Best Buy cuts prices on Apple's Mac line for 4-day sale
Looking to get a jump-start on the holiday shopping season, Best Buy is working with Apple to host a 4-day only sale that offers instant discounts across the entire Mac product line, including $100 - $150 off the latest MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro notebooks, and $50 - $150 off Mac minis, iMacs, and Mac Pros.
The specialty electronics reseller is said to have brought in "huge stock" over the weekend to support the promotion, which runs through Wednesday evening, and will be receiving additional stock sometime later today. In addition, Apple employees will be on hand at most Best Buy locations to interact with customers and help seal the deal.
The sale is also in effect through Best Buy online. In both cases, the retailer is offering no interest financing for 18 months. Anyone who purchases an Apple notebook will also qualify for two additional promotions, one which offers $39 - $70 off select printers, and another that offers 15% - 20% off notebook accessories.
Among the Mac offerings in stock and on sale are the following (prices after discount in parenthesis):
$100 off 2.0GHz Unibody MacBook ($1199.99)
$150 off 2.4GHz Unibody MacBook ($1449.99)
$100 off 2.1GHz White MacBook ($899.99)
$100 off 2.4GHz Unibody MacBook Pro ($1899.99)
$100 off 2.53GHz Unibody MacBook Pro ($2399.99)
$100 off 2.5GHz Aluminum 17-inch MacBook Pro ($2699.99)
$150 off 1.6GHz NVIDIA-baed MacBook Air ($1649.99)
$150 off 1.86GHz NVIDIA-baed MacBook Air ($2349.99)
$100 off 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac ($1099.99)
$100 off 2.66GHz 20-inch iMac ($1399.99)
$150 off 2.8GHz 24-inch iMac ($1649.99)
$50 off 1.83GHz Mac mini ($549.00)
$50 off 2.0GHz Mac mini ($749.00)
$150 off 2.8GH Mac Pro ($2649.99)
Best Buy is also offering the original 1.6GHz MacBook Air for $1299.
Update: According to one reader, some Apple retail stores may be willing to price-match Best Buy for the next three days. "If you bring in a flyer or ad to an Apple Store, they will match the price after getting it approved through the manager," the reader said. Readers may be best suited to call their local Apple retail store ahead of time to inquire about their price-matching policies.
The specialty electronics reseller is said to have brought in "huge stock" over the weekend to support the promotion, which runs through Wednesday evening, and will be receiving additional stock sometime later today. In addition, Apple employees will be on hand at most Best Buy locations to interact with customers and help seal the deal.
The sale is also in effect through Best Buy online. In both cases, the retailer is offering no interest financing for 18 months. Anyone who purchases an Apple notebook will also qualify for two additional promotions, one which offers $39 - $70 off select printers, and another that offers 15% - 20% off notebook accessories.
Among the Mac offerings in stock and on sale are the following (prices after discount in parenthesis):
$100 off 2.0GHz Unibody MacBook ($1199.99)
$150 off 2.4GHz Unibody MacBook ($1449.99)
$100 off 2.1GHz White MacBook ($899.99)
$100 off 2.4GHz Unibody MacBook Pro ($1899.99)
$100 off 2.53GHz Unibody MacBook Pro ($2399.99)
$100 off 2.5GHz Aluminum 17-inch MacBook Pro ($2699.99)
$150 off 1.6GHz NVIDIA-baed MacBook Air ($1649.99)
$150 off 1.86GHz NVIDIA-baed MacBook Air ($2349.99)
$100 off 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac ($1099.99)
$100 off 2.66GHz 20-inch iMac ($1399.99)
$150 off 2.8GHz 24-inch iMac ($1649.99)
$50 off 1.83GHz Mac mini ($549.00)
$50 off 2.0GHz Mac mini ($749.00)
$150 off 2.8GH Mac Pro ($2649.99)
Best Buy is also offering the original 1.6GHz MacBook Air for $1299.
Update: According to one reader, some Apple retail stores may be willing to price-match Best Buy for the next three days. "If you bring in a flyer or ad to an Apple Store, they will match the price after getting it approved through the manager," the reader said. Readers may be best suited to call their local Apple retail store ahead of time to inquire about their price-matching policies.
Comments
$100 off a $2400 laptop is not going to be much of an incentive other than to those who had planned to buy one.
Honestly, I can't say that Apple's "slashing" of prices are anything short of a joke. I mean, I just can't see 1199 being that much more affordable than 1299. When we see prices of TV's being dropped like 30-40% and apple drops about 5% while we all know they are making 30% plus on it I just don't get the big draw... You want to sell a massive # of Macs in a few days? Do what the other guys do and have a Black Friday sale on about 50 units which'll get people in the door and when you sell out you can convince them to buy a full priced unit instead
Having worked retail myself, you would be very surprised how little of a price break is needed to grab people's interest. 32" TV for under $200? Did you read the pre-sale price, which was only $220? Yet people will wait in line and fight over saving a measly $20 on a crappy TV.
