Best Buy Continues Its Schizo “Dual” Price Strategy + Next Week’s Best HDTV Deals Revealed
Greg Tarr,
October 3, 2009
2 min read
(October 3, 2009) The HD GURU obtained an advanced copy of next week’s Best Buy’s (BB) weekly circular, and thoroughly researched its HDTV weekly “sale” prices to let readers know which models are “real” deals (see the list below). Unfortunately, most of the HDTVs advertised “On Sale” at Best Buy this coming week, actually are priced higher than in the recent past! The website camelbuy.com (LINK) does an excellent job of tracking Best Buy prices.
In addition, BB, known primarily as a “brick and mortar†retailer appears to be continuing its test of a lower “online†HDTV pricing strategy. Next week, prices on select Samsung and Panasonic HDTVs are as much as $300 less on its website than in BBs latest (Oct. 4, 2009-Oct.10, 2009) weekly sale circular.
The following HDTVs are priced lower at bestbuy.com than in its weekly sale advertising. Circular prices are rounded up a penny or two to save space.
Make/Model  Size    Circular   Online     $Difference
Samsung/UN55B8000 55″ $3400 $3009.98        $390
Samsung/LN46B550 46″   $1200 $1059.99        $140 (Now $1159.99 10/4009 on line a $40 difference)
Samsung/LN46B640 46″  $1420 $1319.99        $100
Samsung/PN50B450 46″  $850  $799.99          $50 (Raised 10/4/09, now the same price)
Panasonic/TC-P42X1 42″  $700 $599.99          $100
The following HDTVs are at the lowest price ever at Best Buy, as listed in its 10/4/09-10/10/09 weekly circular.
Make/Model  Size                               Was   Now
Sony/KDL-52Z5100 52″ 240Hz LCD $2800 $1799.99
LG/55LH90 55″ 240Hz LED LCD    $2800 $1999.99
LG/47LH90 47″ 240Hz LED LCD   $2200 $1399.99
You should use the HD Guru Pricegrabber search box (located on the left side column of this page under “Check Prices†or LINK) to get the best “online†deals and/or use Best Buy’s blowout prices to help you get a better price from your local retailer, if that’s from whom you choose to buy. For tips on how to negotiate like a pro, go to our article here (LINK).
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12 Comments
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Don’t mess around. Go into Bestbuy and ask to speak with the TV expert, know the lowest available price and challenge the manager for a deal.
What to think about Panasonic’s dual price strategy!
For a TCP65V10 who is on their own website for 3.995,95 US dollar they ask in Europe “6.300” Euro! This is about 9.000 US dollar. Who is … our hard e
Yes, Best Buy will match our on-line prices. However, when it comes to strictly on-line competitors, its up to managerial/supervisor discretion. Especially when some of these prices are soooo low, the store could essentially be LOSING money by a price match.
Secondly, prices always change Sunday.
I think we should just do away with B&M stores altogether and all TV’s should be sold online @ discounted prices. Better yet, let’s keep the stores, but eliminate all employees. Just the product,a lengthy description, and the price point. Pick it up, pay for it and get out.
This’ll help with the growing amount of “Look off-line, Buy online” consumers who ask home theater employees tons of questions, get pretty reliable answers (depending on the source) , then say “Forget you, I can get this television for 400 bucks less on Amazon, with free shipping, free delivery AND a service plan”. As a home theater associate who likes to think he knows his stuff (I’m humble lol) it feels like a waste of an hour or two to answer hundreds of questions, give thousands of answers, and receive ZERO back from customers. Yeah, it’s great to hear someone say, “Hey man, you know your stuff, and thanks for all the help”, but it doesn’t make up for how much money we just lost to a faceless entity.
Just remember folks, We don’t just ring you up and push you out the door. We’re people too.
I get a hard time getting B&M stores to match B&M stores… they have to see it (duh it’s in the sunday paper you don’t have your competitors ads?), then they have to call them to verify they have it stock. The other store most likely knows its just a price check and they just drag their feet. And it’s not fair to the other store wasting their time checking on stock with no possibility of a sale.
It’s not worth the trouble anymore… just buy it online.
The service is poor, pricing is poor, you pay sales tax… there is almost no reason to shop B&M.
Well, Chris…I guess it’s up to the store …because we do it at Store #377 in Prescott, Az.
@Sean..
Not only that, but we’ll match any website price (plus their tax and shipping fees) on most products!
Oh, Really…. That is a first.. I was always told(not by just BB but other stores) there has to be a “brick and mortar location close by to match”, can not price-match to say newegg, or even Amazon.
Where is your store located.
Forget about differing prices, price history is where it’s at – http://camelbuy.com/
I agree Matt. This is truly the dumbest article I’ve read in a while. What store posts the next weeks sale prices before Sunday in store? If they are still different tomorrow, then you have a story.
So, being a HT specialist at Bestbuy, I can tell you that we always match our on-line prices. Not only that, but we’ll match any website price (plus their tax and shipping fees) on most products! It’s worth mentioning that often times our website will have higher prices than our circular.
Most of the time we will have a much larger selection than Sears and we (at least our store) will offer you 10% off if you apply for our credit card to match. Maybe 1% of our products would ever take a whole month to deliver, if we have it in stock, we advertise next day delivery!
Ask any associate to look up any stores advertised price in the store and we will match.
Check your info. Best Buy’s AD prices Change on SUNDAYS… meaning your “online price” on Saturday will be SATURDAYS price, and your circular will be SUNDAYS price.
Maybe check the online price on SUNDAY. being a “guru” i would think that you might know when the week starts, and ends, or at least be able to figure out that IF the circular starts TOMORROW, maybe todays online prices are TODAYS prices, not Tomorrows.
Bestbuy.com raised on line prices on just two models Sunday, and only the PN50B450 is the same price in the weekly circular and on line. The rest are still cheaper on line than in the weekly “sale” circular. I have made changes to reflect the new pricing.
HD GURU
Regarding the LG 47LH90 47″ @ $1399.99 at BB:
I bought two of these from Sears at my local retail store on Sep-20-09 @ $1599 (less %10 for using a Sears credit card) plus tax and $65 delivery. This was a better deal than BB’s price at the time and BB’s delivery time was one month.
Sears delivered them the next day. Sears generally doesn’t match free delivery offers.
Last Saturday (Sep-26-09) I noticed at ~8:15PM EST that Sears had a web special from 9PM Saturday to 9AM Sunday (9PM is when the stores close here, except in the MST and PST zones) for these @ $1399.
I called the local store at 8:15PM but they gave me 27 arguments why this was a web-only price.
If you read the fine print in Sears’s terms and conditions, they will match any unit of Sears price as long as it doesn’t say “Web Only” and the sale is for more than 6 hours.
I went into the store on Sunday morning and heard the same arguments. I wanted to show them the their fine print but they didn’t even want to read it once they saw the print-out in my hand.
They gave me the price difference credit on the spot.
I think it’s just an example of the continuing erosion of language by marketing / advertising types. Of course, everything in the BB store is ‘On Sale’ – the only reason they exist is to sell you things, so all their goods are for sale / on sale. The only reason to go to a bricks and mortar store is to do side by side comparisons and you can’t trust them to do that truthfully most of the time. Decide what you want, then shop around online. If you manage to find it in a physical store at a fair price, well done, but don’t believe ads or flyers.