Best Buy's Mac Sale Over

[MacRumors]

With early hints at only modest sales at Apple stores, it comes as a surprise that Best Buy's Mac sale appears to be over. The retailer's site no longer shows the $100-$150 discounts on new Macs.

At this time MacMall sales (chart) remain in effect. Official U.S. Apple Black Friday sales should be published later tonight but it appears that modest ($100) discounts will only extend to the iMac and MacBook.

Update: The sale was only intended until Wednesday night.

Article Link: BestBuy's Mac Sale Over?

[840quadra]

Well so much for planning on taking advantage of this on Friday. But, I don't believe the item I was after was going to be on sale anyway. Curious to hear about the sales totals though.

[caffeinejoe]

Wow!! That was quick. Looks like it will have to be the Apple store for me.

[mkrishnan]

On a scale of one to evil, how evil am I that I kind of want Best Buy to go out of business? I mean, slowly, so that all the people who work for them can be absorbed back into the economy, and all, but ultimately disappear forever?

[Mac Brown]

Interesting. I wonder if BB is gearing up for bigger discount on Macs tomorrow.

Would rather have the money go directly to Apple anyway. Hopefully we'll see some competitive discounts.

[Mykbibby]

Originally Posted by caffeinejoe

Wow!! That was quick. Looks like it will have to be the Apple store for me.

That's the reason Apple pulled it...

[darwinian]

The BB sale plus no tax in NH saved me about 250 bucks on a new MBP. Minus the 7 for filling up my friend's gas tank, and dinner for $30, I saved 213 bucks, which is better than nothing! My understanding of this sale, from our local ad in MA, was that it was to end yesterday.

Originally Posted by Mac Brown

Interesting. I wonder if BB is gearing up for bigger discount on Macs tomorrow.

Would rather have the money go directly to Apple anyway. Hopefully we'll see some competitive discounts.

I don't think they'd do that, because they know they'd get a huge backlash from annoyed customers.

[xamkil83]

I thought the discounts would at least continue through "Black Friday". They are not listing any new prices on the mac line for "Black Friday" which is really disappointing. For once I had planed to buy a new MBP somewhere other than the Apple Store, not any more.

[skucera]

Did anyone actually look at the print ad? It was clearly a "4 days only" sale, from Sunday through Wednesday. Why am I the only one not surprised the sale is over when it was supposed to end?

[Robb315]

The flyer that came out with the sale on Sunday said it was only a pre-thanksgiving sale for four days only anyhow.

skucera beat me to the punch.

[arn]

Originally Posted by skucera

Did anyone actually look at the print ad? It was clearly a "4 days only" sale, from Sunday through Wednesday. Why am I the only one not surprised the sale is over when it was supposed to end?

you are correct. my mistake.

arn

[Mac Brown]

Would love to see Apple offer some Mac Mall price matching now that BB's sale is over. Anyone talked to a sales rep about it?

[Shasterball]

Hmmm, that was quick. With Bestbuy hurting so much, I would have thought it would last till Friday....

[swb1192]

i was going to wait until friday to buy my new macbook, but i'm glad i bought it yesterday!

maybe they will do another sale on black friday? i guess we'll find out...

[seashellz]

credit is near frozen-stores cant buy new stock=less sales=less liquidity=no credit=etc Maybe they owed APPLE money. too late to unprint flyers which are usually planned/done 2 weeks before

I heard when SONY got wind of CC closing 155 stores-they ground everything to a dead halt-called delivery trucks back, stopped warehouse stock pick n pull.
BB may have little of no credit-just whats in the warehouse-and whoever will still sell to them. Now SONY is stuck with possible excess inventory

But suddenly banks dont want to lend because they fear bankruptcy-like CC going totally down the hole-which also is why they are canceling thousands of low balance credit cards-they are afraid people will max and run. Other people find themselves with 30-40% interest!
Still other people get mail telling them their $50,000 credit card limit has been cut to $10,000.
Until Helicopter Ben prints up another billion or so-for the underclasses-all we are doing is paying off the big banks debt for them

[sgntscrawn]

Originally Posted by Mykbibby

That's the reason Apple pulled it...

Err... Best Buy finished the sale, not Apple. If you're suggesting Apple has a hand in how much Best Buy is allowed to sell their products for, then that would be a breach of any anti-competitive trading laws in any country that I know of.

Apple can only recommend prices and exert some sort of control by having a high cost price for retailers.

[dacreativeguy]

who cares. They didn't even have the best prices anyway. Amazon seems to be the best deal around right now for the newest Macs with rebates, no shipping costs, and no tax. BB was at least $100 higher for the Macbook I just bought from Amazon.

