I agree with lots of that, I bet Staples had the chip on the table, people who buy Apple products, most likely are not the kind of people who shop at staples, ( Not ALL, but most of the people who buy Apple are consumers, not power or business users ),
Your experience and mine are very different. The Staples I am familiar with have large student customer bases, at least judging by the people I see there. And my nephew, who being a student, knows these things. Plus - small business owners. Students tend to have much higher Apple ownership rates than the general public. And Apple is making strong inroads into the small business sector.
so I bet Apple took a hit with this, Staples has never showed any interest in Selling Apple gear, but they have almost 3000 stores, so I bet its a chain Apple wanted in.
Apple can't make their Macs fast enough. Apple does not need to share their markup with Staples. Buy an Apple product at an Apple Store, and Apple gets all the profit.... plus, much more importantly, the follow up visits and sales. Plus they get the marketing info from the sale (i.e. the data that comes from processing the credit card yourself.)
Which I feel is silly, the retailer already paid for the product, if the retailer wants to sell it for less, why not?
That is the proof that Staples went to Apple. Apple simply told them that they'd be happy to allow Staples the privilege of selling Apple products, after they sign the contract with the following conditions.....
Which is very common in the retail trade. Apple is doing nothing wrong or unusual here... it happens all the time. Retailers may have all sorts of conditions put on the goods that they sell. Welcome to real world of a "free market" economy.
Exactly, I own Apple products btw, and I think its the same cheap junk that everyone else sells you, it just happens to look cooler.
I've had a different experience.
They sell on the impression of quality, its the same built by chinese slave labor that everything else is,
Not that old story again.... these are the 'slaves' who are paid well above average, who will travel from the countryside to the city (for which you have to get permission first) and wait in line for a job. Who can then return back to their rural villages after a few years and start up a family or small business with the money they earned and saved working as a 'slave'. Relative to their own culture, they are better off than many Americans.
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Indeed, but Staples isn't wal mart, I highly doubt they are selling iToys at a loss to bring people in, they already are growing and have inreased profits, they have little reason to sell iToys at a loss.
No, not a at loss - maybe, or maybe they are... but it is the other things that they sell with the Mac that earns the profit. See below.....
Desktops and laptops are usually sold at a loss ($50) while on sale, and at cost when not on sale. This is why when you walk into Staples they try to sell you on accessories for your computer or software like MS Office. For them to break even or profit on a computer sale, they need to sell about $250-$300 in accessories and software or warranty. This is why some managers will step in on a computer sale to make it difficult to buy. Now Staples has changed their policy where they don't push all the accessories as hard because customers were giving 1-2 feedback scores.
Printers were marked up moderately, although most people will at least buy an extra toner cartridge or case of paper to help with being profitable.
If we ran the reports at end of day, we could see how good or bad we did on computer/printer profits by running a report and seeing what additional items were on the receipts when such device was purchased.
Another, and obviously informed, opinion of what I have been saying.
