I agree with Douglas about protecting margins. Best-Buy has probably been guilty of not doing this as they have for years followed the policy that if a customer finds another retailer selling at a lower price than theirs, they'll match it. At least that's what I've seen their ads say. The consumer benefits, but not the shareholder who invests their hard earned money in Best-Buy and other megastores to get their fair rate of return. Shareholders must be satisfied and protected.

Margin is still good. We are still selling HDMI cables for 60, when in reality they cost 1.89

58 dollars of margin for one cable. most people dont want to wait a week for their online hdmi cable to come.

Why should I waste my time trying to save ten cents when it only cost under twenty bucks?

as someone who works in a large national mega-store chain, this article worries me.

many times, our computers are set up to prevent unethical activity by making it close to impossible to switch the price in a register by more than a few dollars. in several cases, i have had to get a manager involved to do a price match or adjust a price for a customer who mis-read the sign and got balligerant about it, or who had wanted to haggle.

any time this happens, it creates a lot of problems, not only for us, the company, and the customer involved, but also for every other customer in the store at the time. often, several managers are involved in the transaction, and a lot of paperwork goes in to explaining why the price was changed. while we're all working on dealing with this one difficult customer, many other customers are not getting any service because of the commotion.

so, long story short - if you want to haggle, try ebay or another online retailer, don't go to a large chain store and expect us to 3 times as much work so you can save a few bucks.

I found that Best Buy will not haggle their price but, they also will not honor their 110% gaurantee. I found a large screen television at one of their competitors for much less than they offered the same television for and they would not honor their gaurantee. When I called their 1 800 number, I was told it was at the discretion of the stores manager and I was told to read their fine print.

best buy sucks they do not honor the warenties nor their gaurentees I will not shop there and recommend that others dont either

Now with Best Buy they will offer you the 110% if found lower at another store but that is only for the first 30 days...now with Circuit City they do 110% like best buy for the first 30 days but will extend you another 30 days where they will take down to the lower price. Of what I have seen since I work for one the companies is that neither will haggle the price of the items but in most cases both with work with you to get the best deal possible for you. I find that both are good stores but BB is harder to find the help you need, unlike

I shop at Home Depot a lot and I have never known them to haggle unless maybe in the carpet or kitchen dept. where they have special people working. Best Buy is very nasty if you try to return something. I won't shop there anymore. And circuit city tries to get extended policies on any and every item. Rediculous.

Jim (#6) is right. I did the same as he, finding the exact same HDTV at Office Depot for $160 less. I wanted to give my business to BB, but the manager was a jerk about it. I went to Office Depot and bought the Philips 37" TV and BB can know they lost a once loyal customer. I will also tell everyone I know about my experience and let them make their minds up about who deserves to make a sale.

I have also found that Best Buy (several locations in 2 different states) has been unwilling to meet or beat competitor's prices. BUT, the reason I stopped shopping with them nearly 3 years ago was because of the following:
For unsuspecting customers, and why should you expect this until it happens to you the first time since this policy is posted nowhere in the store, on the receipt, or spoken out loud by any Best Buy employee until after you've already fallen into the trap?
YOU SHOULD NEVER EVER... DID I SAY NEVER ?

*NEVER EXCHANGE ANYTHING AT BEST BUY!

You SHOULD always RETURN anything you need to take back and have your full return credited to you in whatever way you paid for it originally -ESPECIALLY if you are buying something else. DO NOT take the employee's advice that it will be simpler to just exchange what you don't want for what you do want. Forget that it is two (or more) transactions and you might take a few extra minutes at a busy check-out...the 'guilt trip' they count on to "hook" you into doing this. This is Best Buy's fault, not yours!
If you EXCHANGE something for something else that costs more than the original item - and let's face it, you probably wouldn't be "exchanging" instead of "returning" for any other reason (something else they're completely counting on), your "Original Date of Purchase" for the second item will be considered by Best Buy to be the ORIGINAL DATE OF PURCHASE YOU BOUGHT THE FIRST ITEM - the ITEM YOU'RE RETURNING!!!!!! In other words, even if you go back within 30 days from the date of the actual purchase of the second item and have a valid receipt for the second item you now have changed your mind about or your gift recipient wants to exchange, you're out of luck - they'll give you only store credit, claiming you're past the 30 day requirement because they consider that to be the date of the original item purchased! That policy, of course, forces you to spend any monies you spent over and above the original transaction amount at Best Buy rather than providing you with the courtesy of a cash return. In other words, Best Buy is now holding YOUR money hostage while also enjoying the benefits of reaping any investment rewards benifitted from their having it in their possession until you find another item you'd like to purchase with your own money that is NOT reaping any investment rewards by sitting available to you in your own interest bearing account for whatever you choose to use it for in the future WHEREVER you choose to use it.

