Best Buy Complains About Walmart's iPhone 5 Holiday Sale, Claims $65,000 Profit Loss in One Day

[PBG4 Dude]

Originally Posted by Kaibelf

You're supposed to care because years ago walmart did something similar with medicine and drove hundreds of small pharmacies out of business by selling the prescriptions at a loss. It's the epitome of antitrust. Just because BB has money doesn't mean they have to put up with it any more than saying someone who's rich deserves to be robbed.

It also doesn't help that as soon as a Walgreens pharmacy super store opens, ground quickly breaks on a competing CVS or Rite-Aid. I now have 3 24 hour pharmacies within 5 miles of my house.

[1080p]

Originally Posted by mantan

Wow....I NEVER thought I'd see the day where MR users were running to Walmart's defense of discounting Apple products.....or maybe it's just the fun the mob has piling on whoever the target of the day is.

When the original Walmart post came out, it was filled with smarmy remarks about Walmart customers and how they were unworthy to sell your beloved Apple products.

Now some of you are championing competition....even though Apple clearly envokes strict price controls on almost everyone who sells their equipment.

The hypocrisy of this site is a trip.....

If we want competition, then truly open it up and let resellers sell Apple gear for any price they choose. Otherwise spare me the economics lessons Best Buy needs to learn about competition.

This is Apple's #1 demographic at Walmart!

[mantan]

Originally Posted by Popeye206

I just hope they don't go out of business so I have someplace to go and play with the tech toys before I buy them somewhere else. :-)

.

A very common practice which is killing the brick and mortar golf industry. Everybody loves to go play with stuff, give it a demo and see what they like...then run online to save a few bucks.

Or even worse, march into the store who has to pay all that overhead and demand they match the price of somebody who doesn't.

And like BB, they complain about the lack of knowledgable salespeople, even though they have ZERO interest in paying a penny extra to cover the cost.

Consumers all want Amazon pricing with Nordstrom service.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by Kaibelf

You're supposed to care because years ago walmart did something similar with medicine and drove hundreds of small pharmacies out of business by selling the prescriptions at a loss. It's the epitome of antitrust. Just because BB has money doesn't mean they have to put up with it any more than saying someone who's rich deserves to be robbed.

Hmmm, excellent point. Walmart has had very questionable practices, which is the reason I refuse to shop there. I am fortunate enough to not worry about saving a few cents here and there that I can support my local private stores.

Google Walmart and Rubbermaid. In the 90's, Rubbermaid manufactured their products in the USA. When the price of resin rose, the main ingredient in their products, Rubbermaid had to increase their price points to match. Walmart threatened that if Rubbermaid did not manufacture in China, they would pull their products. As Walmart accounted for 50-60% of Rubbermaid's sales, Rubbermaid almost went bankrupt. Rubbermaid was bought out by another company, and soon US factories were closed, leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed, without benefits, and losing their pensions.

Walmart then moved into those small towns, built a Walmart, and employed former Rubbermaid employees with minimum wage jobs and little benefits. These were once middle class families, making ~$60-70k annually with benefits and pensions. In the 80's and 90's, that was a good annual salary. Now, they are working long hours and making a fraction of what they used to make in a time when the cost of living has sky rocketed.

All so Americans can believe they are saving a lot, when most research has shown the overall savings don't exist as people buy more with the "savings" they believe they are earning. We have let this corporation strong arm our nation, bully other companies and run small private businesses out as they have the cash reserves to buy 1,000,000 Bic pens at a lower bulk price compared to a small business that doesn't have the cash reserve for such a large purchase.

Ask yourself, are you really saving money at Walmart and Target (odds are, you're not)? Is it worth the cost of selling your country and soul to a corporate giant? Soon, you may not have a choice.

[fighterfoo]

Originally Posted by bretm

If the other store gives a raincheck then checking their stock is pointless.

not true. the raincheck guarantees price, not product. if the product never comes back in stock, you're stuck with a raincheck guaranteeing a product at a price you'll never get.

