Does BestBuy inflate their prices?

[swalsh99]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a new home theatre system for my house. I have been comparing the prices of home audio systems from BestBuy and Future Shop and I noticed something strange. For the exact same model of a given audio system, the prices at Best Buy are significantly higher than at Future Shop.

For instance, just today I was looking at the Sony 1000-Watt 5.1 Channel 3D Blu-ray Home Theatre System (BDVE880) on the BestBuy website. The price is $699.99 regular price. At Future Shop, however, the exact same system is $399.99 on sale, and only $469.99 regular price.

BestBuy: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/sony-sony-1000-watt-5-1-channel-3d-blu-ray-home-theatre-system-bdve880-bdve880/10169502.aspx?path=cc735021a5514ea2a291b4b547d1731 7en02

Future Shop: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/sony-sony-1000-watt-5-1-channel-3d-blu-ray-home-theatre-system-bdve880-bdve880/10169502.aspx?path=0e4297a560e738eb7addac54b71dfe3 3en02


I also noticed that BestBuy is advertising a Yamaha system for $349.99 on sale ($599.99 regular price), while at Future Shop the exact same system is $349.99 regular price. So the "sale" at BestBuy is really no sale at all, but is advertised as one.

BestBuy: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/yamaha-yamaha-600-watt-home-theatre-system-yht196-yht196-b/10182308.aspx?path=61722fce840a9d2c5efaa25ac39b14a een02

Future Shop: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/yamaha-yamaha-600-watt-5-1-channel-3d-ready-receiver-home-theatre-system-yht196-b-yht196-b/10182308.aspx?path=6c8cea51e74383af5326299161d3bca 6en02

Has anyone noticed this before when shopping at BestBuy? I know they have a lowest price guarantee but this seems like bad business practice.

[coriolis]

Gotta make some money somehow :P

[carmaster]

Futureshop and Bestbuy are notorious for doing this especially on 'sale' items. Just look at their past boxing day flyers and you will notice the stated 500-1000 off is in fact false. They always inflate prices to show higher discounts.

[swalsh99]

Futureshop and Bestbuy are notorious for doing this especially on 'sale' items. Just look at their past boxing day flyers and you will notice the stated 500-1000 off is in fact false. They always inflate prices to show higher discounts.

Is this legal?

[Akitakara]

Is this legal?

Only if you do it a reasonable amount of time beforehand... say about a month? ;)

From what I read on RFD, you'll see BB prices start to rise on TV's around end of November/Beginning December.

Beginning of Jan, you'll usually see most TVs have a sale price near that of their boxing day prices too.

[rabbit]

This is what I think (ie. a logical guess):

You know electronics drop in price over time, when new tech becomes available.
Electronic stores take advantage of this in advertising.
They put the original, retro suggested retail price as the non-sale price.
Simple as that, and legal.

PS. Products in flyers do not always mean that they are on sale.

[renoldman]

Isn't there some law (or Advertising rule) that says that a listed regular price, is a price that a unit has been sold at?

I think it was Zellers or Sears Canada that had some issues in the past in that they couldn't prove that anyone paid the regular price.

[woof]

It could be that they are deliberately trying to funnel the business for that type of product over to Future Shop where the salesmen who are on commission can better squeeze the customer into buying inflated add-ons like Monster Cable stuff and extended warranties.


Isn't there some law (or Advertising rule) that says that a listed regular price, is a price that a unit has been sold at?
I think it was Zellers or Sears Canada that had some issues in the past in that they couldn't prove that anyone paid the regular price.

A retailer can set any "list" price he wants. There are no restrictions whatsoever. The problem comes in when he tries to use the list price for comparison purposes against the sale price. I don't know the law exactly but when using the list price like that it must be a reasonable price - what customers have been paying on a regular basis for that item with a reasonable quantity sold over a reasonable period of time. Sears got nailed on a tire sale because they couldn't back up the list price with a history of having been sold at that price.

[YippoHippo]

Doesn't matter where you buy the product from. Best Buy owns Future Shop.

[Coz4k]

No.

The Monster cables really worth 199$

[cyder]

Only if you do it a reasonable amount of time beforehand... say about a month? ;)

From what I read on RFD, you'll see BB prices start to rise on TV's around end of November/Beginning December.

Beginning of Jan, you'll usually see most TVs have a sale price near that of their boxing day prices too.

if you read on rfd you would see multiple instances of something being say 799 reg price, next day 1199 on sale for 849. they do this surprisngly often

[Ojam]

Sony lists the regular price as 699.99

http://store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=20153&catalogId=100803&langId=200&productId=8198552921666351447

As does Visions

http://www.canadapost.ca/shopper/items/7671734/SONY-HTIB-BDVE880