Target, Best Buy hamstrung by Apple Watch, iPhone 7 stock issues
Brick and mortar retailers Target and Best Buy have apparently not been given enough inventory to fulfill all pre-orders, and are emailing customers informing them that Apple Watch Series 2 orders won't be shipped by the promised date.
Pre-orders at both retailers started alongside Apple's process on Sept. 9, with early buyers being told that shipments would arrive on launch day.
Late Thursday, Best Buy emailed customers saying they would start shipping Apple Watch orders on Sept. 28. Target started sending emails on Friday morning, informing people of stock issues of the Apple Watch, and have not given any indication when shipments might go out.
Best Buy has also informed some customers that Apple Watch Series 1 pre-orders won't be fulfilled until mid-October.
AppleInsider spoke with seven Target stores, only two of them having floor stock of the Series 2 -- one with a single unit, the other two. Of the eight Best Buy stores we polled, only one had stock, and even then it was only one unit.
All of the stores we asked had "a few" iPhone 7 models in rose gold, and no other stock whatsoever for retail purchase above and beyond pre-orders.
Both Target and Best Buy are offering Apple Watch Series 2 customers a $50 in-store credit for the inconvenience.
Pre-orders at both retailers started alongside Apple's process on Sept. 9, with early buyers being told that shipments would arrive on launch day.
Late Thursday, Best Buy emailed customers saying they would start shipping Apple Watch orders on Sept. 28. Target started sending emails on Friday morning, informing people of stock issues of the Apple Watch, and have not given any indication when shipments might go out.
Best Buy has also informed some customers that Apple Watch Series 1 pre-orders won't be fulfilled until mid-October.
AppleInsider spoke with seven Target stores, only two of them having floor stock of the Series 2 -- one with a single unit, the other two. Of the eight Best Buy stores we polled, only one had stock, and even then it was only one unit.
All of the stores we asked had "a few" iPhone 7 models in rose gold, and no other stock whatsoever for retail purchase above and beyond pre-orders.
Both Target and Best Buy are offering Apple Watch Series 2 customers a $50 in-store credit for the inconvenience.
Comments
Apple is pretty much taking a crap on everyone else by doing this, but hey, I guess they can. So many of us who would have gotten a phone today won't for that very reason.
The lesson I guess is buy directly from Apple in the future.
1) great phone
2) largest ever by country day one deployment
3) Sep-Dec 2014 was the hugest quarter in iPhone history (and this will be a boomlet of the 2 year contract renewals, which at the time was the standard plan).
4) Jet Black is the new Black. (and it takes longer to make a jet black phone)
and we must assume that Apple knows exactly what the level of production capacity to build for roll-outs vs carry costs for ongoing (2nd quarter after release) operations. In short, my guess is the 'new lows' were actually 'finely tuned business risk acceptance to avoid Excessive CapEx and OpEx costs'
(in short, Apple could have built an amazing factory footprint and ended up paying for it for years... short term 'Wow', long term 'Ow')
And in some circles, scarcity drives up brand value.
I seriously doubt Apple took inventory from shipments to other retailers to make IUP participants happy. The IUP issue was with time slots, not numbers of phones available to Apple Stores, and it seems Apple is solving the IUP issue by taking units from their own walk-in inventory. Apple would have worked with their retail partners weeks or months ago to establish how many each of them would get. Pulling a "we screwed up, but we are going to make your customers suffer for it" is not Apple's way. It's up to those retailers to determine how they allocate their inventory to pre-orders vs. walk-ins. But do retailers get many to begin with? Nope. That's why I'd never try to get an iPhone on launch day through a retailer: they are 3rd in line behind Apple itself and then the carriers in terms of unit allocation. And now those retailers are admitting that their own preorders exceeded their initial supply.
May resellers may have to get stock from the carriers.
For those few able to buy directly from Apple - we certainly feel like second class citizens. <5% of the models ordered have even shipped! Only Plus available is the 128GB Gold???
2) I keep reading that Apple has never had demand outstrip supply for an iPhone launch before the iPhone 7, so you must be lying¡.
They probably reserved some stock from Apple and got a lot more orders than expected (even Apple got more orders).
I'm guessing they got the stocks Apple promised/contracted for so it is not Apple's fault.