margin desperation? That's what it looks like to me.

I've heard a lot of flowing reports the last few days about the increase in sales for the season. But at what margin?? I think after the shopping season has ended, you will hear a lot of retailers singing the blues. I can't see that the sales are going to do them much good if they are not making enough to cover the overhead and make a profit. The huge markdowns that have been advertised on some items go get folks into the store are giving shoppers the idea that they don't have to pay retail.

Not a good business idea. You can't operate at a loss for any length of time. They will not beat Amazon at that game.

Let me guess Best Buy???

At Thanksgiving I asked them to match Amazon and they told me no. With gift cards in my pocket and mrsmortgage refusing to let me walk I purchased anyway. Only to find it at a lower price online with Best Buy. I marched my ass back in chewed their ass and got the lower price. Then when it was marked down later I got it at that lower price on their 60 day guarantee. And I won't go back. And I think I'm gonna short the asshats to zero.

Tmd: Yep.

And it's very likely to really***** off customers when they find out later too.

I noticed this at the grocery store yesterday as I have had to go just about every day this week. I was shocked when I had to pay the same price for store brand 6 eggs as I did for a dozen the day before!

Didn't Best Buy just get in trouble for canceling Black Friday orders at the last minute - AFTER some customers had been told the items had already shipped?

-------------------------------------------------------

Although I ignore most familial social obligations, some relatives are simply too young to hate - so I buy them crap at the last minute. This morning I picked up a small batch of toys, marked down to 50%, at a deep discount store. At checkout, I was charged 30% of the already-marked-down price. I'm not great with arithmetic, but that's a big-ass discount. Surprised, I was told this was not an accident, even though the new reduction was not advertised or posted. Is this desperation, or is the store just flushing inventory out as quickly as possible?

Wal-Mart does this blatantly and without any remorse, and has done so for years. I have brought printouts from their online store timestamped within a half hour, and even loaded up their OWN webpage on a demo device in front of them; the register monkeys solidly refuse to honor the online price. You can take it up the chain to the store manager, too, and they'll all spout that same line.

You can "pick up in-store" at the online price, but they may not pull you any shelf stock - you could wait for a week or so for them to ship additional units.

Save Money. Live Better. Or... not so much.

I don't give them any business. Best Buy has been on my blacklist for a while too. Looks like this is another great reason...

Merry Christmas SCAMerica!

I don't think it's wise to translate however much you're*****ed off at a retailer for ANYthing they did into shorting their stock.

Think of all the "empty restaurant" and "full parking lot" stories and anecdotes over the years. Frankly, I have found most of it to be interesting chit-chat but useless blather when it comes to stock picking.

I will say, however, that the move in the higher-end retailers off the 2009 bottom was jaw-dropping. Of course, the move off the bottom from the lows in 2009 by Dow Chemical and Caterpillar and LVS and Prudential and HIG and about 400 others was jaw dropping.

The champion, as far as I'm concerned, was VCI. That was about a 30-bagger.

This Christmas will mark the beginning of the end for Best Buy. After personally getting rat****ed by them this year (I ordered a computer from BestBuy.com on 12/16 and paid for expedited shipping....and it's still not here. Website says it is "at the warehouse in the process of being shipped), I personally will NEVER buy anything from them again.

And if you read through the comments from the yahoo story on it, I'm not alone. TV stations in No Cal and So Cal have runstories about their shipping problems on the evening news.

It will be interesting to look at their Q4 financials to see how they account for all the returns and refunds. I'll bet they show growth in their gross sales...and play hide the sausage with the refunds and returns.

I ****ing hate them.

Most smartphones today have an app available to scan a barcode and show a list of resellers for that item (ie, Win Phone 7.5 has this built-in), sometimes quoting prices at the store you are physically in. If people to this and see lower prices, the stores will get called on it, AND people will be encouraged to do the checking EVEN MORE in the future.

Back in 2001, my wife was in NY and needed a hotel room. The price quoted at the registration desk for a walk-in was high. She called me on the phone and I found it online for a lot less, booked it and gave her the confirmation #, after which she walked up to the desk again and checked in at a lower rate. There simply is no way to get away with this for a savvy consumer that has a capable net device in hand (or a phone to call someone that can search the web).

I have luck in that there is a Fry's in town. Their prices are often pretty good and BB will match local retailers.

Better yet, I have Amazon Prime, which has just as good prices, I get it in two days and I don't have to deal with traffic, parking and half of the knuckle-dragging mouthbreathers who work in the store.

It can't last forver, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

Gamma I'm not gonna short them cause I hate them. I'm gonna short them because everyone is gonna hate them.

It was very easy for me to guess which retailer from my experience. And then add that they can't deliver online purchases. Well they seem like a mess to me. But they sure run a nice showroom floor for Amazon.

Meh, I spent about $13.00 on "Christmas shopping" this year.