They swindelled me out of several hundred dollars using this policy when I purchased thousands of dollars of Christmas and birthday gifts all within the holiday period when my children's birthdays also fall. Between the duplicate gifts from friends and relatives, and the "I've already got one of those" gifts, or the just plain "I hate that, mom", I had to have been one of their best customers three seasons ago. Not only was I treated rudely by smartass college kids, but in the end, they gave me worthless store credit gift cards they'd forgotten to authorize properly and now have absolutely no record of the transactions - leaving them with about $275 of MY money.
SO, instead, Circuit City now gets all my business and I tell everyone I know about the way I was treated by the 'customer service' personnel at the Best Buy just a few miles from where its owner luxuriates on his consumers' money when he forces them to spend it at his store in the form of gift cards using this little ruse, even though by definition, we are the exact customers any store would love to have...the ones who follow the rules, keep receipts, and usually end up spending more money than the original 'exchanged' item instead of simply returning a purchase time after time for money back.
Me thinks providing incentives for your best customers rather than penalizing them might be a valuable goal overlooked and something your stockholders might consider poor business practice in light of Best Buy's most recent performance satisfaction and the number of negative comments directed specifically at them as opposed to all the other retailers mentioned in this site.

S.Vaughan

Wow, those of you who feel haggling shouldn't be allowed to protect the share holders or the company remember that the next time you walk in to a car dealership and try to reach into the pockets of all the hard working sales people out there trying to make a living. unfortunately society all ready a culture of entitlement. It is now invading coporate retail and I for one am glad to see them get a dose of haggling reality. If you thought a 10% mark up on a vehicle was bad what about a $60 dollar HDMI cable that actually cost $1.89 to produce? Who's raping the public now? So bend over coporate american cause we aren't going to use any lube or tenderness, how does that feel?

I've been known to haggle with anyone and everyone, and most of the time I'm quite successful. I've never shopped at Best Buy. I've always heard terrible things about them, and stayed out of there. I like Circuit City, and when I bought my last television set, you better believe I haggled about the price. I also purchased some stereo equipment there a few years back and haggled then and got them to throw in some free stuff. So it depends on how good you are in the art of haggling. Don't be afraid to ask. And don't worry about the stockholders. I own stock in several companies. When it comes to money, I look out for myself and my family first and foremost. People who have money hold on to their money by thinking about themselves. You people should do the same, and stop worrying about corporate profits. Corporations do fine without individuals like you and me worrying about the profits suffering. Corporations have officers and managers that take care of shareholders and profits. That's all corporations do. That's the problem with our economy right now and the Bush Administration. The corporations have been allowed to take over and rape our economy and everyone else is suffering while Bush and his corporate friends are laughing all the way to the bank.

In NJ, no store will haggle with anyone. Any store in NJ will never lower a price.

Best Buy lost a good customer years ago when they charged me a $65 re-stocking fee for a $300 camera. They pointed to the policy posted on the front wall. Trouble is they never let you carry a camera to the front registers to pay so you never get to read it or hear it from the salesman's lips. If you really want to know why they're hurting, go to bestbuysucks.com and read the rants of all the irate customers. I feel nothing but gratification watching Best Buy sink.

ALEX YOU ARE A PIGGGGG, WHY DON"T YOU PUT YOUR MOTHERS PICTURES THERE,????, EVERY-ONE DONT GO INTO THIS ADD THAT HE HAS CUSE ITS A VIRUS AND REALLY HARD TO GET RID OF, ITS CALLED--- BRITNEY"S NAKED AGAIN, LIKE I SAID ALEX YOUR AN ANIMALLLL

I had the salesman at Best Buy honor the price on a 52" LCD Samsung in February from a sale at Christmas. The current price was 2799.00 and they sold it to me for 1999.00 (the christmas price that sold the sets out). No problems, no haggling... easy as could be. By the way the price has never been this low again.

I would like to know how to haggle at Home Depot when I recently bought something at one Home Depot and it was more at another one in St. Louis which is a different district. They would not match each other's price and I had my receipt from the 1st purchase. And you think they will haggle and bargain price with you? I doubt it.

well when u try to return a 2-year old ipod that u purposely broke just so u could get a new ipod touch what do u expect us to do? throw $200 out the window? i don't think so...so y don't u work instead of sitting on ur butt and earn the right to an ipod touch instead of trying to cheat us out of one, and it affects employees like me, so don't complain about something stupid like that and get an ipod the way everyone else does: the right way