Does the Apple Store negotiate on pricing?

tuna · Apr 13, 2010

If you are buying multiple products from the Apple Store, do they ever negotiate with you? If not on pricing of the main products, then possibly in free accessories?

My hypothetical is that I am currently a PC user, but I've had an iPhone and love it and all my friends use Macs and swear by them. I never considered it worth the premium to buy a Mac before because I'm a "power user" and I know how to maintain my PC to keep it fresh and running like the day it was new. I've reached the point in my life where it doesn't make sense for me to be wasting the time that that requires, I don't do PC gaming anymore, and the Mac software environment has become much fuller and it looks to me that there are genuinely superior software solutions for Mac for all the things that I do. And my PC is approaching 4 years old.

So if I go into an Apple Store and say, "hey I'm looking to walk away with a new top-of-the-line iPhone, a new MacBook Pro, and possibly a new iPad, what can you do for me?", what would they do for me? My negotiating points would be that I also may be willing to buy Applecare subscriptions, MobileMe, less likely an Airport, and also that they would converting me to Apple for the first time.

Do they negotiate?

I may be in an even bigger purchasing position because another person on my family plan also got an iPhone at the same time as me, and also I can almost certainly find another person who would be in the market for a new laptop at the time.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS UNNECESSARY EXTRANEOUS INFORMATION

When I went into the AT&T store to move 3 lines from Verizon to them, including 2 new iPhones, they did negotiate with me and I think that I got a fair deal. We bought two iPhone 3GS 32GB, 2 Applecares, 2 MobileMes, and they give me about $400 in free things.

miles01110 · Apr 13, 2010

tuna · Apr 13, 2010

Thats stupid. What about third party Apple resellers such as Best Buy or the small independent Apple stores that still exist in some places?

TuffLuffJimmy · Apr 13, 2010

To answer your question: No.

stridemat · Apr 13, 2010

Normally you cant negotiate with high street retailers. So I can't understand why you think its stupid.

GoCubsGo · Apr 13, 2010

If you walked in there and asked to buy a new MBP, a top of the line iPad and the top of the line iPhone they would likely say something along the lines of:

The top of the line iPad isn't shipping, yet but if you want the 64 GB Wifi only version then here you go. Here's your phone, and your computer. Would you like AppleCare and MobileMe? MobileMe will be discounted to you if you buy in store now.

Your intended purchase is nothing to sneeze about and the fact that they don't haggle is a good sign that they don't really need to haggle with you. Stupid? Not really. I leave haggling for trips to Tijuana and the likes.

edtorious · Apr 13, 2010

no on the Apple Store and its understandable even you wish you can negotiate with them. Other option is resellers but not in a sense of negotiating, they usually offer discounts or extras or you can use coupons if you have them.

jaw04005 · Apr 13, 2010

tuna said:
Thats stupid. What about at third party resellers such as Best Buy or the small independent Apple resellers? What about the online Apple resellers?

No.

They have to follow Apples pricing guidelines. However, Mac Mall/PC Mall usually includes several free accessories like Parallels, RAM, etc via mail-in-rebate when you purchase a new Mac.

And if your order is big enough, they may offer you access to their CAP page which has minor discounts and your own personal sales rep. that can make minor adjustments. Again, all of this would be on non-Apple products though.

aristobrat · Apr 13, 2010

Apple Store employees don't have the ability to "negotiate". They are only allowed to apply qualified discounts (educational, gov't, and business), and they are able to price-match competitors (to a certain percentage, on models w/ the same SKU).

They're all hourly/salary employees that don't work on commission.

tuna · Apr 13, 2010

I mean it depends on the store and what you're buying, but I've negotiated with high street retailers before...

Express runs this promotion from time to time where its buy 3 packages of underwear or t-shirts and get 2 free, and I make sure that they give me that deal regardless of whether it is currently being advertised

And the more expensive the thing the store is selling, I would say the more likely that the store negotiates. Buying watches or other jewelry is a negotiation, buying suits is a negotiation, I would say that making a large purchase pretty much anywhere is a negotiation

BlueRevolution · Apr 13, 2010

If you were making bulk purchases for a business you might be able to negotiate, but no, you can't negotiate consumer prices.

Vantage Point · Apr 13, 2010

NO they don't. Remember, this is a company that does not even lower their prices on computers or anything else at any time in the product cycle even though their costs drop so they can maximize profit.

Best to shop the play with the items at the apple store and buy somewhere else to get a small discount and/or save on taxes. Amazon is one such place

Hellhammer · Apr 13, 2010

If you point them with a shotgun, they might....

At least here in Fin, resellers do negotiate when buying a lot stuff, e.g. my aunt got over 500 discount when he bought with +3000

tuna · Apr 13, 2010

I mean, I know for fact that employees of some corporations getter higher discounts from Apple than the education discounts. They do have the infrastructure to offer discounts.

All right, I get what you're saying though, they will not negotiate at the Apple Store. I'll have better luck trying at a third party reseller. And it also seems like (and I think I believe) that there still won't be significant discounts on the Apple first party products, only that they could throw in free third party accessories. Thats how it worked in my negotiation with the AT&T store so I could see that applying elsewhere.

sailon · Apr 13, 2010

To the OP: I firmly believe the adage "the answer is no until you ask the question". And, I have asked for a discount in the Apple Store in Delaware (Christiana Mall) and got a "yes" on current merchandise.

