Rumor: Best Buy's iPad 2 sales strategy gets it 'blacklisted' by Apple

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  • Reply 21 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NOFEER View Post


    its nice to look at the models then buy elsewhere



    ... The only reason I ever go into BB.
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  • Reply 22 of 99
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella View Post


    Sounds to me like BB is trying to artificially prop up the tablet competition.

    They probably think it is in their best interest to have a competitive field of tablets and be able to get better pricing from Apple.

    Appears as though their plan has backfired.



    I don't think that has anything to do with it. It generates traffic when they have a "new" batch everyday then if you don't get one today try again tomorrow. They are counting on this pushing other stuff out the door. Its the same reason the milk, eggs are at the back of the grocery store - and the specials are on the right when you walk. They want you to see all the other stuff they have and they are going to trot it all out for you. As far as the iPad FU - that was what was generating traffic.



    Bad idea!
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  • Reply 23 of 99
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,865member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addicted44 View Post


    Best Buy was clearly trying to prop up Apple's competition. This seems more pervasive than just at the managerial level.



    This was an extremely short sighted move by them. They can't keep bashing Apple and expect the company to behave nice with them. The individual sales folks have also had a large anti-Apple tilt, which Apple has ignored. Best Buy should have allowed the natural anti-Apple tilt of their employees to tilt the scales in the competitors' favor, instead of making it company policy.



    I've heard many a bad thing said about Apple by both Best Buy staff and Target staff. I just happened to be passing by as they spewed their anti-Apple 'sound bytes'. It is a tough call to know if they do more harm than good even being allowed to carry Apple when they often hire folks who would rather try to switch sell.



    As with an old lady I witnessed as she was talked from an Apple product to a competitor with comments such as I heard like "Oh you are far better keeping out of Apple's walled garden". Or "All the laptops we sell are the same, you just pay more for Apple and in fact often get less ..." I nearly bust a blood vessel and had to force myself not to interject!
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  • Reply 24 of 99
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella View Post


    Sounds to me like BB is trying to artificially prop up the tablet competition.

    They probably think it is in their best interest to have a competitive field of tablets and be able to get better pricing from Apple.

    Appears as though their plan has backfired.



    I don’t think it was anything so sinister. It just sounds like they wanted to make sure they some to sell each day, which isn’t a bad business strategy. Although Takeo’s comment sounds reasonable, too, which also isn’t sinister, just managers trying to look more successful than they are. Excluding Apple’s retaliation it’s not a bad move for them if that is how Best Buy’s upper management judge sales. You have to work the system to best suit your environment, it’s a far cry from anything hinky like creating an artificial demand. Either way all the iPads they receive will be sold, this just makes their numbers consistent.
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  • Reply 25 of 99
    damn_its_hotdamn_its_hot Posts: 1,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Apple doesn't need Best Buy.



    With the sales at the levels they are at - that says it all.
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  • Reply 26 of 99
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,680member
    BTW, is this a confirmed story yet? Before everyone going off on a tangent it would be great to get official confirmation somewhere. It was just last week that the rumor of Samsung installing keylogging software in their laptops started. The next day, after Hundreds of "F*** Sumsung" posts and repeats of the "news" all over the web, it became a "oops, our bad. Just a false positive from a virus scan."
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  • Reply 27 of 99
    We went in to look at the iPad 2 in our local store and the manager tried to sell them to every person that walked through that department. As we were standing there another associate came up to speak to us, we told her we were interested in buying an iPad 2 and she informed us all the one in store were preorders. The manager came back with an iPad 2 and I mentioned the preorders to him. He said he didn't care, we were right there right then. I decided not to buy it.
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  • Reply 28 of 99
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hamiltonrrwatch View Post


    This comes as no surprise; my only experience with Best Buy was less than stellar. Frankly, I wondered why, other than distribution, Apple had any association with these grifters.



    Probably so people like me, without being on a reservation list or whatever, can purchase the iPad 1 sooner than those who, at the same time, had placed an order for iPad 1 from Apple's online store weeks earlier and moaned on these message boards about still not receiving it yet!

    /

    /

    /
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  • Reply 29 of 99
    jsimmonsjsimmons Posts: 63member
    It seems to me that such a strategy would backfire on BB. When I went to BB to get a ipad2, they told me they were out of stock. My immediate reaction was NOT to go to another BB, but to go to the Verizon store down the block, and then to the AT&T store across the street. With Radio Shack added to the mix, that would have been my next choice. They're idiots for doing that. At the same time, if I was Apple, I wouldn't have black listed them, I would have cut BB's new stock deliveries by a significant percentage, and then boosted stock for BB's competitors.



    Apple certainly doesn't need BB to sell their stuff because they have plenty of other retailers - and their own stores.





    BB is a bunch of retatrds.
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  • Reply 30 of 99
    scadesscades Posts: 35member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by billin View Post


    Can someone explain to me what Best Buy gets out of doing this, besides a pissed-off Apple? I just don't get the business logic. People come to your store and want an iPad 2, you have them in stock, but you tell the customers you're out of stock because... what, exactly? You're hoping they'll wander around the store and buy something else after being stymied in trying to buy an iPad 2? You're creating artificial scarcity to build hype? You want to spread out the traffic in your store across multiple days instead of everyone crowding the store at once? None of these ring true with me. I really want to understand what Best Buy thought it was going to gain by pursuing this strategy.



