They do this so they can actually put the ipad in the sunday ad with a minimum amount per store. No one getting pissed off that way
Again...Why do they need to purchase ad space for iPad? It sells itself. There would probably have to be some unusual connection to their other inventory for it to make sense.
This doesn't make much sense to me. So Apple is making iPads as fast as they can to try to satiate incredible demand. Weeks later lines are still persisting and plenty of people still want one. So, Best Buy decides to leave them in the back room because they want to run a promotion? This is ridiculous. If this were true and I was Apple, I would be very pissed that my customers were having to wait and my reputation was suffering because of some promotion.
You've obviously never worked retail. Let me explain.
Due to printing times, ads can planned out MONTHS in advance. In a store with a weekly ad, perhaps they plan out a month ahead, which would make it right about now assuming they had little to no knowledge that Apple was officially releasing a new iPad. Remember, it was only the week or so before the announcement that Best Buy's computer system logged the new items.
So, Best Buy gets official word of the new product, they're gonna put it in a big ad, maybe front-page it, whatever. It's going to create interest. People would likely be coming in to the store to purchase them.
Wouldn't it be nice if they had some to sell?
Apple's getting iPads built as fast as they can. They have several destinations - Apple Stores, direct purchases shipped to customers' homes, and additional retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us apparently, etc. Yet, as you say, people are still lining up for them. Demand is still there.
What do you do? Apple, we'd like to have this many iPad 2's per store. Is Apple going to say, okay, the next however many iPads made will sit on a pallet until we have enough to supply Best Buy's quantity request for the ad they'll have in the paper on whatever day?
Probably not. Apple, to be fair, is likely to say we have this many iPads today and these stores with open orders. Send so many to them, so many to them, and so on.
Supply is tight right now, and demand is high. Best Buy knows that Apple's not going to be able to send one shipment of x many iPads for a certain date. So they hoard any shipment coming in for say, two weeks, so that they have a supply when the doors open that Sunday morning so that they don't have to look like idiots because they sold all their iPads the day they came in and have none left over for the ad date.
That's how it works, folks. Like it or don't. Hell, Apple ships to Apple Stores a day or so early, mark the pallets DO NOT OPEN UNTIL (after the keynote) so that their stores can have inventory of a new product right after the keynote. But Apple, being generally secretive, don't give their partners that same lead or guarantee of having a product for an ad. That simple.
This rumor is a little late. April Fools Day was last week. I'm skeptical about the BGR story, too:
[clip]
The communication, which is claimed by our source to have been delivered by Best Buy management via SMS, instructs employees to hold all iPad inventory except for pre-orders.
[/clip]
Would Best Buy management really communicate with their employees via SMS? Is this normal?
Wal-Mart management does. I know this as I know someone who works in a store. If Wal-Mart is doing it, why not anyone else?
Again...Why do they need to purchase ad space for iPad? It sells itself. There would probably have to be some unusual connection to their other inventory for it to make sense.
I have no dog in this hunt but it makes sense that Best Buy would use the spectacularly desirable iPad to try to draw traffic to their store. They DO sell other items besides iPads, you know....
If true they are planning a promo involving iPad it just demonstrates how poor they are at planning. Maybe they thought advertising would help them sell more iPads, not realizing 30 days ago how high the demand would be. The newspaper ads and fliers can be changed almost until the last day.
The only thing I can think of is they want to use the iPad to lure people into the stores so they can sell them other unrelated stuff.
This doesn't make much sense to me. So Apple is making iPads as fast as they can to try to satiate incredible demand. Weeks later lines are still persisting and plenty of people still want one. So, Best Buy decides to leave them in the back room because they want to run a promotion? This is ridiculous. If this were true and I was Apple, I would be very pissed that my customers were having to wait and my reputation was suffering because of some promotion.
You'd be surprised. I work for Best Buy, and this is a very common practice. Best Buy will put a product in an ad (ads are usually made out a month or so in advance), and hold a specific amount of product for that ad. Think about it. If a store puts out an ad promoting a product, you walk in to said store wanting said product right when the store opens on day 1 of the ad, and that store didn't have anything to sell you, how much sense would that make?
So now your are saying that Best Buy thinks it is necessary to spend advertising $ on something that they cannot get as many as they can sell? Try again.
I have no dog in this hunt but it makes sense that Best Buy would use the spectacularly desirable iPad to try to draw traffic to their store. They DO sell other items besides iPads, you know....
