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The Almighty Buck Businesses Hardware

Best Buy's New $200/Yr Membership Locks PS5, Hot Holiday Items Behind Membership (arstechnica.com) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the pay-to-unlock dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: If you're still searching for a PS5 and are a Best Buy customer, your ship may have just come in -- that is, if you're willing to spend an extra $200 a year for access. That's because the big-box electronics retailer is locking stock of in-demand holiday items like Sony's console behind membership of its new Totaltech program. The expensive customer service package was recently rolled out nationwide. The $200 annual service -- which has benefits like round-the-clock tech support, up to two years of protection on Best Buy purchases (including AppleCare+ insurance, which can cost $200 on its own), and member discounted prices -- is throwing in exclusive access to "the season's hardest-to-find products" as a bonus perk for the holidays, the company said in a statement. The Best Buy retail site had the $500 disc drive model PS5s available for Totaltech members to buy Monday morning, with the consoles gated behind an "exclusive access event" paywall. Instead of selling out instantly, its stock lasted between 90 minutes and two hours -- a relatively glacial sales pace compared to the insane demand for the hardware that consumers have faced since it hit stores last November.

Although the PS5's listing page pointed directly to Totaltech membership exclusivity while the hardware was still available, its seemingly unrelated VIP buying privileges aren't listed anywhere on the program's membership benefits and FAQ pages. We would not be shocked to see other highly desired products that have been affected by the chip shortage follow suit, particularly high-end PC GPUs and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The service is replacing a "Best Buy Beta" program that was tested in select markets starting in April. Beta seemed to target a more generalized range of benefits over one focused on tech support and protection, and it notably did not offer special members-only events to buy limited-stock electronics. The company's free My Best Buy membership, which sometimes includes exclusive discount sales, remains unaffected.
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Best Buy's New $200/Yr Membership Locks PS5, Hot Holiday Items Behind Membership More

Best Buy's New $200/Yr Membership Locks PS5, Hot Holiday Items Behind Membership

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  • I have no doubt some people are buying more electronics online and less in stores. Retailers are trying to do more in store service - of various types - to get customers to come back in when they can't necessarily compete directly on price. That's great for them.

    However I'm in a different group, and I know I'm not alone. I didn't switch my electronics purchases to Amazon, newegg, or anyone else. I'm simply not spending as much on electronics and entertainment as I used to. I don't own a gaming console that is less than 5 years old, and I don't intend to buy a current generation console or anything from the next generation either. My TV is over 10 years old but I don't have any desire to replace it. 4K doesn't appeal to me.

    In other words, Best Buy isn't losing out on my money because it's going elsewhere; they're losing out on my money because the companies whose products they carry don't appeal to me at this moment. I'm not sure what the answer is to that; I don't want Best Buy to try to carry everything and turn into WalMart either.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 )

      I'm with you on this. I owned the PS2, and then the 3 and the 4. (I remember those last 2 were both real struggles to get ahold of relatively close to their respective launches.) By the time I had the 4 for a while, I realized there were really barely any game titles out I really wanted to play on the thing. I justified it for a little while as my Blu-Ray movie player for my TV, but again - that quickly became pointless because I was watching almost everything via streaming and wound up only buying maybe

    • I think your post could be summarized as "I'm getting older and am no longer in the target demographic for these specific products". Give it a few years and you'll be all excited about Best Buy's appliances section ;-)

    • ...In other words, Best Buy isn't losing out on my money because it's going elsewhere; they're losing out on my money because the companies whose products they carry don't appeal to me at this moment. I'm not sure what the answer is to that...

      America found out rather alarmingly during COVID just how much of their GDP is reliant upon consumer spending. Non-stop, incessant, and often utterly pointless consumer spending. Hence the obscene government handouts to keep the economy "flowing".

      You don't know what the answer is there, because America doesn't either. All they do know, is you need to spend, no matter if you need it or not. It's your duty as a citizen.

      ...I don't want Best Buy to try to carry everything and turn into WalMart either.

      Bit late for that when the Best Buy vacuum and refrigerator department, is larger than

  • My gods, just raise prices (Score:3)

    by ZorinLynx ( 31751 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @07:11PM (#61886071) Homepage

    This whole concept of electronics being sold for the same price as always in the face of ridiculously high demand so you can't get it easily just makes me wonder why companies don't increase the price to match the demand. It feels like Sony is leaving a lot of money on the table with the PS5; they probably could have charged twice as much and still be selling every single one.

    • Newegg is doing just that w/ graphics cards...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Because the negative publicity from price gouging does more harm to their brand than they gain from jacking up the price.

      There is some psychology involved too. In order for a console to be successful they need to sell a lot of units so that developers produce games for it. That's why consoles are usually priced quite aggressively at launch, often being sold at a loss. Even if availability is limited, if the price is $299 people will hang on trying to get one. If the price suddenly goes up to $999 they might

    • Supply and demand is a good thing for setting prices, however I think the problem is flippers that buy as many as they can to sell on Ebay, which causes a false scarcity while artificially jacking up prices for those willing to buy from a self-inserted middleman.

