BestBuy Circular Ad

[Kwyjibo]

I was browsing my BestBuy Ad this morning and there was the now standard 1/3 of a page apple ad. To my dismay they have a 15" powerbook pictured and the words next to it say "12" Powerbook" ...seems kinda wrong to me.

[Wano]

i don't think it's a big deal, as long as they are listing them.
also, while we are on the topic of best buy, does any one know how much of a dscount they get?

[filmmaker2002]

5% over cost. So if a 17" Powerbook costs Best Buy $2500, employees get it for 2625. Pretty sweet deal huh? However, that most likely isn't the case. Discounts on notebooks and desktops is minimal, since Best Buy makes most of it's money on service plans (hence why they practically shove them down your throat) and accessories such as USB cables, printer ink, paper, power surge strips, etc. Did you know that a 10 foot gold plated USB cable that costs the customer $30, costs best buy employees a measly $4?

[dynamicd]

Is BestBuy selling any software to go along with apple??

[MacMarino]

Is BestBuy only available in the States? I'd love to be able to get some things from bestbuy as some of you have good reviews for them...

[Kwyjibo]

yeah at my best buy they have a section in the ergualr software section with a bunch of the apple software.

[iJon]

Originally posted by filmmaker2002
5% over cost. So if a 17" Powerbook costs Best Buy $2500, employees get it for 2625. Pretty sweet deal huh? However, that most likely isn't the case. Discounts on notebooks and desktops is minimal, since Best Buy makes most of it's money on service plans (hence why they practically shove them down your throat) and accessories such as USB cables, printer ink, paper, power surge strips, etc. Did you know that a 10 foot gold plated USB cable that costs the customer $30, costs best buy employees a measly $4?
trust me. best buy doesnt get them that cheap.

iJon

[filmmaker2002]

I know, I used to work there.

[tazo]

Originally posted by filmmaker2002
5% over cost. So if a 17" Powerbook costs Best Buy $2500, employees get it for 2625. Pretty sweet deal huh? However, that most likely isn't the case. Discounts on notebooks and desktops is minimal, since Best Buy makes most of it's money on service plans (hence why they practically shove them down your throat) and accessories such as USB cables, printer ink, paper, power surge strips, etc. Did you know that a 10 foot gold plated USB cable that costs the customer $30, costs best buy employees a measly $4?

Why would employees have to buy products for a more expensive price? Don't employees usually get discounts?

[TimDaddy]

Originally posted by tazo
Why would employees have to buy products for a more expensive price? Don't employees usually get discounts?

I think he means five percent over what Best Buy paid for the item, which should still be well below the retail price.;)

[iJon]

Originally posted by tazo
Why would employees have to buy products for a more expensive price? Don't employees usually get discounts?
huh, 5 percent over cost is a pretty good deal to me. depending on the item being purchased, that is a whole lot cheaper than what the consumer would buy it at. but i know for a fact that apple wouldnt give best buy a powerbook to sell for that amount of money.

iJon

[filmmaker2002]

My guess is cost to Best Buy is probably around $3000-3100 for a 17" PB. This means employees would get it at about $3250. Not much of a discount now huh. The main money comes from either really big ticket items (I used my discount to get my parents a Pioneer 65" Widescreen HDTV...retailed at $3999, I got it for $2100) or small ticket items (cables, printer paper, etc.) Of course things like DVDs, CDs, and games are 5-10 bucks off. DVD players, VCRs, printers, scanners are anywhere from 20-30%. I bought my digital camera for $415 when it sold for $500. And of course I used to get a load of money off service plans. It cost me $12 to insure my camera for 4 years vs. the usual $70. So if you wanna sell out by lowering yourself to used-car-salesmen level and shove service plans down people's throats to keep the managers off your back, you get a nice discount. For those who don't believe me that managers are really bad...check this out...
www.bestbuysux.org

It's a funny site some old employees (who also quit because their manager was a royal pain in the ass) told me about

[shecky]

5% over cost is not a good deal, considering that CompUSA employees get cost on everything in the store.

also the "cost" that the employees see is not a true, actual cost, its an associated cost that both companies use as a baseline to judge the bottom line on thier store's profit. So it includes some addtional cost of doing business expensed added into the "cost" that they base the discount on.

i also know that the price BB and Comp pay for hardware from the major vendors is very close if not identical, so there is not a big difference thyere either.

[filmmaker2002]

Who cares, I still saved a ton of money working there. And CompUSA is even worse than Best Buy, especially in customer service.

[shecky]

...because clearly i care a lot about the customer service when I am using my employee discount to get hardware. no reason to be so defensive.

also the catch with a 5% over cost discount on hardware items is that generally speaking, most computer hardware runs between 3-8% margin. So on accessories its a good enough deal, but on hardware its minimal; even Comp's cost discount is often minimal. I still get a far, far better deal on hardware using my student discount direct from Apple than i do from Comp. There are times when retail is actually cheaper then that discount. In fact, there are times when cost is above retail (loss-leader type items)