As much as Best Buy screws consumers out of their money (see the post about these places charging ridiculous amounts of money for computers that are "pre setup" and not honoring ad prices), a little taste of their own medicine is rather amusing.

so is that why a 1gb stick of 600mhz ram costs $140? or are they just super inflating so that they can sell geek squad's protection plan?

If they waited until this year to start embezzling, they could've paid a lot less than $2.8 million for their house.

@defeatism: Now that is the kind of business savy that might have saved Circuit City.

Karmic bliss.

Every company must be checking for this now, especially in the electronics area. Seems more widespread than I anticipated.

Way to stick it to the man!

Now...off to jail with you, you pos.

Wow, I'm confused and don't know who to feel sorry for.

@☠Grяrяrяrяrяrяrя. Another year older and deeper in debt.: The Best Buy Customers, as always. They are the ones who ended up paying for the inflated costs. Now BB is going to get some kind of compensation for this, get product for less, and the customer will not only see a dime from the compensation but will probably pay the same since that has become the standard.

@coloradogray: Not see a dime, rather. The otherway wouldn't make any sense.

Poetic Justice, I guess.

@ttk2:

Nope. It's the classic "mark em' up to mark em' down" scheme. Every other week they go on sale for a closer-to-realistic price.

Example: PNY DDR2 (SKU: 8221453)
Presently on sale for $37.99, normally $134.99, and I guarantee you that's not below their wholesale.

Don't ever buy anything if it's not on sale.

hmmm now i know. Next time i am stuck in a best buy i can confront them.last i asked them last time why the ram was marked up near 200% after just seeing the same product at compusa (our local one rocks wil mach newegg prices) for $7. it was rather sad when i had to tell some one that it was a ripoff.@Ghosx:

Who's next?

In Bush's Amurica, you screw anyone you can, break any rule you can get away with in, stab anyone in the back all in the name of money. That is what our great "leader" has taught us.

@savdavid: I'd like to know where you've been picking this up, because it sounds like great entertainment. Hey, did y'all know Jack Bauer is real?! S'true!

Maybe those Monster Cable prices WERE realistic!

@coloradogray: Well, I think we've already seen that in the grand scheme of things (looking at the bailouts and such), as far as the government and the judicial system are concerned, big corporations and banks rank far above the consumer in importance.

As far as BB goes, I can't muster up any sympathy for the big evil corporation that's trying to screw the consumer out of their hard earned $$$, nor do I feel a bit sorry for the big conglamorate, who, in the course of trying to screw the consumer, got screwed themselves.

But you are correct...ultimately it will be the BB customers who will pay the price.

@defeatism: Nobody ever accused criminals of being smart.

@savdavid:

That mentality has been around since the beginning of time - it's just that the Boomer generation became the most brazen and Bush was the most 'in-your-face' political representation of it.

i honestly tell people to wait until the RAM goes on sale or buy it online. the prices are ridiculous...

first frys, then best buy, i wonder if we will see any more of these stories the next few weeks.....

@endless: I'd count on it

@savdavid: Nothing new here. Not a Bush problem. I worked for a company in 1971 that fired a purchasing agent for the same thing. It's just the news media have suddenly taken an interest in executives ripping off their own companies.

Bush is the first President to lead a country that is soft on white-collar criminals? NO WAI!

Next, you'll tell us that Nixon was the first dishonest President and JFK was the first President to sleep around.

@SMSDHubbard: lol, nice

@Charles Mousseau: Whoops, that was supposed to be in response to savdavid's brilliant revelation into human nature. Still getting used to this place...

@☠Grяrяrяrяrяrяrя. Another year older and deeper in debt.: The ones that get caught aren't smart. The good ones never get caught!

@savdavid: If there's one good thing about Jan. 20, 2009, it's that hopefully posts like this will disappear.

I think some people need counseling, Good Will Hunting style...

"It's not Bush's fault. It's not Bush's fault. It's an electronics store, it's got nothing to do with Bush."
"Don't do this to me, man! Not you!"
"It's not Bush's fault"
"AARRRGH!"

/runs out and slaps inflammatory bumper stickers on car.

@Charles Mousseau: Yeah, you'll learn that many Consumerists have a posting procedure something like this:

1) Read post
2) Skip full article.
3) Look for some radical excuse to blame Bush, Republicans, or "right-wingers"
4) If all else fails, actually make a useful comment.

@InfiniTrent: Priceless!

@savdavid: And the Chicago way is better how?

@savdavid: Another liberal nut job! Where the fuck are these people spawned from? Anyway, wait untill the Obama, Reed, and Pelosi stick it to the American people.

"Bush is the first President to lead a country that is soft on white-collar criminals? NO WAI!"

Uh, no. He WAS the first, however, to openly condone torture. So, you know, he's got that going for him.

Is it just me, or did stuff like this never seem to pop up very often back when the economy was doing "good".

I suppose now that money isn't flowing like a river, companies are actually giving a crap about whether they're getting the screws put to them or not.

@danno50: Another Conservative nut job! They can't screw things up any worst.

Besides what do politics have to do with this. Price fixing and kick backs are old and a reason why as a business you pay your buyers well and keep your buyers and bidders under your thumb.

This should be a business and ethics lecture not a politics one.

@Quilt:

sounds about right.

hate to say it, but during best buys good years 31 million divided by 4 wasnt going to make much of a dent... now days they would feel that a LOT more.

Best Buy used a work at home program called operation ROWE .I'm wondering if that work at home plan had anything to do with this .If your doing nothing but submiting computerized reports not having to face the people you are stealing from I guess it becomes easier .

Somebody caught something because they got the buyer or vendor for Best Buy .

And how DID this discovered scheme affect prices .

@InfiniTrent: Good point. Or they become politicians!

@u1itn0w2day: ROWE isn't about working from home- granted it can incluide working from home, but the few people I know who work for BB and participate in ROWE still go into the office quite a bit.

Either way, a person who knowingly facilitates embezzling against their employer has shitty ethics and would likely have done so regardless of the Results Orientated Work Environment or sitting at a desk 40+ hours a week.

I'm waiting for similar stories to come out regarding our governments, especially local, county, state. There have to be hands in the till everywhere in gummint, and practically nobody's watching. I know of a county gov't in California where the county board keeps voting itself raises--one member got over $50,000 in raises this past year alone.