[Jetson]

I'd hate to see Best Buy go out of business.

With Circuit City fallen by the wayside, and others, there are hardly any brick and mortar electronics stores left.

Yes people go there to browse, then buy cheaper online. But with many states enforcing sales tax collection on online vendors that price advantage is slipping.

Thing is many times you want something NOW - not delivered 2-3 days from now and Best Buy is great for that.

[Madmic23]

I just price matched an LG refrigerator at Future Shop in Canada. The fridge was $3300 at Future Shop, but Lowe's had a boxing day sale price of $2300. The Future Shop policy is to beat the competitors price by 10% of the difference, which they did, giving me a discount of $1100, brining the price down to $2200.

We're buying a new house, so we had to buy all new appliances. We bought everything from Future Shop, but had Lowe's give us a printed quote on everything first. Future Shop price matched and beat every price, except on the dishwasher which they didn't carry, so they gave us a comparable model which was on sale.

Our quote from Lowe's was around $10,000 for everything, but we got it all from Future Shop for around $8200.

If a store has a price match policy, definitely take advantage of it!

[fighterfoo]

Originally Posted by mantan

A very common practice which is killing the brick and mortar golf industry. Everybody loves to go play with stuff, give it a demo and see what they like...then run online to save a few bucks.

Or even worse, march into the store who has to pay all that overhead and demand they match the price of somebody who doesn't.

And like BB, they complain about the lack of knowledgable salespeople, even though they have ZERO interest in paying a penny extra to cover the cost.

Consumers all want Amazon pricing with Nordstrom service.

bingo.

[AnOldFriend]

That's hysterical being that Best Buy is absolutely notorious for advertising loss-leader discounts on items that either don't exist in all stores or have a ridiculously tiny allocation. For BB to cry foul to Walmart on the premise that they lost $$ doing price matches when they didn't have adequate stock availability is the height of hypocrisy.

Another big box store that is absolutely out of control in this area is Dicks SPorting goods

[1080p]

Originally Posted by Jetson

Thing is many times you want something NOW - not delivered 2-3 days from now and Best Buy is great for that.

Amazon Prime...

It has already paid for itself for me many times over!

[shakes.holt]

Wal Mart has been using this 'loss leader' business strategy for a decade!! They have run hundreds of small and even large businesses out of existance by using this tactic. They ony stock a 1-2 of these large ticket items in their stores which limits their loss while heavily promoting the sale. They make up for the loss by bringing people into the store who purchase other goods at a profit. This brings in revenue to their stores and creates a loss at the competition. It is meant to try to prevent competition from matching their prices in the short term and in the long term it limits competition by creating losses for its competition which prevent them from staying in business. Wal mart is large enough to absorb the small loss and it helps to create the sense that Wal Mart is striving to bring prices down for the consumer. Search Wal Mart Loss leader strategy for more information.

[TMay]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

Wish amazon would put BB out of business already.

Best Buy, where Amazon customers window shop.

[joneill55]

Those who can, do. Those who don't, die!

#circlingthedrain

[wvmb]

I don't know about their out of stock claim... Of course an iPhone 5 on sale was going to have high demand and may sell out temporarily, but Walmart was restocking as they went, at least near me. I ended up getting 2 of them, 2 days before Christmas, and at least one other local store had new stock at the same time.

Mind you, the hassle of having to activate through Walmart's less than fully trained employees might not have been worth it. They eventually got one of them right, but completely messed up the other (Verizon fixed it though).

[RolyPolyBird]

Walmart and Best Buy deserve each other. Consumers deserve better.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by shakes.holt

Wal Mart has been using this 'loss leader' business strategy for a decade!! They have run hundreds of small and even large businesses out of existance by using this tactic. They ony stock a 1-2 of these large ticket items in their stores which limits their loss while heavily promoting the sale. They make up for the loss by bringing people into the store who purchase other goods at a profit. This brings in revenue to their stores and creates a loss at the competition. It is meant to try to prevent competition from matching their prices in the short term and in the long term it limits competition by creating losses for its competition which prevent them from staying in business. Wal mart is large enough to absorb the small loss and it helps to create the sense that Wal Mart is striving to bring prices down for the consumer. Search Wal Mart Loss leader strategy for more information.