    Producers of other tablets may give BB higher profit margins, or, they may, as car mfgrs do, give BB a bonus if annual/quarterly/etc. sales numbers exceed targets. Apple Insiders know why iPads are superior, but, e.g., Consumer Reports says the Xoom is almost as good. Non-techies may believe that, or, if iPads are "unavailable," other BB sales force blather.
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  • Reply 31 of 99
    frugalityfrugality Posts: 410member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jsimmons View Post


    BB is a bunch of retatrds.



    Spoken like a true.....retatrd?
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  • Reply 32 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rot'nApple View Post


    Probably so people like me, without being on a reservation list or whatever, can purchase the iPad 1 sooner than those who, at the same time, had placed an order for iPad 1 from Apple's online store weeks earlier and moaned on these message boards about still not receiving it yet!

    /

    /

    /



    Thus the words "other than distribution", in my post. Or did you just hit return before reading?
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  • Reply 33 of 99
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    I've heard many a bad thing said about Apple by both Best Buy staff and Target staff. I just happened to be passing by as they spewed their anti-Apple 'sound bytes'. It is a tough call to know if they do more harm than good even being allowed to carry Apple when they often hire folks who would rather try to switch sell.



    Maybe write to Steve for one of his famous short terse response, but ask him why they don't have an Apple representative that holds no allegiance to BB, but to Apple, like the two BB stores in my area have.



    When I kept visiting to see if iPad 1 was in stock I was always told by Apple rep, none available, but in fact, it was the Apple rep whose advice got me an iPad 1 sooner then those that bought from Apple online by telling me what day they usually received their pitifully small quantity of iPad 1 and suggested to check BB.com in the morning of that day when inventory was input into the computer system.



    Sure enough, next week, checked BB online 11 o'clock in morning on that specified day and by lunchtime was the owner of my iPad 1!



    Apple online people who had ordered earlier then me, they were still waiting! \
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  • Reply 34 of 99
    rot'napplerot'napple Posts: 1,839member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hamiltonrrwatch View Post


    Thus the words "other than distribution", in my post. Or did you just hit return before reading?



    Uh, if they didn't use those "grifters" for 'other than distribution', what else would Apple be using them for!
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  • Reply 35 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rot'nApple View Post


    Uh, if they didn't use those "grifters" for 'other than distribution', what else would Apple be using them for!



    Well said



    Apple doesn't make money by being stupid. They're trying to get product out to as many people, in as many venues as possible. Probably targeting people who don't normally use, or aren't comfortable using the internet to order product.



    My point was that I don't like the way BB does business; their return policies, sales tactics, bait-and-switch, etc.
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  • Reply 36 of 99
    Here's an interesting take by Three Guys And A Podcast:

    [URL="http://t-gaap.com/2011/4/8/apple-pulls-ipad-2-from-best-buy?site_locale=en"]
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  • Reply 37 of 99
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by msuberly View Post


    I don't like Best Buy. They have a pretty good selection, but most everything is sold at MSRP. It's okay for window shopping, but I prefer to buy online or at smaller stores.



    that's exactly what i use best buy for. window shopping. if i want to test out a tv, camera, etc... i go to best buy. figure out which one i like, then order it online (usually from amazon).



    and even still, it's a bad experience. the tv's don't have the remotes, the speakers are never hooked up, the cameras don't have memory cards so you can't take pictures... if the product even turns on at all...
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  • Reply 38 of 99
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,008member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    Oh... I thought he was having a stroke...



    I thought he was going for the sound that sheeple make (y'know, sheep + Apple = sheeple)...
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  • Reply 39 of 99
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OllieWallieWhiskers View Post


    that's exactly what i use best buy for. window shopping. if i want to test out a tv, camera, etc... i go to best buy. figure out which one i like, then order it online (usually from amazon).



    and even still, it's a bad experience. the tv's don't have the remotes, the speakers are never hooked up, the cameras don't have memory cards so you can't take pictures... if the product even turns on at all...





    Same here. The only thing I buy from them, are "real" sale items (DVDs, games, etc.) and Black Friday goodies...
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  • Reply 40 of 99
    al_bundyal_bundy Posts: 1,525member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Maybe a few dummies would, but it's nothing to be concerned about.



    Buying a tablet is not an impulse buy. Most consumers, even the dumbest and most ignorant ones, have an idea about what they want before they go to a store. As far as tablets go, people either want an iPad or one of the others. If people are looking for an iPad, and an iPad is exactly what the majority of people are looking for, they would simply go to a store that sells iPads.



    If somebody is dumb enough to want an iPad and ends up going to a Best Buy and they walk out with a Xoom, then they deserve what they get. Very few people are that stupid and foolish.



    Apple has nothing to worry about. Best Buy needs Apple more than Apple needs Best Buy.





    apple products only became popular with the general population after they started selling them outside of apple stores and the website.
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