Quote:
Originally Posted by
ascii 
Target is a discount chain. Apple will damage their brand by associating with them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Obama
A very popular response, found on almost every thread here. Of course, I couldn't be more wrong.
Interesting to hear people's positive perceptions of Target vs the negative ones for WalMart. Never really saw the difference between the two and why people are so "on about WalMart" while giving Target a pass.
Bottom line, you will shop anywhere that gives you a cut rate price, regardless of what kind of company they are and how they treat their employees and community. You have to in this economy that I created. And we all really "need" iPads, don't we?
Those so-called discounters while they have a reputation for good prices actually don't. For products that I would buy, whether it's orange juice or electronics, they are priced much higher in Target and WalMart than such NYC-based independent, non-chain retailers such as J&R and B&H.
Sure, they'll put a few products on deep discount to grab you in the store, but overall, their prices actually suck. And while I avoid both Target and Wal-Mart, I do perceive a big difference in the stores if only because of the people who shop there. Check out
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/.
One view is that with the iPod, iPhone and to a lesser extent with the iPad, Apple has appeal to almost all consumers and therefore should be in these mass market retailers. Apple cannot ever build enough stores in enough locations to satisfy the mass market demand (in spite of online ordering) and if Apple limited their physical sales to Apple stores and a few select high-end retailers, they would lose sales.
The other view is that Apple's products are high-end esoteric products, even though they've been accepted by the mass market and that Apple's carefully constructed marketing and branding is hurt by having their products sold in such chains as Target and Wal-Mart.
I'm in the latter court. I think Apple is hurting their brand. I think they need to be a bit more selective. And if they're selling everything they can manufacture anyway, then they don't need to be everywhere. One of the reasons Apple developed their own retail is because they didn't like the way their products were presented in other retailers. So now they're back to selling in other retailers? In spite of the display units Apple provides, displays of Apple products in other stores frequently looks like crap.
As for people buying in the cheapest place, aside from Target/Wal-Mart frequently not being the cheapest stores anyway (and especially not for Apple's products, which are rarely discounted anywhere), while I agree that many people look only for the cheapest price, not everyone does. I, for one, will absolutely never shop in a Wal-Mart or K-Mart regardless of the pricing. I shop in Target perhaps once a year and that's only to buy cleaning supplies. I won't shop in Best Buy either. And I know plenty of other people who also won't shop in any big-box store, regardless of the price.
(And regarding your nasty political swipe, there are several factors that have resulted in the poor economy: the first one, which has nothing to do with either Obama or Bush is that corporations have become far more productive and are recording record profits, but have decided that profits are more important than people and their communities and they won't hire. The second is the long term trend of manufacturing moving overseas, which no politician of either party can do anything about unless you're willing to enact massive import taxes on goods manufactured overseas even from American companies, which might restart U.S. manufacturing, but would greatly increase prices of all such products. And the primary factor in moving manufacturing overseas are the incredibly low wages ($130/month in China) that makes U.S. manufacturing non-competitive even if U.S. companies paid no taxes whatsoever, there were no business regulations, no unions and everyone would work for minimum wage, which is not a living wage anyway. The third is the collapse of the banking system which essentially happened under the prior administration. When George Bush left office, the Dow was at 8776. While it still sucks and is far below its 14,000 peak (also during the Bush administration), it's around 12,400 today, which is a remarkable achievement. Most people who oppose Obama's policies think there should have been no bailouts and no government initiated programs to boost the economy. The bailouts were largely enacted by the Bush administration and many of us feel that the economy is still weak because government programs were too small, not too large. And another reason the economy sucks is because of the deficit, which in large part is due to the government taking in far less revenue, which is due to corporations avoiding taxes and rich people not paying their share - the top marginal rate was 70% under Nixon, 50% under Reagan and 38% today and that's aside from the general unfairness that long term capital gains are only taxed at 18%.)
