NO! Best Buy to raise prices!! (1 Viewer)

[Dave_P]

I was in Best Buy last night and ended up talking with someone that works there about martial arts movies and anime. He was saying that he buys most of his anime from Suncoast because they have a better selection there. He also mentioned that BB owns Suncoast. I said good, now Suncoast can lower their prices to be on the same level with BB. He said that BB was actually going to raise their prices because Suncoast has good sales figures.

I told him that he just ruined my day and had to walk away at that point.
I really hope that this is not true. Why would BB raise prices? Sure they would make more money off purchases, but wouldn't they lose part of their consumer base in the process. Please let this not be true. I buy 90% of my DVD's from BB. Has anyone else heard anything?

 

[Jeff Ashforth]

I'm pretty sure that the Musicland Group owns Suncoast Video, along with Sam Goody and Media Play. So I don't think you have to worry about Best Buy raising their prices.
------------------
"I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go."
My Spare time larcenists
The worst HT in America.

 

[Jerry Gracia]

...perhaps higher prices is what we need to keep the "average" consumer away. The average consumer is the reason WARNER opted to release their recent full frame only titles.
------------------
LuvLBX

 

[nolesrule]

Best Buy purchased the Musicland Stores Corporation on January 31st.
Best Buy Completes Musicland Acquisition
And you'll notice that the "About Best Buy Co., Inc." section states:

The Company operates retail stores under the names: Best Buy, Magnolia Hi-Fi, Sam Goody, Suncoast, Media Play and On Cue.

 

[AdrianJ]

I really can't see Best Buy marking their products up to Suncoast level. After all, Suncoast sells everything other than new releases at SRP. I doubt Best Buy will do this. If they do, I don't really care. I still get most of my DVDs off the internet.
------------------

Adrian Jones

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

I remember when Best Buy stores first came to my area (Indianapolis). They made a big deal about how they should always have the lowest price on any merchandise in their store because they sent out employees to local electronics/appliance stores and would always set their price to the lowest price in that area for that item. It seemed to be true too because I was looking for a VCR at the time (circa 1993) and found an open-box sale at Sears, but Best Buy had the exact same price for the exact same VCR brand new. Does Best Buy still do this? Did they ever? If so, they shouldn't be raising their price over a local Suncoast anyway.
JKS
------------------
My one goal in life is to live forever.
Ya know what? . . . So far, So good! Yeah!

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Nope... Best Buy and Suncoast are both owned by the same company. In fact, the Suncoast here lost three of their employees because they're building a Best Buy across the street, and the parent company sent the Suncoast people for managerial training. I asked the manager if it was going to affect pricing in any way or if the Suncoast would be shut down since it's so close, and he said that there wouldn't be any change to the pricing at either store.
Personally, I'm just glad we're getting a Best Buy here. Our other stores SUCK!

 

[John Berggren]

If this were to be true, the internet would once again have a logical incentive for my purchases.
------------------
Rationality is not a commodity which is evenly distributed.
Thank you Sci-Fi channel for Season 6 of Stargate SG-1
View SpaceDog's DVD Collection

 

[JonZ]

Actually by me Curcuit City beats Best Buy prices by a dollar on new releases to compete. If Best Buy does raise theyre prices Ill just stick with Circuit City.
But Best Buy still has the best prices right now.
Criterions Sanjuro $22
Criterion Brazil $40
MGM & WB Titles $9,14,19
Media Play is the worst in my area asking as much as $10 or even $15 more on some titles. I go there as a last resort on a must have title.
------------------
Visit My Pathetic WebPage
"....With that in mind,I humbly add my own prophecy of
what the dawn of the new millennium shall bring forth-
one thousand more years of the same old crap" Jose Chung

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

They raise their prices to high, and they've lost a customer.
------------------
My DVD Collection

 

[Skoobooz]

Wouldn't raising their prices make their name misleading? (Only half kidding.)

 

[MikeSerrano]

If true, Sam's Club will be the only B&M I'll be purchasing my impulse-buy DVDs.

(I know Sam's Club is owned by Wal-Mart, but some of the prices on their DVDs are simply insane and at least the one close to my house still carries the widescreen versions of "multi-aspect" releases.)
-Mike.
------------------
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o 0o.
void *: Finger to spiritual emptiness underlying everything
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o 0o.

