This last week, along with traveling back to Salt Lake City from Boston, I was also able to celebrate my birthday for the 32nd time. I decided, in celebration, I was finally going to bite the bullet and go out and purchase a Blue Ray DVD Player. So I did my shopping, and found the best Blue Ray player for the price which I could find was an LG BD 370 Network Blu-ray Disc Player
, which, at cheapest rate, sold on Amazon for $217.21. It has BDLive, Netflix and Youtube streaming, along with all the other cool features you can get in a blue ray player. Load times are also very fast.
While I was ready to purchase on Amazon and wait for my shipment, I decided to search around locally to see if I could find something I could pick up that day, since it was my birthday, after all. I found one at around $229 on BestBuy.com, and sure enough, it was available at my local store. I knew Best Buy offered price matching – they hang a huge banner from their store advertising such. I also love that I can earn points from them, and since it’s my birthday month, I get quadruple the points for my purchases this month! I also had a $10 gift certificate I had earned from previous purchases.
So I headed over to my local Best Buy, eager to purchase my new player, found the player, picked it up, and even got a copy of Coraline
to watch with the family that night. The DVD happens to play in 3D, 2D, normal DVD formats, and has a downloadable version you can save to a Mac, PC, or iPod/iPhone. I took it and a Coke to drink that night over to the checkout counter, and to my surprise, the lady handling my purchase wouldn’t match the Amazon price I had printed out before coming to the store!
“We don’t match online prices,” she said. I responded with “well, you do realize Amazon is a competitor, right?” She then responded with something to the effect that it was their policy. She then proceeded to offer me an extended warranty plan, adding, “I bet they don’t offer that online, do they?” Despite the irony of that statement and the good laugh I got from it, I left it alone, purchasing the item at full-price since it was only a $10 difference, and while Best Buy seemingly couldn’t afford that difference, it wasn’t a huge deal for me, especially since I had the gift certificate.
That experience however has made me think twice about the next time I find something cheaper on Amazon, or elsewhere online. Since I can’t price-match at my local store, why buy local at all? All their competitors, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. have gone fully online. Who exactly is Best Buy price matching with any more?
I think in the future, when I see that lower price on Amazon.com, I may just take it, give Amazon the business, and have the order delivered to my door rather than wasting my gas to go to Best Buy. Sorry Best Buy, but your competitors are much more appealing to me right now.