Oh, and did I mention they're doing a buy 1, get one free deal on I-phones today? I received this offer via email and here it is on Business Insider:

Quote:

You Won't Believe The Sale Best Buy Has On The iPhone Today

best buy iphone 4s sale



This is one way to finally get people in Best Buy's door.

The electronics retailer is having a sale for today only that gets you a free iPhone 4 when you buy a 32 GB model. (In stores only.)

Wow.

The sale ends at 5 p.m. local time, so hurry up!

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-....]

There is nothing like the smell of desperation at Christmas.

What's to stop people from doing the following...?

0. Find a great item, cheap, with free ship-to-store on Waldomart.com. Note the price.
1. Go buy the item at the local Waldomart, ignoring the price (be sure the UPC #'s match.) Double your pleasure, double your fun: Use your credit card!
2. Go back home and order the online item using free ship-to-store, at the lower online price (assuming the difference is large enough to make it worth the trouble.) Use that damn credit card again.
3. Give the gift acquired in step 1 to the loved one, or put it to use at home. Whatever...
4. When the ship-to-store item arrives, go to Waldomart, pick up the item and take it out to your car, remove all the shipping boxes/packing material, walk straight back in to the return counter with the unopened inner package, and return it on the receipt received in step 1. You pocket the difference.
5. (Optional/extra credit) After you get the refund, tell the local Waldomart manager what you did. Explain why.

Yes, it's a waste of some of your time, but if you need the item now, you need it. If the savings are substantial, then it's worth your time.

If Waldomart corp. is that stupid, it deserves what it gets. Not only have you acquired the item at the lower price, but Waldomart incurred much higher costs for the transaction than if they'd honored the online price in-store in the first place. Credit-card fees, employee time, shipping, you name it.

( ^--- that's Waldomart up front there, taking a 'return'. )

(And yes, you can return the ship-to-store stuff at the local store, no questions asked.)

If you shop at the local Waldomart store anyway, you're going to be going there often enough so that the extra trip isn't really extra.

Oh, and you can do pretty much the same thing if you bought the jacked-up priced item at the store and came home to find out the online version is much cheaper (if they won't refund the difference at the store when you show them the online price) -- just order the UPC-matching item with the free shipping, when it arrives, return it on the original receipt. Waldomart matches returns using the UPC that's listed on the receipt, and the inner package is unopened, so...

I see no reason why the same technique wouldn't work with Burst Buy, or any clicks-and-mortar retailer. As long as the return window isn't so short that you can't receive the ship-to-store item soon enough to do it that way (Waldomart is fine, but Burst Buy might be tougher -- 30 days? or 15 for computers?)

Best Buy won't be missed.

Had this happen at macy's yesterday. They had a 14k gold ring with a 1.5ct aquamarine center stone and .1 in diamonds around it online for $199 said through 1/2. Went to the store, range up at $309. I had to bring them a print out, but they did change the price.

Fry's Electronics has done this to me twice, refusing to match their online price. There will be no third time, I refuse to go back. Between Amazon, New Egg, Tiger Direct and sometimes eBay, I can usually find the part and have it delivered cheaper than the store price.

I won't miss Fry's Electronics and Best Buy when they are gone. Haven't missed Compu USA either.



Bsfootprint - In most cases you can't buy & return if the item has a unique serial number. Most electronics have a unique serial number and you can't return another item with a different serial, but same UPC. It will work for most anything else.

Best Buy has long been on my **** list after a bad Black Friday experience ten years ago or more. And I understand they have a very restrictive return policy today as well.

I've since learned I can buy the same or better stuff at about 80% of Best Buy's best price online... and skip the sales tax on top of that!

Won't miss Best Buy one bit.

Lowes.com lost my invoice and I asked for a replacement invoice to be mailed or sent. Instead, they replaced my entire order and the invoice for free. Lowes had an excellent Black Friday sale tool sale as it was. This amounted to a buy one black Friday sale, get one free. :) Also, items sold to me without an original box or a severely damaged box was discounted at 50%. Occupy WS said that Lowes was a good company to buy from, so I spent my money there. I'm sorry that not everyone had such a great shopping experience this year. I got the tools that I really needed FINALLY this year. It's a good thing too because I bought an apartment building at tax sale this year.

Thanks for the tip, I'll check out the prices on my Iphone as soon as I finish dodging the fist fights, riots, gunfire, and stampeding mahogany crowds trying to nail me a pair of Air Jordans! Booyaaa!

BTW, I caught Best Buy marking up in store prices vs online last year, haven't been back since.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I tried to do a price match at Lowe's using a BB price on a dishwasher. The Lowe's people told me I had to bring a printout of the BB ad. When I tried to print the ad from their website the price would not print. I tried everything I knew to get it to print but it would not show the price. I finally did a "print screen" but it was so small the Lowe's people couldn't see it. I finally convinced them to actually look at the BB website to see the price.

Lots of games going on in retail land right now. Of course, all the consumer protection agencies have been emasculated and the cost to bring a private lawsuit has become prohibitive.

I've had this happen at office depot.