[retroneo]

Originally Posted by sgntscrawn

Err... Best Buy finished the sale, not Apple. If you're suggesting Apple has a hand in how much Best Buy is allowed to sell their products for, then that would be a breach of any anti-competitive trading laws in any country that I know of.

Apple can only recommend prices and exert some sort of control by having a high cost price for retailers.

While resale price maintenance is illegal in many countries, this behaviour is common and openly practiced in the USA. Apple calls it the 'minimum advertised price' (MAP) Guidelines.

Such practices would lead to a very high profile conviction, and lengthy jail terms here.

Australia has criminal charges with lengthy jail terms for this practice. MAP Guidelines are taken most seriously here with high profile prosecutions, imprisonment and massive fines of small business owners and large company directors alike.

[YMark]

Originally Posted by retroneo

While price fixing is illegal in many countries, this behaviour is common and openly practiced in the USA.

Very true. Oakley sunglasses come to mind.

[McShizzel]

Wow that was fast.

[matticus008]

Originally Posted by retroneo

While price fixing is illegal in many countries, this behaviour is common and openly practiced in the USA.

No, it's not.

Apple calls it the 'minimum advertised price' (MAP) Guidelines.

Which affects you only if you're participating in an authorized reseller program and receiving a sales and marketing allowance from Apple. Participation in such a program is not mandatory.

Australia has criminal charges with lengthy jail terms for this practice. MAP Guidelines are taken most seriously here with high profile prosecutions, imprisonment and massive fines of small business owners and large company directors alike.

The MAP Guidelines are in effect in Australia. No convictions.

What you're describing isn't price fixing, but rather low retailer margins. The wholesale price of Apple products is discounted less than 10% over retail price, which is why retailers don't vary more than $50-100 from the Apple store price.

Merchants are not prohibited from greater discounts by any price fixing scheme--you could buy Apple computers as a reseller and then slap a $250 discount on them if you wanted. The only consequence would be that you would never make a profit.

If you buy milk at $3.25 wholesale, and your supplier sells it retail at $3.50, you're going to have to price your milk somewhere between the two for profit. That's the market at work, not price fixing.

[retroneo]

Originally Posted by matticus008

Which affects you only if you're participating in an authorized reseller program and receiving a sales and marketing allowance from Apple. Participation in such a program is not mandatory.

This is precisely the kind of agreement I'm referring to and it is not allowed here. Apple does not use MAP guidelines here. Suggesting they do is a big accusation.

For more information:

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item....aintenance.pdf

It's in plain English and straight from the regulator. They call it resale price maintenance. From the doc, it's one of their "largest areas of litigation."

[synth3tik]

Originally Posted by mkrishnan

On a scale of one to evil, how evil am I that I kind of want Best Buy to go out of business? I mean, slowly, so that all the people who work for them can be absorbed back into the economy, and all, but ultimately disappear forever?

I give that an evil rating of -4. Best Buy deserves to parish. All they are is a bunch of scam artists IMO.

[SWLinPHX]

Originally Posted by xamkil83

I thought the discounts would at least continue through "Black Friday". They are not listing any new prices on the mac line for "Black Friday" which is really disappointing. For once I had planed to buy a new MBP somewhere other than the Apple Store, not any more.

What about MacMall? The MacBook Pro is discounted $250 off the regular retail price and $150 less than they just had it for (that I just bought this month!). The final $100 off is a rebate, but the POS price is still substantially reduced. Of course they have no tax and free shipping too, not to mention a lot of freebies (like cases and printers) along with a computer purchase.

I just bought the one they are discounting from them this month (haven't even used it yet). I wonder if I call them as a long-time customer for years in good standing they will refund the difference to me.

[matticus008]

Originally Posted by retroneo

This is precisely the kind of agreement I'm referring to and it is not allowed here.

No, you're not. No one is establishing a minimum mandated price.

The PDF you supplied states quite explicitly that businesses can set their own prices, and that suppliers are permitted to recommend prices.

Nothing is stopping any merchant from setting their prices below the MAP level except profitability. Any retailer can sell any Apple product for any price they wish--even below cost, to a certain extent. Turning directly to the statute in question, if a retailer continually dumps products below wholesale (loss leading), the supplier is explicitly permitted to reduce or terminate supplies. Any Australian (or anywhere else) merchant is free to sell Apple products at cost or above however they so please.

Please indicate where a mandated minimum price is occurring. Hint: there isn't one.

Apple does not use MAP guidelines here. Suggesting they do is a big accusation.

Yes, they do, and no, it is no accusation. Apple uses MAP guidelines in every market where they sell goods--if the label "Authorized Reseller" exists, MAP guidelines are in use. MAP is not MMRP, which is price maintenance.

It's in plain English and straight from the regulator. They call it resale price maintenance.

Yes, it is, and reading it would be helpful for you.