Exactly. See my post #54, it's been going on since the late 80's, early 90's.

[iphoneclassic]

Complaining about 65k. Top Mgmt spends that much money on one trip/party.

[HatterZero]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

Wish amazon would put BB out of business already.

Yeah **** the people that work there

[alent1234]

Originally Posted by shakes.holt

Wal Mart has been using this 'loss leader' business strategy for a decade!! They have run hundreds of small and even large businesses out of existance by using this tactic. They ony stock a 1-2 of these large ticket items in their stores which limits their loss while heavily promoting the sale. They make up for the loss by bringing people into the store who purchase other goods at a profit. This brings in revenue to their stores and creates a loss at the competition. It is meant to try to prevent competition from matching their prices in the short term and in the long term it limits competition by creating losses for its competition which prevent them from staying in business. Wal mart is large enough to absorb the small loss and it helps to create the sense that Wal Mart is striving to bring prices down for the consumer. Search Wal Mart Loss leader strategy for more information.

you can't do it with apple products unless apple gives you permission to advertise them at a lower than MSRP price

lots of companies have MAP rules now

radio shack, best buy and wal mart are all selling iphone 5's at a discount

[tgara]

Originally Posted by bedifferent

Hmmm, excellent point. Walmart has had very questionable practices, which is the reason I refuse to shop there. I am fortunate enough to not worry about saving a few cents here and there that I can support my local private stores.

Goodie for you, but many other people do not have that luxury.

I happen to like Walmart a lot, and shop there regularly. In my view, they sell good products at low prices to people who are trying to stretch a dollar in this lousy economy, and today that's nearly everyone. There may be an instance or two of "sharp business practices", but by and large, their volume buying power allows them to provide lower prices to their customers.

Walmart also provides many good jobs to the local community. I never understood people who protest a new Walmart store being opened. Despite the demagougary by some, there are always many more applicants than positions available at Walmart. The jobs they provide pay decent wages, health benefits, and even have college savings plans. Not a bad gig if you've got a family, especially with unemployment figures just listed today at 7.8% overall and over 11% for those aged 18-29.

[ugahairydawgs]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

Wish amazon would put BB out of business already.

That's a LOT of folks you're wishing out of work.

Competition is good.....don't want Amazon to be the only game in town.

[CodeJingle]

If Best Buy can prove all the Walmarts had near-zero inventory while promoting the sale then it sounds fishy. That would take alot of work. And Walmart was very clear about the rules of the sale, first-come first-served with no rainchecks and no stock guarantees. So even if Walmart sucks I don't see how what they did was illegal. If Best Buy is simply claiming monopolistic practices then there is no case, only a government entity can bring that type of case against a corporation. The easiest solution to the problem I think is for Best Buy to modify its price-match terms.

[bedifferent]

Originally Posted by tgara

Goodie for you, but many other people do not have that luxury.

Sarcasm dually noted, and you are kidding yourself if you think you are really saving money. I recommend researching this topic and your finances before sarcastically addressing strangers online.

Understand, saving a few cents here and there while putting Walmart competition out of business only bites you in the arse in the end, as less competition for Walmart will lead to marketplace dominance. Once marketshare grows with less competition, so will Walmart pricing. As history has shown, companies such as Walmart will blame the higher price in oil, or [insert excuse here] for their price increases, the public will buy it and Walmart profits will increase. Soon, you'll have little choice for local stores and Walmart will dictate the market.

Enjoy those prices while you can.

[GoldenJoe]

Originally Posted by ECUpirate44

Wish amazon would put BB out of business already.

Almost there.

[mrfoof82]

Cry some more, Best Buy. Ha! Cry some more...