Best Buy and Toys R' Us Selling iPads on Sunday

[Scott6666]

BestBuy no stock at all

Just came back from my morning shopping...

The BestBuy ad is a total debacle. I was at the store in Rockville, MD at 10:30; by 11am there were about a dozen people looking for an iPad.

NO stock at all. Just reservations (for $100).

People were hopping mad and venting (nicely) to the manager. Lots of talk about lost customer and never shopping there again. I thought the memo said "avoid customer disappoints". It's all they seemed to have done.

I'm surprised more people aren't posting upset. I guess it shows how few people think BB is still relevant.

===

And BTW, I ran into Walt Mossberg at the Rockville Microcenter and mentioned it to him. Maybe he'll write a little bit about it.

 

[ChrisTX]

LOL! I always knew that the ipad was just a toy. Now Toys R Us are selling them, HOW APPROPRIATE.

I guess now days everyones a comedian. Stevamundo ladies and gentleman!

And on topic, The Apple Store, is always your best bet for anything apple. They tend to stock plenty of iPads, so long as you get there when they open.

 

[pkagel]

Toys R Us is where I bought my C-64 back in the day and I'm pretty sure I got my TI99-4/a there before that. I'd buy an iPad at Toys R Us, why the heck not.

I guess you're too young to remember Children's Palace or the Sears Christmas catalog Used to be that's where you'd go to browse, play with, and buy your Atari 400 or Vic-20.


Back to the present: hold on to your hat, this is going to blow you away, but Toys R Us already sells...the iPod Touch!!!!
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4488309&searchURL=true

I don't know why you would expect them to not also sell its big brother, the hottest toy / gadget to be found? It's for kids, you know?

 

[Stevamundo]

Toys R' Us? I though they only sold video games and...toys!?

They do. LOL!

 

[W1MRK]

Went to BB today in the Lake Geneva WI. 12pm No Luck - did not ask why. I knew the answer.

 

[FlameofAnor]

I'm fine with Best Buy... but Radio Shack & Toys "R" Us, not so much.

Why? Who cares where you buy it.... they all carry the same Apple warranty, regardless.

Radio Shack has carried Apple products previously, and it's pretty obvious that the iPad makes a great gaming device.... Why not Toys "R" Us?

 

[Bubba Satori]

Magic.
As long as Dollar General and Big Lots don't sell them.
Their customers are real knuckle draggers.
Stay tuned.

 

[MacNewsFix]

Funny being on the sidelines for once....

....and watching the retail pandaemonium Apple brings with its popular products. Simply amazing.

While admittedly many of its advances are pretty nice, and after playing with one for 15 minutes at MicroCenter, I'm sticking with my generation 1 iPad and waiting until iPad 3 comes out.

I like how the new version is much snappier and how pages in Safari don't have to reload so often (plus no checkerboard). However, for me, I'd have to be pretty impatient to just update for those reasons alone. Every iteration is going to likely improve on these points.

The one thing that really tempts me is form factor. The decrease in width makes a noticeable improvement in handling the device. I didn't think the .2 lbs shaved off would make a difference, but it does. I guess when you're dealing with devices already incredibly light, even a .2 lb difference is notable.

As much as I hate to admit it, the new cover is pretty slick. I look forward to seeing what third parties dream up.

Still, in the end, I'm waiting for iPad 3, which will probably have a higher res screen. Besides a better media experience, it opens doors for app developers due to more real estate. Also, by that time, I will have ditched my Android for an iPhone 5 making the iPad camera and Facetime more useful. 4G may even be an option by then.

For those looking for the iPad 2, good luck. If you have never had an iPad, I think you'll find your efforts worth it. I know people love to throw the term around, but it really is a game changer.

 

[uruseiranma]

Figured it sounded too good to be true.

I checked with the Best Buy in my neighborhood, and I'm #3 on the list of iPad2 reserves for the 32gb/Wifi-only. Figured if I didn't receive a call from them today, they didn't get jack.

The thing that's just bugging me is I've spent 3 weeks trying to sell my 16gb ipad 2 AT&T model on eBay, and I still can't sell this turkey in the US! This must be some cosmic joke that is telling me, 'Hahaha! You paid more for your 32gb iPad2...you're never going to be able to make enough extra to pay off your guilt!!"

 

[gutefahrt]

I bought one at the BB in Santa Fe, NM on Wednesday.

I live in Albuquerque, and both stores here have had no inventory over the last month. I drove the 40 minutes (75 MPH speed limit) after the Santa Fe store confirmed over the phone they had some 16's & 4 64 WiFi's.

 

[joliver97]

BEST BUY ipad = FALSE ADVERTISING

BEST BUY does not have the ipad on stock. The program they launched today - from their ad is you have to go to the store and pay $100 for a deposit so you can order a unit. They do not have any units on stock. You might as well go directly to apple.com and order from them.

