I saw this over at Head-Fi.org’s forums. Conn’s is selling 4GB Sansa Fuzes for $20. I don’t have one nearby me, so I can’t take advantage of this great deal, but if anyone here has a Conn’s near them, check it out and report back!
All the best.
Refurb maybe, or open box? They have two other 4gb Fuze’s on sale for $59…
Even for a refurb that’s a darn good price. I’d probably go for it if 1) my car hadn’t just had an expensive breakdown and 2) I had a Conn’s near me (unlikely as I’ve never heard of them before.)
This was a one-day (Saturday, March 28th) sale to deplete the stock that was extended to Sunday across all stores in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana:
http://www.conns.com/conn-s-service-store-locations.html
However, all units except perhaps a few were sold by noon the first day, 24 hours before the OPie posted the notice.
@fyooz wrote:
This was a one-day (Saturday, March 28th) sale to deplete the stock that was extended to Sunday across all stores in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana:
However, all units except perhaps a few were sold by noon the first day, 24 hours before the OPie posted the notice.
Well, I’m sorry that’s the case. I didn’t read the Head-Fi.org post until yesterday afternoon.
Sounds like I got my Fuze at a bad time…
@pringles wrote:
Sounds like I got my Fuze at a bad time…
Hey, me, too! I paid nearly $90 for mine back in September of last year…oh, well.
I got an 8GB Fuze (refurbed) for $60 from froobi.com a few weeks ago. Works like a charm. The only negative is that the word “refurb” is etched into the rubberized coating on the back, not just the stick-on metallic letters they used on other models.
@pringles wrote:
Sounds like I got my Fuze at a bad time…
I suspect some cut-rate prices are indicative of stock clearance: I purchased my new 8 GB Sansa Fuze for $59.99 and tax last Thanksgiving over the Black Thursday Sale (November 27th) at a local Costco and I’ve not seen Sansa music players of any model or size for sale there since.
iPods replaced them.
@fyooz wrote:
@pringles wrote:
Sounds like I got my Fuze at a bad time…
I suspect some cut-rate prices are indicative of stock clearance: I purchased my new 8 GB Sansa Fuze for $59.99 and tax last Thanksgiving over the Black Thursday Sale (November 27th) at a local Costco and I’ve not seen Sansa music players of any model or size for sale there since.
iPods replaced them.
Costco is a normal discount retail seller (Im not sure thats the right term), but to my understanding, they sell everything at so low prices that they only carry things that have giant markup, and when the product looses that assumption the move on to the next brand. Right now people look for Ipods ar 125+. So Costco sells them at $100, an they are cheaper than other places but are still turning profit. Brands like Sansa dont have that expectation. And the web sellers I would be are selling “Refurbs” or players they bought from a company who went out of business. For instance Overstock.com could buy the stock from Circuit City whose stores are closing. I bet this is the more likely option.
@conversionbox wrote:
Costco is a normal discount retail seller (Im not sure thats the right term), but to my understanding, they sell everything at so low prices that they only carry things that have giant markup, and when the product looses that assumption the move on to the next brand. Right now people look for Ipods ar 125+. So Costco sells them at $100, an they are cheaper than other places but are still turning profit. Brands like Sansa dont have that expectation. And the web sellers I would be are selling “Refurbs” or players they bought from a company who went out of business. For instance Overstock.com could buy the stock from Circuit City whose stores are closing. I bet this is the more likely option.
Huh ?
@fyooz wrote:
@conversionbox wrote:
Costco is a normal discount retail seller (Im not sure thats the right term), but to my understanding, they sell everything at so low prices that they only carry things that have giant markup, and when the product looses that assumption the move on to the next brand. Right now people look for Ipods ar 125+. So Costco sells them at $100, an they are cheaper than other places but are still turning profit. Brands like Sansa dont have that expectation. And the web sellers I would be are selling “Refurbs” or players they bought from a company who went out of business. For instance Overstock.com could buy the stock from Circuit City whose stores are closing. I bet this is the more likely option.
Huh ?
Costco only sells stuff thats marked WAY up in other stores, so they can sell it for less and still turn major profits. Thus the ipod. The online places probably got theirs from a store that went out of business or they are selling refurbs.
