpful. Getting the employee discount off purchases would be very appealing.

I haven't' found the staff to be pushy at all.

Good luck with your endeavor Nutella. Will look forward to any of your thoughts.

[Chip NoVaMac]

Depends on your "accommodation" request. To be honest, since you won't tell us what you want, your "accommodation" sounds shady.

I work retail and have special requests all the time. Many are illegal, mostly to avoid taxes. Or the use of a credit card that is not present (a big red flag for big ticket items).

[CanadaRAM]

Depends on your "accommodation" request. To be honest, since you won't tell us what you want, your "accommodation" sounds shady.

I work retail and have special requests all the time. Many are illegal, mostly to avoid taxes. Or the use of a credit card that is not present (a big red flag for big ticket items).

Yup. If someone wants me to break a law on their purchase, they are out the door and embargoed for life. If they are willing to cheat the government, or the manufacturer (in the case of bogus warranty claims) then what's stopping them from cheating me? Life's too short to spend my time dealing with slimeballs.

[Nutella]

actually i had brought some computer equipment in to be repaired, and it turned out the the estimate was way over what was first quoted, almost the cost of replacing the equipment. so i declined the repairs, figuring i should just buy new equipt. the rep told me on the phone that the store would still hold me liable for labor charges for the diagnosis. so i was hoping that since i was going to purchase new replacement products, the store would maybe waive the service charge.

sorry i didn't put the details in my original post and got some of you suspicious. not shady at all, just trying to spend money without spending more than i have to :)

[IEatApples]

what about: http://www.apple.com/smallbusiness/store/
I don't know if you can use it, but the prices are great (I think).

[ITASOR]

what about: http://www.apple.com/smallbusiness/store/
I don't know if you can use it, but the prices are great (I think).

Prices look normal to me, I wonder what the point of the small business store is.

[IEatApples]

I'm not sure what the prices are in the US, but comparing the educational discount prices in Norway with the smallbusiness ones, you'll find the business discounts are much greater. However, I'm not sure of the requirements for using it? Anyone know? :confused:
:o I just "discovered" that the educational one is cheaper. They just don't show the sales tax in the price until you put the order in the cart. :o

[skubish]

The small business store is the same price as retail. I don't know what the point is except probably you can avoid sales tax if you provide a Tax ID number. (Business to business sales are tax free in the US)

[IEatApples]

The small business store is the same price as retail. I don't know what the point is except probably you can avoid sales tax if you provide a Tax ID number. (Business to business sales are tax free in the US)
Then this may actually work for Nutella?

[Chip NoVaMac]

actually i had brought some computer equipment in to be repaired, and it turned out the the estimate was way over what was first quoted, almost the cost of replacing the equipment. so i declined the repairs, figuring i should just buy new equipt. the rep told me on the phone that the store would still hold me liable for labor charges for the diagnosis. so i was hoping that since i was going to purchase new replacement products, the store would maybe waive the service charge.

sorry i didn't put the details in my original post and got some of you suspicious. not shady at all, just trying to spend money without spending more than i have to :)

This sounds reasonable to me. Depends on whether the service center is a separate profit center or not.

[Marneus]

I just bought a BTO iBook from my local store, education discount, but the guy cut the cost of the upgraded RAM a little without me even asking. That said, I waited a lot longer then I was told it would take for my iBook to arrive, but it's here now and I love it.

That said, the same store was the one I bought an iPod off about 18 months ago, and I forgot to ask for the education discount whilst the guy was entering the sale in the computer, and he threw his arms up and huffed "You could have told me earlier" and then said "Forget it, i'd rather sell it to someone for full price"...I still bought it because I really wanted it at the time, but I really shouldn't have stood for such rudeness :p

[Nutella]

turns out the phone rep worried me needlessly about the $ hundreds in labor charges. the store didn't charge me a penny. i don't know if it's because i made a big show of the fact i was planning to buy replacements instead, or maybe it's just their policy not to charge, but in any case, all's well that ends well! :)