They put the ipad on their front ads but do not have even a single unit on stock. Everyone waiting in line this morning here was disappointed at our local Best Buy store.

 

[techweenie]

Toys R Us have been a retailer since day 1. There is no broadening here. And using multiple retail outlets means that Apple is not limited in the territories it covers with its own store chain. That is why since day 1, multiple retail chains have carried the iPad 2.

Well aware of the other outlets, but not Toys R Us. So why is this story presented as news?

 

[roocka]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

If they are increasing distribution points, it means that Apple is producing more volume and is able to better stock each distribution point. If Apple for exMpke was shipping ten iPads per day to each best but, front think that because they are adding toys r us, that best buy is losing any of their shipments. It just means that apple is producing more product and is able to ship that product to more retailers.

 

[Roessnakhan]

Waited at Best Buy an hour before they opened to get one, even after reading a few messages in this thread about it only being reservations (call it dumb optimism). Unfortunately, same situation with reservations. Went to the Apple Store and they had ~16 iPads in the configuration I wanted (16GB WiFi, 6 black and 10 white). Should have just tried the Apple Store first.

 

[paja]

Toys R' Us

Toys R' Us?

I find it kind of embarrassing that Apple is choosing this as an outlet.

 

[Slix]

This would be cool... if I ever went to Toys 'R' Us.

 

[smaffei]

Toys 'R' Us sold lots of computer stuff...

They also sold the Atari computer back in 1988

Try back further than that, they sold the Atari 1200XL back in 1983. They sold Atari and C64 software all the way into the early 90s. But, back in those days, most people considered computers to be hobbyist toys. Hence, that's why Toys 'R' Us sold them. K-mart also sold Atari and Commodore home computers. Ah, those were the golden years of computing.

 

[smaffei]

Just don't get it...

Toys R' Us?

I find it kind of embarrassing that Apple is choosing this as an outlet.

This will become the must have kid present this year. What's the matter? Not feeling so elitist anymore? It's about an iPad in every pot.

 

[Ronlap]

My Best Buy ad in the heart of the silicon valley leads with Dynex flat panels and there is absolutely no mention of iPad anywhere in the circular.

 

[NeroAZ]

Checked here loacally in Phoenix, AZ

and was told only a (Toys R Us) store in Tucson and one in Avondale will be carrying them. but niether had any in.

Best Buy only reserved..

Target, scored a white 64GB wifi for wife.

 

[stukick]

So let me get this straight...Best Buy puts the iPad 2 on the front of this weeks circular, but doesn't actually have them? You're putting down $100 for a reservation? Bait and switch, false advertising anyone, since there's no mention of that in the ad?

 

[roadbloc]

I don't know why you would expect them to not also sell its big brother, the hottest toy / gadget to be found? It's for kids, you know?

I thought Toys R Us sold cheap plastic toys for kids. I'm obviously mistaken.

 

[*LTD*]

I thought Toys R Us sold cheap plastic toys for kids. I'm obviously mistaken.

Times have changed. Then again, They've always sold electronics. I remember getting stuff there for my Commodore64 back in the 80s.

http://www.toysrus.ca/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=2567324

I think we're a bit fooled by the "Toys" in Toys R US.

"Toy" is also a pretty subjective term.

This was my winter "toy" when I was younger:

 

[marksman]

Good luck to you guys. As far as stocks for the general population, what a completely botched release by Apple.
In Australia I've checking Apple.com.au regularly. Initially after the first handful were released, their web site has shown 3-4 weeks, that was up for 2 weeks, then dropped to 2-3 weeks, which has now been up for 2 weeks+
Be nice to have some sort of very rough idea!!

How is selling every device you make instantly a botched release?

 

[marksman]

I'm confused. Are iPad 2s in short supply or not? If they cannot be found at multiple Apple stores, why is Apple broadening distribution to Toys R us?

As someone else mentioned it broadens their supply chain and availablity when they are able to fill the channels with product. The iPad2 is selling faster than anticipated and faster than they can make them. They likely had a contract from the get go to bring Toys R Us into the supply chain at this time long before the iPad 2 was launched. They expected more supply at that time and wanted to broaden their exposure. Since they are partnering with Toys R Us, they don't just say, "Ah tough luck. We are selling them too fast, so we know we agreed to have you be able to sell them, but whatcha going to do." That is not how you treat business partners.

So they open up the channels and let it go. It is not like a national retailer puts a new product on the shelf, especially one like this, with 3 days notice. It takes time for them to get them into their system and their own distribution channels. Not to mention advertising and promotion and the rest.

Broadening distribution -- whether new territories or new outlets in established territories -- usually follows a slow down in sales growth.

Exactly, but you have to plan ahead for such things. Apple figured by now they would have enough excess supply to fill those channels. Sales have been better than anticipated.