      Reserving stock for 'members' might be a way to avoid the flipper problem, as long as BB limits members to one per customer, otherwise the flipper problem will just become a member, buy 20 or so then jack up the prices even more to cover their me

  • Good Deal for Scalpers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by srichard25 ( 221590 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @07:26PM (#61886103)

    This seems to be a good deal for scalpers. They pay $200 per year and get access to buy hard-to-find consoles that they can sell on Ebay for significantly more. Can they buy more than one PS5 to sell? That would make it an even better deal for them.

    • the resell market has been dropping and you'll need a lot of best buy accounts at $200 a year for each one to be able to buy multiple consoles

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • This is purely speculation, but I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that the highest asks on FB Marketplace are just market manipulation by scalpers. Put in a few fake listings for PS5s at $750, and all of a sudden the one you list at $600 looks like a steal.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      It's also a good deal for best buy; they can't up the price of the console without being attacked for gouging. I doubt they're going to let scalpers buy huge numbers on a single account so it'll drive up scalpers costs, and it's dubious they'll be able to fully recover these with increased prices.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I understand the program, but offering harder to find items like the PS5 to only those that give BB an extra $200 seems like a bad deal for Sony. I wonder if Sony is aware that they were doing this with their consoles?
  • Of inflation. Theres only one PS5 for every two people who want one, with no relief on the horizon because of world-wide supply problems. Best buy finds a way to charge more. Anyone shocked?

  • sam's club and costco cost less and the non meber (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @09:28PM (#61886333)

    sam's club and costco cost less

  • It is at least reasonable ($20), and still allows you to get the Xbox consoles (or PS5).

    I don't know how they came up with the $200 price for this. Yes there is a market (if you buy a TV and phone from them every year), but bundling hard to find things in an overall extended warranty service is not the right action.

    • Surely this must really be for small business owners, with the game console angle being just a side effect. No household buys enough in electronics to justify this.
      • I imagine they are pushing it hard to everyone, majority of the time the service will not be used especially by consumers so it is all profit.

    • I don't know how they came up with the $200 price for this.

      It comes with AppleCare, which costs $200 itself and Best Buy gets a bulk discount on.

  • You pay them money (for the membership), so that you get to pay them money (for the products)? That's what they are trying to normalize? And people buy that?
    • It worked for Amazon Prime.
      • Amazon prime brings you stuff faster. This would be the equivalent of "you can't buy this product unless you have prime". For a brick-and-mortar "you can't enter this area of the shop unless you're a member". Okaaaay off to a different shop if you don't want my money.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by torkus ( 1133985 )

        Prime has a very direct, tangible and ongoing benefit if you order from amazon regularly.

        Then they added a ton of other stuff too...but that happened after.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by torkus ( 1133985 )

      Just think of it like the nonsense "enrollment fees" that lots of places charge.

      Now, if you're pulling a background and verifying various safety certifications for something...sure makes sense.

      Scanning my ID for a gym membership and charging $100+? Fk right off.

      This is different through - they're trying to add value to yet another "blahblahblah-as-a-service" offering. Recurring revenue is king. Never mind the unlimited support model just means you're getting shit support from largely un/under-trained pe

  • Eh, screw all of 'em.

  • when geek squad 'optimized' laptops (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ThomasD3 ( 2562163 ) on Wednesday October 13, 2021 @07:17AM (#61887205)
    Years ago, I needed a laptop quickly and best buy had the model I wanted in stock. When I showed up at the store, I was told that they only had models which had been 'optimized' by geek squad and there was a cost for that unwanted service. They wouldn't roll things back either. I found later on that this was their new scam. So I didn't get the laptop, and I vowed to never purchase anything from them ever again. This was over a decade ago and to me they don't exist anymore when I need something.

    • They hard sold at me when I was buying a Chromebook there a couple years ago.

      What were they pushing? Virus scanner software and "optimization" services. For a Chromebook.

      Haven't been back since.

  • Have been trying to score a PS5 for gifts for a while pushing f5 when I have a spare second.

    At first when it didn't say sold out couldn't believe my eyes only to find out I wouldn't be able to purchase without giving best buy $200 for a service I will never use and has no use or value to me. It's a better deal to just pay scalpers on eBay to get a PS5 for sure instead of paying +$200 for the chance to maybe someday if your lucky and quick enough and have nothing better to do than waste your time pushing F

  • Looking for a PS5, just watch twitter or discord, I was able to get one (Best Buy) without their crappy service by catching drop tweets within about a week. YMMV. @TargetPS5Alerts, @Stock_Drops, @PS5Drop, @SupplyNinja, @GYXdeals, @PS5StockNews

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