[Edited last by MikeSerrano on August 30, 2001 at 12:21 PM]

 

[Steve Hauben]

I always assumed besides greed Suncoast charged so much because they're in malls, I don't see how BB can justify it.
-Steve

 

[Carlo_M]

I think they've already started raising their prices. The BB near me has a bunch of titles now $22.99 and $26.99 whereas in the past these titles would have been $19.99 and $24.99.
As long as they do loss leaders, I'll keep coming in. Once they stop that, it's back to Ken Cranes (or the internet) I go.
I do fear that maybe all the stores will raise prices (market collusion, is that the term?) like they did with CDs. I remember when you used to get $9.99 CDs of new releases, with normal CDs going for $12.99. Now it's $13.99 for new releases and $17.99+ for older CDs and it's pretty consistent with all the stores (unless they're having some sort of clearance or sale).

 

[David Lambert]

Actually by me Curcuit City beats Best Buy prices by a dollar on new releases to compete

Wow..you must be in a nice market! Here in Memphis CC raised prices this past spring. New titles are $1 *more* than BB's. Backstock titles can and often are $1-$3 higher than average street price:
$ 9.99 --> $10.99
$14.99 --> $15.99
$19.99 --> $21.99 or $22.99
$27.99 --> $30.99
As far as Best Buy goes, if they end up raising their prices to CC levels, then I'll be going to CostCo and Sam's Club for pretty much all the hot hits, and yes to the internet for older titles. Otherwise, I'll just wait for things to hit the markdown circuit.
Also, a Tower Records just opened up in town, so that gives me ANOTHER choice to buy my discs at!
There's actually no reason for BB to raise prices other than pure profit. Sam Goody and Suncoast's prices are where they are due to mall rents (something I'm quite familiar with after 13 years as a retail store mgr!). Since BB shouldn't have to worry about that, their pricing ought to not be affected "just because Suncoast does well"...unless they just want the extra cash. They have to decide how that affects their business.
If they want to investigate that, they ought to talk to my local CC. They can fill them in.
------------------
DAVE/Memphis
Widescreen is Family Fun!

[Edited last by David Lambert on August 30, 2001 at 09:11 PM]

 

[Dave_P]

Carlos,
Your price increase in your post seems to reflect the statements I heard last night when talking to the employee at BB. He said that the $19.99 dvd' would go up to $22.99, and that the $24.99 dvd's would go up to $26.99. I am not happy about this at all. I thought that prices are supposed to go down and not up as a format becomes more popular. What is going on here? I guess other B&M's will get more of my business. Good thing there is a CC adjacent to the BB where I live.

 

[AndyVX]

Hmm, Best Buy also just bought Future Shop up here in Canada. Future Shop generally has the best prices on DVD's in a B&M store...I wonder what will happen with the prices.
Andrew
------------------
ICQ# - 119869807

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I guess they need to raise prices so they can keep buying out their competitors

Well, that's just that many more discs I buy from Deep Discount or Digital Eyes.
------------------
"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."

 

[Jeff Wilson]

Anyone else have Suncoasts in their area closing? Here in Detroit, I tried going to two Suncoasts looking for the Anchor Bay clearance titles, only to find that both had closed. I never shopped at them, because of the extortionate pricing, but I found it odd since they had been around for quite a while.
[Edited last by Jeff Wilson on August 30, 2001 at 01:51 PM]

 

[Mike Hoak]

It's important to keep in mind the very different nature of the the two retailers in question: Best Buy and Suncoast. Although they are owned by the same company, their marketing strategies are very different. Suncoast specializes in videos and dvd's. Those are the only two types of products that they are going to make any profit on. Also keep in mind that profit margins on those items are by their very nature small when compared to higher priced consumer electronics items. Much like Sam Goody and other mall-centered music and video retailers, they are limited in their ability to price products too low, because they have a high overhead and they need to make a decent profit on each product. Best Buy, and Circuit City for that matter, are in a completely different boat. They sell DVD's in immense volume and do not need to make as large of a per unit profit as video and dvd dedicated B&Ms such as Suncoast. In fact, Best Buy can easily price items at or below their acquisition cost to get more people through the doors, some of whom will presumably by other (i.e. more expensive and larger profit) items such as TVs, computers, etc. In fact, Best Buy is currently in a very public tiff with the music industry for selling CD releases below cost. It's a practice that's been used by new gas stations throughout the country--sell people cheap gas so that they will frequent your store, thus generating enough money from snacks and drinks to make up the lost revenue on gas while at the same time creating customer loyalty. Now is Best buy always the cheapest place to get DVDs? No way. However, they have certain pricing advantages at their disposal that Suncoast will never have, even if they are owned by the same company.