Sure but why hoard them? They could just as well say in their ad 'We have iPads come on down'. They probably get regular weekly shipments anyway. As someone else pointed out (While supplies last, more arriving weekly). At least that approach would honest and ethical and guarantee that the devices were sold with the most recent version of the OS. No matter how many they hoard, they will still need to say while supplies last.
Which do you believe? I don't think Apple would dump Best Buy totally because they are a great outlet for their products. If they stopped supplying the iPads to them then Best Buy might drop Apple in retaliation. I bet people high up in companies have big egos.
So does that mean that Apple could actually stop supplying iPads to Best Buy? It doesn't matter to me since there aren't any in my city.
Apple really doesn't need BB. It's the other way around, Apple has dumped BB before and it took quite a while for them to get back good graces with Apple. It may have been true a year ago when BB was the only other retail of iPads. But now there is walmart, target, AT&T and Verizon stores, and soon radio shack. Someone at BB F****'d up , apologized and made nice nice with Apple and that's the result of said "promotion" to save face. Someone got spanked.
Wal-Mart management does. I know this as I know someone who works in a store. If Wal-Mart is doing it, why not anyone else?
I still have a hard time believing management would use something as casual as SMS (which I'm guessing would be to people's personal phones) as a formal communication method, never mind the logistics of tracking staff cell phone numbers. Are we to believe that all staff have a personal phone that they would receive SMS on anyway?
Actually I worked retail for 4 years, until I ran away screaming for my sanity.
While I wasn't high up enough to know specifics about how early they would set the ads, it doesn't really matter for my argument. If I am Apple, I'm not going to allow Best Buy or any other retailer to stockpile my hot new in-demand product in their back room until it fits their schedule to have a door buster so they can sell more toasters and refrigerators and sell more of their Flexi-Compras protection plans. That's a load of crap.
Comments
You have it. They could be waiting for shipments of accessories to push, rather than just selling the iPads naked.
Or maybe buy a refrigerator and TV first, then you get to stand in the VIP line for a chance to buy an iPad.
They do this so they can actually put the ipad in the sunday ad with a minimum amount per store. No one getting pissed off that way
Exactly. Lawsuits follow if they advertise product that ends up not being available.
They do this so they can actually put the ipad in the sunday ad with a minimum amount per store. No one getting pissed off that way
Again...Why do they need to purchase ad space for iPad? It sells itself. There would probably have to be some unusual connection to their other inventory for it to make sense.
This doesn't make much sense to me. So Apple is making iPads as fast as they can to try to satiate incredible demand. Weeks later lines are still persisting and plenty of people still want one. So, Best Buy decides to leave them in the back room because they want to run a promotion? This is ridiculous. If this were true and I was Apple, I would be very pissed that my customers were having to wait and my reputation was suffering because of some promotion.
You've obviously never worked retail. Let me explain.
Due to printing times, ads can planned out MONTHS in advance. In a store with a weekly ad, perhaps they plan out a month ahead, which would make it right about now assuming they had little to no knowledge that Apple was officially releasing a new iPad. Remember, it was only the week or so before the announcement that Best Buy's computer system logged the new items.
So, Best Buy gets official word of the new product, they're gonna put it in a big ad, maybe front-page it, whatever. It's going to create interest. People would likely be coming in to the store to purchase them.
Wouldn't it be nice if they had some to sell?
Apple's getting iPads built as fast as they can. They have several destinations - Apple Stores, direct purchases shipped to customers' homes, and additional retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us apparently, etc. Yet, as you say, people are still lining up for them. Demand is still there.
What do you do? Apple, we'd like to have this many iPad 2's per store. Is Apple going to say, okay, the next however many iPads made will sit on a pallet until we have enough to supply Best Buy's quantity request for the ad they'll have in the paper on whatever day?
Probably not. Apple, to be fair, is likely to say we have this many iPads today and these stores with open orders. Send so many to them, so many to them, and so on.
Supply is tight right now, and demand is high. Best Buy knows that Apple's not going to be able to send one shipment of x many iPads for a certain date. So they hoard any shipment coming in for say, two weeks, so that they have a supply when the doors open that Sunday morning so that they don't have to look like idiots because they sold all their iPads the day they came in and have none left over for the ad date.
That's how it works, folks. Like it or don't. Hell, Apple ships to Apple Stores a day or so early, mark the pallets DO NOT OPEN UNTIL (after the keynote) so that their stores can have inventory of a new product right after the keynote. But Apple, being generally secretive, don't give their partners that same lead or guarantee of having a product for an ad. That simple.
