Best Buy: -$50 Off Camera Anti-Sale
Jameson snapped this photo of a camera "sale" at an Illinois Best Buy.
Lucky customers who saw the original $699 price and held off on purchasing it in hopes of a better deal have been rewarded by getting to pay an extra $50.
Perhaps the spectacular savings are likely due to Best Buy being cognizant of how the economy is doing so well, recognizing that folks are flush with spending money and would like to kick in a little extra for their gizmos.
Or, the camera price had been reduced by the individual store, but then a new sale came down from corporate that was predicated on an original list price of $799. The store computers then put three elements together:
1. $50 off
2. old price
3. new "sale price" based on the numbers from corporate
and combined them on one tag. But even though a computer made it up, someone had to put that tag on the shelf. Though there's a plausible explanation, it's not a wise business practice. It's confusing to customers and looks like you're being disingenuous. Best Buy is by no means unique, we've seen this sort of thing at several different kinds of stores. Seems like an industry practice worth reconsidering.
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Comments:
hmmm.... kinda looks like a Circuit City sale sign... but clearly it's in a Best Buy... I'm confused!!
Maybe the $749 price tag includes free installation of the memory card by the Geek Squad. Or maybe they will open the box for you and optimize the camera?
Whoever created that sign must of thought it was opposite day when they made it.
*facepalm*
If anybody's going to buy that camera, I suggest asking the associate for the "was" price, since it's cheaper, and it's advertised.
@plamoni: Don't be silly, for the $50, the Geek squid will open the box and check for bricks, charge the battery and properly place them in the camera, place the correct memory card in the camera, take a few pictures to ensure the CCD is properly calibrated. They will also include some pr0n0 on the memory card.
It's amazing how people who put these signs out don't actually read them. Back in the day when I worked at the big blue box, I used to catch at least 5 screw-ups with signage every Sunday.
@techgoddess: Only .002 cents per byte: I believe that's a Canon Rebel XSI. If anyone is going to buy that camera I suggest they go to Amazon or Newegg where it's significantly cheaper.
On a side note, I love my XSI. :)
So many items get priced that computer errors do occur. We have all lost count at the number of times Target has done the same.
However, I agree that the scary part is a Best Buy employee put this sign up and didn't even notice. Same with Target. How do staffers not see stuff like this? It speaks volumes to the quality of employee these retailers are attracting.
It was probably $749, now $699.
But can't people read, you print the label, and then read it to double check it to make sure it's correct.
Maybe they charge $50 for Geek Squad to optimize it.
"Save" signs like those are actually store created, so whoever made that just sucks at math.
I really want to know if the people who take these pics actually goto a store associate about it to attempt to have it fixed... mistakes do happen you know.
if(prior_price < current_price)
{ do_not_print_sale_sign();}
else {print_sale_sign();}
//problem solved
I've seen worse. Still...a store with heavy inventory and inventory turnover the likes of best buy often makes mistakes like this (including forgetting to remove sale signs when they expire...though those have dates on them in small print).
My favorite is when best buys actually horde stuff in the stockroom and don't put it on the floor (not because employees want it but because they're too lazy to make a price sticker). But that's what you get when you pay people minimum wage; no pride in their work.
@PLATTWORX: It's quite simple. A low-paid employee puts out all the tags and sees some errors. Chances are this is at night when the store is closing and it's late.
Now, he has to either take the wrong tags back to whomever is printing them, have them fix them, and then go back out on the floor to put the correct signs out before he can go home.
Or he just puts out the wrong cards and goes home at 10:00 instead of 11:00.
It's quite possible that that person could catch all the errors and bring them back to be fixed but if you make lousy pay and you have to reprice 100 items that are all over the store, you aren't really going to apply yourself to the task.
@Hooray4Zoidberg: But if you leave it out it gives you the chance to upsell BestBuy on it later. ;-)
The $50 savings is after factoring in $100 for the Geek Squad to "optimize" the camera.
@techgoddess: Only .002 cents per byte:
now would be the time for a return since they give you back lowest price.
@zwizer25: And then the employee "associate" shrugs because he knows he can't fix it and if he goes to his boss about it, they'll just shrug.
@pmcpa4:
Yeah, hate to say but thats not a BBY sales sign. They always have the gaudy yellow sticker picture on them; just have sale written above. No orange/red sale signs for BBY.
@Pandare: I'm glad I'd just swallowed my mouthful of soda before I read that. Thanks for the giggle.
the problem is several areas
1. the people putting the signs out have so many cards that they don't have time to digest what every one means. it can easily be hundreds per person for a week ad.
2. the people making the cards don't have time to digest what every one means. the computer does most of it. they spend their time updating/adding items
3. the people putting the cards out frequently do it when closing. the people making the cards do it early in the day to have them ready to put out. those tend to be different shifts.
4. at the end what matters more is that the computer matches the current price that's displayed. they can't have someone expecting the price to be $699.99 it rings up at $749.99 and then need to credit $50 to everyone who catches the register error. It's easier to explain (lie) that $699.99 should actually be $799.99 and the computer printed that number wrong.
5. most people don't comparison shop or necessarily look at the tags. There's a reason the savings amount is bigger than the price. People see the biggest text and digest it the best.
two bottles of shampoo = buy one get one free
thus
two at once = deal!
@consciousj:
thats not part of the sign. It's a Circuit City sign. Same font and everything CC used.
@pmcpa4: I agree! The first thing that popped into my mind was that the sale sign does not match any format I have seen in any Best Buy. I am confused too.
Mmmmm math...
@Pibbs: If they do catch them, and they mention them to management, I bet management told them to stop thinking and do what they're told. The prices likely came from corporate and management has likely learned not to question the ways of their corporate overlords.
What do you expect?? Low pay, horrible hours, harassed by corporate to lie to customers about geek squad and warranties.. Bare minimum, bob..
@wchamilton: It probably is an XSi; BB's site has it on sale for $699.99 from original price of $749.99: [www.bestbuy.com]
I have an XSi too and it's a great camera...I'd highly recommend it (or any of the other Canon Rebel series for that matter)!
I was on Steam yesterday (Steam Powered.com) and they had half off the Titan Quest Gold Bundle, which was 2 games at $19.99 apiece, so you think, cool... $19.99 for both, well someone accidentally took half off the individual games then half off the bundle resulting in a wonderfully tempting 75% off ($9.99).
My point is that if I had bought the game they would of caught the problem (which they did after a few hours) and told me to order again at the correct price.
I think best buy would make good on the mistake.
The sad part is, SOMEONE is going to fall for the big orange sale tag and think they got a deal...