Best Buy's New $200/Yr Membership Locks PS5, Hot Holiday Items Behind Membership (arstechnica.com) 50
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.
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.
In my case, they missed the point (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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
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Slashdot runs off the hip/woke/youth crowd by not moderating the GNAA/NAMBLA style spam/trolling. As well as all the other trolling here.
That certainly explains the constant barrage of "click here if you agree Biden should resign immediately" banner ads and all the discussions that inevitably head towards celebrations of how fantastic Trump was as POTUS. Yep, clearly slashdot is concerned about young liberals.
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...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)
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.
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Re: My gods, just raise prices (Score:2)
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Just make them $999 each already and those willing to pay will get one.
If Sony makes them $999, then the scalpers will be still buying them all out and reselling for $2000+ most likely.. you forget the price people will pay and how much it can be marked up depends on what the original thing is priced at.
Ultimately raising the price hurts Sony, because the scalping situation is a temporary period of artificial demand created by scalpers manipulating the market, but their price increase would reduce the lo
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Scalpers would already be selling for $2k if people would pay $2k ....
The nature of the PS5, that it's an entertainment product, lends well to high pricing elasticity. People's willingness to pay $2k is affected by what they think the original product is supposed to be worth -- assuming Sony had priced the PS5 at $1000 and the other console manufacturers follow the same thinking, there may be less people initially interested in buying the product, But still enough to exhaust the stocks of new unit
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Why would Trump do such a thing?
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Why would Trump do such a thing?
I know recovering from TDS is a long road full of setbacks, but remember your 12 steps and keep strong. We are here for you.
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Last I checked, Trump was president in 2019...
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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
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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)
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.
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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
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Pay to Play? (Score:1)
Simply a funny form (Score:2)
sam's club and costco cost less and the non meber (Score:5, Insightful)
sam's club and costco cost less
Get Gamestop membership instead (Score:2)
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.
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It comes with AppleCare, which costs $200 itself and Best Buy gets a bulk discount on.
That now old video from The Onion (Score:2)
Take a step back and see (Score:2)
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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.
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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
Yet even more rent-seeking (Score:2)
when geek squad 'optimized' laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
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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.
This really pissed me off (Score:2)
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
Just watch Twitter for PS5 Drops (Score:2)