If EVERYONE is going to buy this... you want them to come into YOUR store to do it... not your competition.

It's a rare person who walks into, say, Best Buy to grab Star Wars and just leaves immediately. People wander. People pick up items they didn't intend to. And some people will sit there with Star Wars in their hands and think "You know, my 27 inch TV sucks and I've been meaning to replace it. Maybe I'll go look at those flat screen plasma thingies I've been thinking about."

It doesn't take too many customers buying new speakers or TVs to make up for losing a couple of bucks on a DVD box set that everyone and their monkey is selling for cheap anyway...

I guess that's my point - the kind of person who spends his time searching out the cheapest deal on a DVD set like this one WILL come in, grab the set and go - because if they are like me, they will need to get over to the competitor's store and get THEIR best DVD deals for that week. Deal chasers are not typically browsers.

deal chasers/bargain hunters are the minority (probably far less than 1% of a retail store's customer base).

however, advertisements do help. If let's say Best Buy and Circuit City are in the same shopping complex, the shopper would probably go to the cheaper store since the effort in going to either store is exactly the same. That shopper will then buy everything that they need in that store at whatever price the store that they're in charges (most ppl don't price match). Walmart is notorious for doing this. They have a huge sale on let's say diapers or soda and ppl will go into that store to buy that cheap item and in the process buy other stuff where Walmart makes a profit. Naturally, some ppl may only buy the loss leader but that percentage is small. So if let's say 5% only buy the loss leader whereas 95% of the customers buy other stuff and 25% of that 95% buys something with a huge profit margin, then the loss leader effectively did its job.

Yes, I agree that Walmart is a notorious loss leader user - as I pointed out in regards to their gas pricing. The difference is, there are a lot of things people need on a daily basis at Walmart. While someone is there, they will probably grab some toothpaste, motor oil, Lysol, etc.

There is a big difference when it comes to DVDs - someone does not just walk into Best Buy and say "Well, while I am here getting this $20 DVD, I might as well buy a $3000 HDTV or a $1500 laptop". Bigger ticket items there are not impulse buys or staples.

As was mentioned before, some stores try to set up a pattern of buying there - FYE is a good example, with their constant $10 rebates on new releases. The thing is - they are using the mundane week-to-week releases to get you into the pattern of shopping there, hoping you will buy the bigger sets such as Star Wars when they come out. This trilogy is the end, not the means.

Look at the IJ TRilogy - it came out in late October, but FYE did not do their killer $25 rebate deal until 2 months later. They did not relegate it to loss leader status until the excitement over its initial release had worn off and the retail money had been made.

This is regarding the tax FYE.com is charging to most states. I don't know about other states , but NC allows you to deduct any taxes you have paid on out-of-state mail-order purchases from your "consumer use tax", which is an estimate gotten by

AGI * .065%

So I will be able to directly deduct the $3.50 sales tax FYE is charging me on my Star Wars trilogy pre-order from my NC State income tax. This makes it a better deal for me than Amazon with STL, which is $37.xx.

So those of you making a lot of mail-order buys might want to keep track of things like that.

The total profit (notice that I didn't say profit margin %, which is Profit / Sales, cuz although something such as Crest Toothpaste may have the same profit margin % as a Plasma TV, you would have to sell probably 1000 tubes of toothpaste to equal the total profit that you would get from selling one plasma TV which may have the same profit margin as the toothpaste) is what you need to look at when comparing 2 totally different stores such as Walmart and Best Buy. In addition, the biggest profit margin items for Best Buy are those Extended Warranties that employees hound you to buy.

Now, when you go to Walmart, 95% of the customers (I initially typed employees by mistake) will buy items other than the loss leader that's being advertised. However, as noted above, the total profit on one of those items is small and you must get lots of ppl being that item for the loss leader to be effective.

Now with a store such as Best Buy, 95% of the customers will at least buy something else whether it be another DVD or a CD. Total profit on those items is small but if 95% of the customers are buying those small items it adds up like it does with Walmart. Now, let's say 25% of the customers buy mid-level items such as a $200 stereo or a $300 printer. The total profit on those items is higher and and about 33% (I'm just estimating that figure...it's probably much higher) of those ppl will buy a Best Buy extended warranty on those products which have big profit margins. Finally, about 1% of those ppl buying the loss leader DVD will buy a big $2000 - $5000 item such as a plasma TV, which will have large profit, and typically when someone buys a very expensive item, they will also buy the extended warranty (I'm assuming over 75%).

Another point about mail-in-rebate items that stores such as FYE sell, is that only about 30% or so of rebates are actually paid out (most customers don't even send in the rebate or they send it in incorrectly so that the rebate house doesn't have to pay it out). Despite this, the store can still advertise the $19.99 item as $9.99 (with the after MIR in really small font) and the customer will subconsciously see the item as being $9.99. So in reality, items like these aren't huge loss leaders for a company. Also, most customers that frequent a store such as FYE, aren't bargain hunters; they will pay MSRP for DVDs ($29.99) and CDs ($18.99) without even blinking.

