Costco enters 'mutual agreement' to stop selling Apple products

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    Can you give some proof for that last statement?



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott...i-Boycott_Laws
  • Reply 42 of 47
    This is a very bad decision. COSTCO has a reputation as an ethical seller that treats it's employees well. Apple should want to be associated with this type of business. Walmart-Sam's Clubb may be bigger, but, except for price war policies, they are not consumer friendly.
  • Reply 43 of 47
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NoahJ View Post


    Costco members spend a lot of money at Costco. This is generally because their return policy is so good and because they have great deals most of the time. Anyone I talk to tells me they cannot get out of Costco under $100-200. Why would Apple not want that kind of customer looking at their products? I am disappointed. Read somewhere that Apple sells billions through Costco, not sure about the number though. Bought an ipod and a Mac Mini there myself. The mini came bundled with Bluetooth Keyboard, Bluetooth Mouse and Apple Care for about the same as a mini all by itself on the Apple Store. Sad to see that those kind of deals will not be returning...



    Because Costco customers go into their stores to buy drums of butter, vats of detergent, and sides of beef? Costco never seemed like a really compatible environment for Apple products. The only surprise to me is how long this relationship lasted.
  • Reply 44 of 47
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    This doesn't bother me at all. Although I agree that iPods can be effectively sold by anyone, I think that iPhones, iPads and the computer lines need effective sales, marketing and support that most mass-market retailers can't provide.



    The reason why Apple started their own retail in the first place was because they were unhappy with the way their products were presented in chains like Circuit City or CompUSA (both now defunct.)



    What's the point of Apple spending multi-$millions to open a retail store if a mass market big box store is going to sell the same merchandise? The customer who bought in the big-box store will go to the Apple store for support. This only makes sense in places where Apple doesn't have a store, but the chains won't limit which stores they sell products in so if Apple sells to a chain, it's all or nothing.



    While warehouse stores like Costco and B.J.s don't treat their employees as badly as WalMart, they still destroy local businesses and Main Street. I won't shop in any of them. In fact, I try to avoid almost all chain stores, especially big-box stores. That's not always possible, depending upon where one lives, but it's what I aim for. I buy my Apple products (in NYC) either at J&R, Tekserve, B&H or at Apple, the first three being independent, privately held stores.
  • Reply 45 of 47
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    very weird bad off the mind set newsd . ..



    cosco has a clean box atop box style of store .



    I truly believe Apple and Cosco/ sam club will sit down in 18 months and make a separate store with in a store section for all things apple and computer related items with a mini genius bar type of service, and Cosco's/Sam club online service is also big bucks .



    Cosco discounts very very hard .Their worse than walmart to vendors . But in this case they both can use each other .



    That is why Cosco wrote SWEET GOOD BYE LETTEER



    Cosco will return in 2013 in a major way .





    peace



    9
  • Reply 46 of 47
    Someone at Costco didn't do ANY homework on this. If they HAD, they would have realized that Apple doesn't discount sheeit to ANYBODY. EVER. If they did, they'd have EVERY authorized reseller screaming and filing lawsuits. It keeps dealers from cut-throating each other. Costco will reawaken and start selling when their customers start asking for the iPods, iPads etc.

    The ONLY discounts you see are in the $5.00 range and that's if the dealer is willing to drop $5.00 per sale. It's usually a free printer, free RAM...something other than a huge discount. Apple didn't blink when Circuit City stopped selling Macs. It was best that they did as the CC idiots would direct customers to the POS Windows crapcans that the margin was gigantic on...If Costco wants to discount the Apple stuff....do it the way the rest of the resellers do.....drop $5 off the price and throw in a free case or whatever. I'm a member of Costco and shook my head when I read this. Obviously they thought Apple would cave in....SURPRISE!
  • Reply 47 of 47
    Some thoughts:



    1) Obviously Costco was not happy with the amount of profit they were making selling iPods. My suspicion is that they were being killed by returns, due to Costco's generous return policy.



    2) Costco sells upscale items compared to places like Wal-Mart. I.e., more like an Apple Store competitor than a Wal-Mart competitor.



    3) Apple has now opened Apple Stores in most of the places where Costco has stores, so Apple no longer needs Costco to sell anything. Apple makes more money if they sell direct rather than via a retailer.



    4) Thus the mutual part. The stuff Apple would let Costco sell, the low-bucks stuff, really doesn't fit with Costco's current product philosophy of sidestepping Wal-mart by selling higher-quality items or bulk items. Apple didn't want to give Costco the high bucks stuff because that'd put Costco in competition with, err, Apple. So they mutually decided there was no "there" there. So it goes.
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