#United states public macpilot full
If you’ve been shopping online and offline recently, you’ve probably realized that – unlike online retailers such as – bricks and mortar store chains make every effort to sell products at their full “manufacturer’s suggested retail prices” (MSRPs), rather than offering discounts. Recently, the retailer story has become even more eye-popping. We have heard many stories on how certain stores won’t stock good, inexpensive products because they don’t want to cannibalize sales of their more expensive or just higher-margin ones. It’s also the reason for a less obvious but even more aggravating set of practices: these stores actively push more expensive accessories over cheaper, equally good or better products. That’s one of the reasons salespeople are told to push “replacement policies” and accessories all the time, a profit-enhancing annoyance which is obvious to consumers. In fact, some stores claim that, when their overhead (total cost of employing people, paying rent, and so on) is taken into account, they actually lose money on every iPod they sell. You might be surprised to learn that stores don’t make $100 on every 30GB iPod they sell – the actual number’s not even close. The store doesn’t care whether the lower-profit item uses higher-quality parts that make it work or look better it wants you to buy the one with the higher profit margin. It’s possible for a store to sell two different products for $300, one of which puts $10 of profit into the company’s pocket, while the other offers $50 or $100 in profit. These stores would rather sell more units of high-margin players than more iPods, which despite their incredible popularity carry amazingly low retailer profit margins.Īt this point, we need to take one step back and explain a few points which might not be obvious to average consumers: large bricks and mortar retailers are all about per-unit profits. Since Sandisk aggressively controls its costs by owning and licensing out the flash memory technology it uses, there’s a significant profit margin on Sansa players, which the company passes along to retailers. Why would a store try to push Sandisk players on people at a time when iPods are ultra-hot? Profits. In print and online, massive electronics retailer Best Buy finds a way to put Sandisk’s Sansas in as many photos as possible, next to and sometimes instead of iPods. The answer is simple: Sandisk has been backed by prominent American bricks and mortar retailers, receiving shelf space and impressive placement in weekly newspaper circulars, amongst other perks. Even if you’re a fan of the iPod, you have to wonder how a company without any audio background or reputation in the MP3 business could quickly come to have even decent market share, let alone a number two position ahead of Creative, Sony, and other better-known companies in the United States. During a time when Apple’s iPods and computers are enjoying unparalleled popularity, these stores continue to aggressively push alternatives – and seek out other partners.Ĭonsider Sandisk. In addition to inspiring lawsuits by small but dedicated Apple computer resellers, which accused Apple of entering their markets in a predatory fashion, the company has enjoyed a less than ideal relationship with larger store chains.
Since Apple’s battles with retailers are fairly well-known, we don’t have to rehash them in detail: it suffices to say that Apple felt compelled to open its own international chain of stores to properly sell its products, and that it’s no surprise that the “official” Apple Stores both target highly competitive markets, and tend to be both first and best at stocking new Apple offerings.
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