Wal*Mart is comin' to get ya ;-)

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2005/nf20051110_5243_db016.htm

This holiday season, Wal-Mart Stores has made no secret that it's gunning for the nation's two largest consumer-electronics chains, Best Buy and Circuit City Stores. Wal-Mart has spiffed up the interiors of many of its electronics departments and added a slew of high-end products, from Sony liquid-crystal-display televisions and Toshiba laptops to Apple iPods.

And this part is also interesting:

Although they don't disclose it in their financial filings, the real earnings engine at Best Buy and Circuit City is not the sale of gadgets themselves but the sale of warranties

The main reason I will NOT shop those two places, is the mail in rebate crap. Sure, it sounds like a deal, but only if you actually recieve the rebate. I think that over the years, I have actually got one or two back. Just give me a good price up front, no games please?

Yeah, I hate those games too and of course they're counting on the fact that most people won't do all the paperwork. The last time I bought a computer for my daughter from MacMall it literally took me an afternoon to do all the rebates. There were 3 of them for the printer, which made it "free", another for a carrying case, another for a "free" DVD player (which I gave to a friend) and one for "free" memory. Each one required a form, a copy of the receipt, and copy of the bar code from the box.

And speaking of my daughter, a couple years ago I got her a cellphone that would have been "free" with a $100 rebate. But I didn't think to cut the UPC code from the box before she went back to college and by the time I got around to the paperwork and realized it, the box was long gone. Grrr....

It isn't just CC and BBY with those rebates, everyone does it. Then there's the grocery store that wants you to get the discount card to track your purchases. And you can clip all those coupons from the newspapers. Personally I don't do any of these things, so I end up paying more. But my life is easier. :-)

At least wal mart is straight up in everything I have bought. This is the price. This is the price on sale. I would rather pay full price, than jump through hoops- after paying full price, and hoping I get the rebate.