But, it was as "Aristobrat" suggests - I got the discount when I came in armed with a printout from Amazon on the exact model I wanted and asked to speak with the manager. Then I showed him the refurbished price on their online store and asked for a little more off. That second ploy did not work but cemented the first discount.

It absolutely will not be a big discount, but you *can* walk away with the instant gratification of taking your computer home with you and getting it at a tiny bit (in my case $100) less than the folks who don't ask.

Good luck!

belvdr · Apr 13, 2010

I worked for an organization with 150,000 employees and Apple wouldn't budge on pricing. It's hard to consider a new product when the price is consistent in quantities of 1 or 150,000. Other companies (software or hardware) would discount their products when they realized the sales potential.

niuniu · Apr 13, 2010

belvdr said:
I worked for an organization with 150,000 employees and Apple wouldn't budge on pricing. It's hard to consider a new product when the price is consistent in quantities of 1 or 150,000.

I don't believe that for a moment. I contacted Apple about getting a business quote for only a small number of MacBook Pros, 5 or 6 last year and they were very quick to offer a discount, even at just that small number.

No idea what we would have agreed on in the end, I didn't follow it through. But I could do the same today, call them up and get a decent quote on a multiple purchase order.

-Ryan- · Apr 13, 2010

Anyone who is saying Apple won't budge on prices is somewhat wrong. Not completely, but somewhat. They won't budge on the price of the initial purchase, but they can give their own accessories and third party accessories either free or heavily discounted. Also, if you are buying multiple instances of AppleCare at one time, they can discount that too. I have never paid for one of Apples adapters to connect monitors to their notebooks. This is the type of thing that will be thrown in for free. I've also received discounted AppleCare, discounted MobileMe, and discounted cases for my computers. Whether they will give you discount or not depends on the state of your account with them. If they look up you details on the computer and (like me) it appears you've bought 10+ computers, 15+ iPods etc, they will be very accomodating. Same goes with the Genius Bar; if they know you've bought a lot of stuff, they're a hell of a lot more likely to just replace your computer outright rather than repair it.

Le Big Mac · Apr 13, 2010

tuna said:
I mean, I know for fact that employees of some corporations getter higher discounts from Apple than the education discounts. They do have the infrastructure to offer discounts.

All right, I get what you're saying though, they will not negotiate at the Apple Store. I'll have better luck trying at a third party reseller. And it also seems like (and I think I believe) that there still won't be significant discounts on the Apple first party products, only that they could throw in free third party accessories. Thats how it worked in my negotiation with the AT&T store so I could see that applying elsewhere.

Yeah, you can debate whether it would make sense to negotiate on prices, but Apple doesn't do it. They move enough product that it doesn't make sense to do so.

Vantage Point · Apr 13, 2010

Apple does have a business unit that does offer discounts. I am a NAPP member and get about a 6% discount for 1 or more computers so no volume discount. However, that 6% discount is offset by 7% tax so I can save by purchasing somewhere else but there will be more hastle in the event I need to return it

TJRiver · Apr 13, 2010

I was able to get about $50 off Applecare for my Macbook @ the Apple Store when I bought it at the end of the 1st year, based upon pricing on a reseller website. No love when we initially bought our Macbook and iMac.......

GadgetGeek71 · Apr 13, 2010

"Apple" & "Negotiate" are like oil and water. They'll never mix.

belvdr · Apr 13, 2010

niuniu said:
I don't believe that for a moment. I contacted Apple about getting a business quote for only a small number of MacBook Pros, 5 or 6 last year and they were very quick to offer a discount, even at just that small number.

No idea what we would have agreed on in the end, I didn't follow it through. But I could do the same today, call them up and get a decent quote on a multiple purchase order.

Believe it or not, it's true. I worked with a "Business Specialist" (I believe that was their title) in 2004. We purchased 3 17" PowerBooks and were considering towers for other uses, and they gave us something like $50-100 off or something. That discount is ridiculous considering other hardware vendors would drop 30-40% easily.

GoCubsGo · Apr 13, 2010

tuna said:
I mean it depends on the store and what you're buying, but I've negotiated with high street retailers before...

Express runs this promotion from time to time where its buy 3 packages of underwear or t-shirts and get 2 free, and I make sure that they give me that deal regardless of whether it is currently being advertised

You do realize that you cannot compare underwear to a computer purchase, right?

tuna said:
And the more expensive the thing the store is selling, I would say the more likely that the store negotiates. Buying watches or other jewelry is a negotiation, buying suits is a negotiation, I would say that making a large purchase pretty much anywhere is a negotiation

I would say you're wrong because your theory doesn't apply there at Apple.

munnyinc · Apr 13, 2010

Fair play to you for haggling, the mark ups on most products are stupendous.

From my experience I have found that official Apple stores will not do any deals but I have over heard conversations whereby the customer has got a free £20 case. You must remember that Apple know what they have and in their mind if you don't buy it somebody else will.

Yet I worked for an APR and as a store we had incentives in place to make sure we hit target. This was an official Apple APR and many of time I would reduce third party stuff such as MS Office to cost price and throw in a case if you were buying Applecare with your purchase as that has a mark up I couldn't possibly disclose.

So I would say wander over to your local APR and get haggling what do you have to lose.

Does the Apple Store negotiate on pricing?

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