Costco sells most items in bulk which, supplemented by membership dues and by its own branding, allows it to undercut competitors. A more liberal return policy adds further appeal. Judging by the check-out lines, slightly lower prices for 52" Samsung Plasma HDTVs and Panasonic Lumix TZ5 Cameras are not what drive sales, it’s the 20-roll packs of toilet paper and the 2-96 oz jumbo bottle bundles of cranberry juice, for example.
@conversionbox wrote:
Costco only sells stuff thats marked WAY up in other stores, so they can sell it for less and still turn major profits. Thus the ipod.
What evidence do you have to support this? What do you mean by “marked WAY up in other stores”? Do you have some specific numbers?
And which iPod were you thinking of when you quoted a $100 figure, or did you just pull that out of the air? In fact, when I looked them over the other weekend, I don’t recall iPods I saw were significantly cheaper than the ones I saw at a Best Buy (a membership free retailer)–certainly not 20% less, the difference you seemed to state between $125 and $100.
And in your previous post, what did you mean by, “when the product looses that assumption”? Heh, never mind.
Padawan, there are several reasons the consumables which make up core sales may be somewhat cheaper to significantly cheaper at Costco. I mentioned three in the opening sentence of this post. Additionally, large, national retailers (such as Costco) can hold some sway with manufacturers and cut deals for further reductions for electronics (some of which may not draw significant revenue but which may draw customers in store to make other purchases) which they then can pass on to the consumer, for example. Stock depletion for an item that is not selling may account for another–the Fuze I purchased was priced $99.99 before the sell-off. (Furthermore, Costco may carry them again, I don’t know. Do you?)
But I suspect “Costco[‘s] only sell[ing] stuff that[’]s marked WAY up in other stores” is not a significant product sales strategy, if it factors at all.
@fyooz wrote:
Costco sells most items in bulk which, supplemented by membership dues and by its own branding, allows it to undercut competitors. A more liberal return policy adds further appeal. Judging by the check-out lines, slightly lower prices for 52" Samsung Plasma HDTVs and Panasonic Lumix TZ5 Cameras are not what drive sales, it’s the 20-roll packs of toilet paper and the 2-96 oz jumbo bottle bundles of cranberry juice, for example.
@conversionbox wrote:
Costco only sells stuff thats marked WAY up in other stores, so they can sell it for less and still turn major profits. Thus the ipod.
What evidence do you have to support this? What do you mean by “marked WAY up in other stores”? Do you have some specific numbers?
And which iPod were you thinking of when you quoted a $100 figure, or did you just pull that out of the air? In fact, when I looked them over the other weekend, I don’t recall iPods I saw were significantly cheaper than the ones I saw at a Best Buy (a membership free retailer)–certainly not 20% less, the difference you seemed to state between $125 and $100.
And in your previous post, what did you mean by, “when the product looses that assumption”? Heh, never mind.
Padawan, there are several reasons the consumables which make up core sales may be somewhat cheaper to significantly cheaper at Costco. I mentioned three in the opening sentence of this post. Additionally, large, national retailers (such as Costco) can hold some sway with manufacturers and cut deals for further reductions for electronics (some of which may not draw significant revenue but which may draw customers in store to make other purchases) which they then can pass on to the consumer, for example. Stock depletion for an item that is not selling may account for another–the Fuze I purchased was priced $99.99 before the sell-off. (Furthermore, Costco may carry them again, I don’t know. Do you?)
But I suspect “Costco[‘s] only sell[ing] stuff that[’]s marked WAY up in other stores” is not a significant product sales strategy, if it factors at all.
Right, with the electronics they offer slighly lower prices, my 125 vs 100 were just random numbers (easy to do the math). All I was saying is that places like wal-mart and best buy mark up the product prices so they make more profit, what Costco and Sams Club (Where my experiance lies) do is buy the proudct the same as anybody else mark it up a little less. If you go to Costco and see a player for $10 less (another random number) than some place else and you buy it, then you have that money to buy 25 rolls of toilet paper or whatever. I am only speaking from my experiace in marketing with these types of stores.
