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  Reply # 635573 4-Jun-2012 18:04 Send private message

scuwp: If price fixing is illegal, and they cannot force retailers to sell at a 'certain' price...then someone please explain to me how Apple get away with it. It is next to impossible to get any significant price variation on an apple product in NZ.

Margins on Apple products are significantly less than other brands, and Apple do no discounting or retailer scan back deals. This means retailers have no real choice but to sell products at the RRP.

I assume when The Warehouse started selling iPads cheaply a few months back it was because they successfully managed to parallel import from the States or similar, and thus pay less for each unit. Why doesn't every retailer do this? Just don't have the street smarts?

They don't do it because then Apple would take away their reseller status, meaning they would have to import ALL apple products (incl accessories) which would be a real Pain in the Ass.

When the warehouse had the new iPad at $749, it was beaten by Apple's RRP of $729, which the Warehouse then had to match. I'd be willing to bet they didn't make very much on the deal and were hoping that Apple's street price here would be $749.

As for Samsung in the Warehouse, I don't know if it will be them, but one of the 'big' players will, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple put iPads etc into the Warehouse either.

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  Reply # 635696 4-Jun-2012 22:08 Send private message

The reason why companies won't parallel import all items is, a lack of backup support.
What happens if you bring in 200 iPad's, and that batch has faulty batteries.
It's a risk.
For the Warehouse, they would have treated it as a marketing exercise 'We have the latest and greatest gadgets - and they're cheaper than the others'.
Of course, the advertising won't have mentioned 'we don't have backup support and, well won't be selling them in the future, so um... yeah...'.

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