Apple Store is for looking not buying

Stan Beer
Monday, 21 July 2008 05:51

Opinion and Analysis

So already we found a retailer that was selling the Apple device for $31 lower than the Apple Store. But that's not the end of the story.

JB HiFi, Dick Smith and Retravision all, confirmed that they would match or better any price on offer for the iPod Touch 16GB from any other retailer. So we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered that the huge Officeworks chain was selling the iPod Touch 16GB for $445.

A quick call to the three retailers who play the price matching game confirmed that they were all prepared to match or beat the $445 price if we came into the store. One of the retailers said it could do better than $445. A call to the Apple Store confirmed that the $499 price stands and there would be no price matching or haggling.

So what we have ended up with is a choice between paying $499 for a product directly from Apple or lower than $445 from major Apple resellers. That's a saving of at least $54 or about 12%.

So is this sort of saving only applicable to the iPod Touch? Not at all! We've only just started doing the same exercise for the Apple TV and already we're getting substantially lower prices than what's on offer from the Apple Store. We haven't tried sourcing Macs yet because we're not in the market for one yet but we fully intend to see what deals are on offer when we are.

Meanwhile, the message comes across very loud and clear. Support your Apple resellers; the Apple Store is for looking not buying.