Honestly, I can't say that Apple's "slashing" of prices are anything short of a joke. I mean, I just can't see 1199 being that much more affordable than 1299. When we see prices of TV's being dropped like 30-40% and apple drops about 5% while we all know they are making 30% plus on it I just don't get the big draw... You want to sell a massive # of Macs in a few days? Do what the other guys do and have a Black Friday sale on about 50 units which'll get people in the door and when you sell out you can convince them to buy a full priced unit instead
$1299.00 to $1199.00 is more like 11.55% price break and hey, this is Apple, and "Price Breaks" of any kind are rare outside of events like this. So take 'em when you can get 'em.
At least these machines are new (hopefully) versus the 13%, 15%, 17%, or 20% price breaks for "refurbished" Macs found at the Apple Store Online!
Having worked retail myself, you would be very surprised how little of a price break is needed to grab people's interest. 32" TV for under $200? Did you read the pre-sale price, which was only $220? Yet people will wait in line and fight over saving a measly $20 on a crappy TV.
You probably have some horror stories to tell. My brother-in-law is a cameraman for a local news station. Worst assignment of the year? Covering black Friday insanity. Fights over $30 toys.
$1299.00 to $1199.00 is more like 11.55% price break and hey, this is Apple, and "Price Breaks" of any kind are rare outside of events like this. So take 'em when you can get 'em.
At least these machines are new (hopefully) versus the 13%, 15%, 17%, or 20% price breaks for "refurbished" Macs found at the Apple Store Online!
Huh? How does $100 off something over $1000 give you anything higher than 10%? $100 off of a $1299 computer is 100/1299 which is 7.7%. Now the 100 off the whitebook is almost exactly 10% the other deals are ALL less than 10%. In order, from top to bottom the %'s off: (I rounded to the even dollar i.e. 999.99 = 1000)
7.7, 9.4, 10, 5, 4, 3.6, 6, 8.3, 6.7, 8.3, 8.3, 6.3, 5.4 for an average % off of 6.8 (if going by average %'s). If you bought one of each of those your total % off would be 6.3%
So are these the discounts we should expect from Apple on Black Friday?
No one knows, though in past years Apple has limited discounts to the consumer family of products (iMacs and MacBooks).
Best,
K
$1299.00 to $1199.00 is more like 11.55% price break and hey, this is Apple, and "Price Breaks" of any kind are rare outside of events like this. So take 'em when you can get 'em.
At least these machines are new (hopefully) versus the 13%, 15%, 17%, or 20% price breaks for "refurbished" Macs found at the Apple Store Online!
IMHO, buying Macs "refurbished" just means that someone's actually tested them out to see if they work before shipping them to you. I've never had a DOA refurbished machine.
iTunes plus is nice, finally its expanding. I love my iTunes, I do see some pluses in Amazon, but its much easier to find new music and get in on iTunes for me. I guess I am a successful tied customer of Apple.
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Great Apple Store in Madison WI.
$1299.00 to $1199.00 is more like 11.55% price break and hey, this is Apple, and "Price Breaks" of any kind are rare outside of events like this. So take 'em when you can get 'em.
Actually, $100 off of $1299 is more like a 7.7% price break.
Not saying it's chopped liver, but it sure ain't 11.55%. Maybe you were thinking of $150 off? That'd match up with your percentage almost exactly.
Also, you can often get price breaks at Amazon, so events like Black Friday are kind of overrated, far as Macs are concerned.
(emphasis added)
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At least these machines are new (hopefully) versus the 13%, 15%, 17%, or 20% price breaks for "refurbished" Macs found at the Apple Store Online!
Get a clue. Refurbs are also new.
They didn't come out of a dumpster or a 2nd hand computer store.
Most of the time they are simply returns because someone thought the Mac didn't match their drapes. Since Apple opened the retail stores, they've had to deal with a lot of returns that they can't sell new with returns that had nothing to do with any hardware issues.
Slashes? More like 'trims'.
$100 off a $2400 laptop is not going to be much of an incentive other than to those who had planned to buy one.
Agreed. The price 'trims' are pretty weak, especially on the MacBook Pros (4 or 5% discounts? LOL). You can already beat those prices on Amazon (albeit with a wait for the rebate), WITHOUT subjecting yourself to Black Friday madness.
*visualizes getting body-checked into aisle 4 by a rampaging 350-lb woman looking for a Nintendo Wii for the kiddies*
The discounts are indeed kinda 'meh', but I guess sometimes it's just about getting your name featured prominently in the Black Friday ads. Apple's playing the BF game just enough to get noticed, without offering that much in the way of a price break.
Typical Steve. Gotta luv him.
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