I don't know of any states that do this and I'm pretty sure that New York isn't one of them so New York will be taking the 8.625% tax that it charges me. Plus, deducting $3.00 is sometimes more hassle than it's worth.

Well, you know of one - NC. There are probably others, but hardly anyone reads the line instructions. And it is not a deduction, it is a direct credit (you deduct it from the CU tax, not from your income). And it is no trouble at all if you can use a calculator - you just figure the consumer use tax (which you must do anyway), then subtract $3.50. The only real effort involved is throwing any applicable receipts in your income tax records folder till the end of the year.

this post has a very condescending tone directed towards me. with that, no more responses to your posts from me cuz you won't look at other opinions rationally.

also, these posts have nothing to do with Star Wars pre-orders.

As mentioned, "deal chasers" like you (and me!) are a rare breed. They are not a significant number for stores to really worry about.

What is much more likely is Joe Sixpack or Jane Boxwine opening up their Sunday circular, seeing Star Wars for $45 at Best Buy and thinking "Great price, I'll have to stop by later in the week." Then, once in the store, Best Buy hopes to be able to gain larger purchases (TVs, PCs, audio equipment, appliances, whatever).

That's a LOT more likely than deal chasers who use STL, multiple DDD coupons, or spend all day Tuesday driving around town to save 20 cents on the latest new releases. ;)


Also, if having a great price on a big release like Star Wars builds up some sort of brand loyalty -- even a subliminal sense that Best Buy has great prices on new DVDs -- than it'll be worth a lot more than the meager profit they could have made pricing the set a bit higher.

Actually, it DOES have something to do with the Star Wars pre-orders - I had seen someone mention that they were unhappy with FYE.com charging sales tax, this is a way in which you get it back later. WITH tax, FYE.com is higher than Amazon w/STL - but if you discount the tax, it is a couple bucks cheaper. Of course, they would have to look at their own state's regs, but it should be in the instruction booklet. I don't even know if other states have a CU tax - I am pretty sure NC just started it within the last few years - but with the increasing online sales, I would imagine it will become pretty common.

If my tone seemed condescending, it wasn't intended to be - but your last post seemed dismissive of my previous post, basically as though you suspected that I didn't know what I was talking about, so I may have been a bit smart-ass. Sorry.

(Been doing my own taxes for 17 years, I know how to wring every last dime out of a refund check)

That's pretty much what I am saying - $45 is a good deal but not a loss-leader price, since FYE's deal is $35 - it is well below MSRP, but they will still make money, and it will probably be a common pricing point. As a reference, Walmart.com is $41.98, Costco $42.99, and Sams club $45.88.

My whole point is that some people are sitting on their hands waiting to see what deals will come - but I doubt any in-store deal is going to beat FYE's pre-order deal, at least not at release time.

bump

Any news of bonus items beyond Best Buy giving away Beneath The Dome?

i'll just wait till DDD has their 20% sale in november, it will then be around 33.00, no rush for this set

I would rather rush and get it now for $25 (actually, $28 after tax) from FYE with the preorder rebate and free $10 gift card w/$50 card purchase.

Can anyone project what Best Buy will have it for? Like if there new releases are generally 45% off, would that come close? Anyone know for sure...

"I would rather rush and get it now for $25 (actually, $28 after tax) from FYE with the preorder rebate and free $10 gift card w/$50 card purchase."

That's what I did. Seems to be the best price that I can find so far.

Is the FYE deal done in-store, or online? I noticed you can buy gift cards through their web site, but I'm not sure you can use them on the web site. Nor did I see the free $10 gift card offer there.

I have only seen it in the stores. You can use it on the website though - when you go to checkout, there is an icon you click for a gift card.

C_Fletch - Where did you find the FYE free $10 gift card w/$50 card purchase?

Can anyone STL me the starwar preorder? thank you, I want to buy it from Amazon to save me from all the trouble going through rebate or drive to Wherehouse. Thank you

[email protected]

I am a NC taxpayer and the Consumer Use tax they put on the state tax form is pretty much ignored by most taxpayers. The few who actually claim any of the purchases they made online so they can pay the state tax on them usually opt for the flat rate of about $19 rather than actually provide receipts and and listing each and every purchase made online for that year. And even for those that choose to (or are required to because they bought $1000 or more online), they are only supposed to list the items they bought that did NOT have state sales tax added in the first place so I don't see how you would be able to "get back" the tax id you never listed it in the first place. Besides, I'm buying the SW set at the B&M store so I will be paying the tax then and the CU tax will be irrelevant anyway.

i'm sticking with my $35 preorder from ddd during their last 20% off sale

Read the directions, it is stated quite clearly there. The line for tax paid to another state is in both worksheets, whether or not you kept complete records. The point is - if your estimate is $20, and you have already paid $10, you are perfectly well entitled to deduct that $10.

There is NO "flat tax" - the estimate is .065% of yor AGI, try reading the directions before correcting someone who actually does read them.