Why do places like BestBuy and Fry's Electronics rip people off ?

Question

I wanted to buy a flash drive and I found this:
http://www.upirate.com/Lexar-Media-2GB-JumpDrive-Mercury-USB-20-Flash-Drive-966-after-rebate-retails-for-3566-p53.html

Best Buy and Fry's sell the same for like 40 dollars. Why do people get ripped off ?

Answer 1

Electronic stores try to get people on impulse buying.. Periphrials is where the real money is.. and when people impulse buy, they pay for it..

Answer 2

The way Best Buy gets people in the door is by marking down a few items BELOW cost, then overcharging on the others. This is a shitty practice and it used to be something that could get you in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission but hasn't been enforced in a while. The real rub here is that when the new "big album" comes out, Best Buy will sell it for $10, losing $2 on each unit. People come in to get the CD and go browse the store, buying a new flash drive for the same cost or more as another store. What's wrong with that? Well Joe's Local CD Store, which is barely pulling in enough profit to cover Joe's mortgage, can't compete with the cost, because he isn't selling refrigerators on a 200% markup. Don't look to the current administration to start regulating the practice again real soon either.

Oh and by the way, I wanted to answer the question, but I think the OP might have been spam. Sure sounds a lot like a upirate.com ad.

Answer 3

If you read the ad carefully, the actual price is $35.66. The price goes down to $9.99 after the rebate. Now be cautious, just because it says rebate it does not mean that you will get the discount on the spot. A lot of those rebates are mail-in and like most people, we tend to forget to fill out the rebate form (the form must be filled out correctly, or else it is useless) and mail it in.

As far as best buy and fry's, they have to make a profit or else the business would fail, usualy the mark up is double or triple of what the wholesale price is, that is how they do it. And so is life. PEACE....

Answer 4

They have to maintain a store front, and they loose money on things like the XBox or PS3 or Wii, hopping that you will by the extras.

Also, I know that there are times that I cannot wait 7-10 business days for soemthing, so I rather pay the $40 total for a jumpdrive, when it would take $10 to buy it, another $10 to ship, and I might not even need it when it gets here.

Answer 5

One of the biggest cons and rip off's is the mail in rebate system. it is another way to get you to buy a product, that other wise you would never buy,

Most of the stock on the mail in rebate is returned items that can not be sold as new, once it as been sent to a customer or taken home by a customer and returned, it then becomes second hand,

now what happens is these companies sell these Items off cheap to liquidation companies at job lot sales.

Now the liquidation company can't sell them as new, but need to make profit selling them above the price they paid for them,

So for arguments sake lets say the liquidation company bought 1000 printers @ $2000.00 that would be $2.00 each. now the company as to make a profit on the sales of these items @ 200% so they sell them to you @ $50.00 with a mail in rebate of $30.00, It will take them 6months to return the $30.00. back to you, hence while that money is in their bank account it is making them interest, on a daily basis.

now a million people are waiting for their mail in rebate for six months or more, just think what interest the companies are making, on customers money.

Now you buy a product from a liquidation company, there is no warranty with the product, you have got to send it back to the manufactures, and it takes months for it to be returned to you, now if it replaced, it will be replaced with old stock (out of date) not new stock

Answer 6

I know what you mean...

Someone once said "Wherever you leak, the world hangs a bucket." In other words, someone is always looking to profit from other people's ignorance. It stinks, but that's just the real world.

My best advice... do your research before making a purchase. Find reliable sources of product information (that you personally trust), such as product reviews in your favorite tech magazines, and then do the price hunt.

Cheers!

Answer 7

definite, they're--a guaranty is an legal accountability or assure that an editorial or provider offered is as factually suggested or legally implied via the broker, and that often delivers for a particular scientific care including restore or replace in the form the article or provider fails to fulfill the guaranty. UGH--you're purely cut back/pasting up the wazoo, that's ridiculous!! no ingredient in any respect, i'm heavily experienced in dropping hours of time and funds listening to their so-referred to as techs posturing approximately no longer something!! genuinely extensive WASTE OF MY TIME & money!! THEY chew vast TIME and that i'm no longer the only one DUDE!! purely seem on the internet...installation BITES TOO!!

Answer 8

You are not getting ripped off.

Places like upirate are able to offer cheaper merchandise because they specifically search out special deals and overstock situations.

Answer 9

Not to sound crude but "Because they can". People still shop there. Business is good even though their prices are insane so what do they care?

Answer 10

overhead-they have hire salespeople, rent stores to sell this stuff in, pay for advertising, merchandising, etc...

this all adds up. That's why they call it "retail".