I wanted to buy Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Barnes and Nobles is selling it for $11.99 + shipping online. The store by my house has it for $17.99. Why won't they pricematch? I think it's stupid and insulting as a customer. Doesn't Best Buy, for example, price match? I don't get it.

in a lot of stores, B&M and online are considered different entities, so they don't have to PM, and many times won't.

I don't believe Best Buy pricematches it's own website either.

The main reason is that they have to pay to ship the products to the stores from there wherehouse and when you order online you have to pay for shipping (or they only have to pay for first class mail ). Plus they have to pay more employees, say per sale, if that makes scence to you.
Example: Let's say that it might only take the same amout of people to run the online entitie as two retail stores and they sell as much product as 20 stores. I'm not saying that is anywhere close to the reality but you get the idea.
There are other reasons like the online compitition and some I don't even know.

this should be in the Store Forum, not bargain forum

Reporting the post is a pretty good way to accomplish that. The poster can't actually move it themselves.

I think the answer to the question has to do with online competition being different than B & M competition, plus there are a lot of costs associated with being a B & M that aren't associated with online. I suspect some places will match other businesses Online prices, but not their own (I know Sears will PM online prices sometimes, but they usually add shipping in).

QUOTE]I don't believe Best Buy pricematches it's own website either.[/QUOTE]

I have gotten Best Buy to price match their web-site many times.
--Edward.

Lucky you. I had a problem last week in fact. I went to thier website to see how much the South Park movie was and it came up $11.99. So I ran to the store and it was $14.99. They wouldn't match it. And I decided it wasn't worth the $3 to drive back home, place the order and use the "pick up at store" option.. oh well..

I have gotten Best Buy to price match their web-site many times.
--Edward. [/QUOTE]

I too have had BB tell me that they wouldn't match their own website prices

Case in point, ST:TNG Season 6
$79.99 online
$99.99 in store

So, I went home, ordered it and had it set for store delivery, 3 hours later, I save $20.

Best Buy won,t pm but you can order on-line then pickup at store.

How is that insulting? Are you that easily insulted? Then don't come to my town!!! They paint fire hydrants yellow. I wouldn't want you to get insulted over that. I'm just looking out for ya.

To be a tad more serious, if we can be, since you are insulted over nothing... I don't think any retail stores price match on any web stores. It's a completely different business model, as someone suggested in different words. If you don't like the stores policy, shop elsewhere or online. Some of the best deals will be found on eBay, Half, and Amazon anyway.

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On a side note -- Last summer, I gave Hastings the chance to take my business before I bought online. I went in and told the manager that I was planning on buying an XBox, 2 games, and an extra controller (all new) for such a price. It was about $50 less their prices, shipped, and I wouldn't be paying taxes. I asked him to price match and I'd buy right then. I even told him he could price match without the taxes, so I'd be paying more. His response was "we cannot possibly compete with that. You are buying from people with higher volumes that get better prices and can sell for less." Yeah right! Is he telling me the 63-yo retired lady I bought a game from who sells them out of her living room buys at higher volume than the international company Hastings? Ha! So, I walked out and ordered the stuff online.

In a recent local paper about Wyoming's pursuit of charging sales tax on online orders, they gave responses of local merchants. Hastings was the only merchant that thought it would hurt their business. What are they talking about?

That is the exact thing that I had price-matched. I just used the reasoning that if the item is available for store pick-up what sense does it make for them not no match their own web-site. They agreed. I was also able to get Star Trek TNG Season 5 price adjusted since it had not been 30 days since my purchase.

I think the main reason Best Buy price matched these purchases is because I do a lot of shopping there and they know this so your mileage may vary. --Edward

As far as I know, Circuit city doesnt price match their site and it says so on their site in the fine print.

The Best Buy is a no-brainer. Since you have to go into the store to request a price match anyway, just go ahead and order it at the lower price from their online site for in-store pickup. Then in the same trip you can do a return on the original receipt using the new DVD you just picked up. Problem solved. However, I also agree that it is insulting for a store to force their customers to jump through hoops like this - not to mention their arbitrary policy of doing price matches for some but not others even under the exact same circumstances. And to show how completely brain dead some of these merchants are, consider when they refuse to price match their online site when the item qualifies for free shipping. They end up having to eat the additional shipping cost by forcing you to order online rather than just price matching. Essentially, they are spending money to piss off their customers. Now there's a recipe for success!

I've never had that problem at Best Buy. I asked a clerk about it once because a DVD they had in store was marked more than it was online by about $4.00. I had even checked their website instore to verify the web price before asking about it, incase it had gone up online too.

I was told that no PM was necessary, as the selling prices are actually the same online and at B&Ms, even though each may show a different price, and that it's always going to be whichever is the lower price. She scanned the DVD for me and showed that it actually rang up at the website price, even though it was stickered at a higher price. She explained the store used the same price database as the website, so it would always be the same no matter what a sticker said.

I've seen this accomplished a few times at both the Portland and Clackamas stores in OR.

Victoria's Secret is like that. I was trying to find some stuff I saw in their catalog but couldn't since they even have a slightly different stock.

I didn't try to price match, though, since I didn't find what I was looking for.

They (brick & morter) are having a bra sale in January and February, if anybody's interested. $10 for most bras.