This rumor is a little late. April Fools Day was last week. I'm skeptical about the BGR story, too:
[clip]
The communication, which is claimed by our source to have been delivered by Best Buy management via SMS, instructs employees to hold all iPad inventory except for pre-orders.
[/clip]
Would Best Buy management really communicate with their employees via SMS? Is this normal?
Wal-Mart management does. I know this as I know someone who works in a store. If Wal-Mart is doing it, why not anyone else?
Again...Why do they need to purchase ad space for iPad? It sells itself. There would probably have to be some unusual connection to their other inventory for it to make sense.
I have no dog in this hunt but it makes sense that Best Buy would use the spectacularly desirable iPad to try to draw traffic to their store. They DO sell other items besides iPads, you know....
.....
What do you do?
.....
"While supplies last"...?
The only thing I can think of is they want to use the iPad to lure people into the stores so they can sell them other unrelated stuff.
This doesn't make much sense to me. So Apple is making iPads as fast as they can to try to satiate incredible demand. Weeks later lines are still persisting and plenty of people still want one. So, Best Buy decides to leave them in the back room because they want to run a promotion? This is ridiculous. If this were true and I was Apple, I would be very pissed that my customers were having to wait and my reputation was suffering because of some promotion.
I totally agree with you.
You'd be surprised. I work for Best Buy, and this is a very common practice. Best Buy will put a product in an ad (ads are usually made out a month or so in advance), and hold a specific amount of product for that ad. Think about it. If a store puts out an ad promoting a product, you walk in to said store wanting said product right when the store opens on day 1 of the ad, and that store didn't have anything to sell you, how much sense would that make?
So now your are saying that Best Buy thinks it is necessary to spend advertising $ on something that they cannot get as many as they can sell? Try again.
I have no dog in this hunt but it makes sense that Best Buy would use the spectacularly desirable iPad to try to draw traffic to their store. They DO sell other items besides iPads, you know....
Sure but why hoard them? They could just as well say in their ad 'We have iPads come on down'. They probably get regular weekly shipments anyway. As someone else pointed out (While supplies last, more arriving weekly). At least that approach would honest and ethical and guarantee that the devices were sold with the most recent version of the OS. No matter how many they hoard, they will still need to say while supplies last.
Will the iPad come with a free roll of grey tape? How else am I going to hook my keyboard up to it?
Just last week Best Buy was bashing the iPad with a ridiculous ad and now they're going to have a special promotion for it?
Will the iPad come with a free roll of grey tape? How else am I going to hook my keyboard up to it?
"Buy an iMac and get an iPad 2 free"? I doubt it.
It's probably more like "Buy an iPad 2 and get Xoom for free because we don't know what to do with this crap"
Which do you believe? I don't think Apple would dump Best Buy totally because they are a great outlet for their products. If they stopped supplying the iPads to them then Best Buy might drop Apple in retaliation. I bet people high up in companies have big egos.
So does that mean that Apple could actually stop supplying iPads to Best Buy? It doesn't matter to me since there aren't any in my city.
Apple really doesn't need BB. It's the other way around, Apple has dumped BB before and it took quite a while for them to get back good graces with Apple. It may have been true a year ago when BB was the only other retail of iPads. But now there is walmart, target, AT&T and Verizon stores, and soon radio shack. Someone at BB F****'d up , apologized and made nice nice with Apple and that's the result of said "promotion" to save face. Someone got spanked.
Wal-Mart management does. I know this as I know someone who works in a store. If Wal-Mart is doing it, why not anyone else?
I still have a hard time believing management would use something as casual as SMS (which I'm guessing would be to people's personal phones) as a formal communication method, never mind the logistics of tracking staff cell phone numbers. Are we to believe that all staff have a personal phone that they would receive SMS on anyway?
You've obviously never worked retail.
Actually I worked retail for 4 years, until I ran away screaming for my sanity.
While I wasn't high up enough to know specifics about how early they would set the ads, it doesn't really matter for my argument. If I am Apple, I'm not going to allow Best Buy or any other retailer to stockpile my hot new in-demand product in their back room until it fits their schedule to have a door buster so they can sell more toasters and refrigerators and sell more of their Flexi-Compras protection plans. That's a load of crap.
It's probably more like "Buy an iPad 2 and get Xoom for free because we don't know what to do with this crap"
Best post since I've been a member. Luv my iPad2 btw!