Target to stop carrying Amazon Kindle

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by monkeyluis

Well yeah, cause you have gift cards. If you had amazon gift cards then they would beat out walmart.

But Amazon doesn't sell the Kindle Fire for $199 w/ a free $50 gift card. Nor do the sell the Kindle NT for $79 w/ a free $30 gift card. But Walmart sure does. Therefore, I buy from them.

[luismonkey]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

But Amazon doesn't sell the Kindle Fire for $199 w/ a free $50 gift card. Nor do the sell the Kindle NT for $79 w/ a free $30 gift card. But Walmart sure does. Therefore, I buy from them.

Nice!

[LovesMacs]

The most recent Target Kindle deal I remember was "buy a Kindle/Kindle Touch/Kindle Fire, get an M-Edge accessory at 30% off". That was maybe a week or two ago.

Getting back to the original topic, I would guess that if mini-Apple stores proliferate within Targets, then perhaps the terms of the deal might require Target to stop carrying iPad competitors.

Another possible reason to drop Kindle and other readers is that maybe they don't sell well enough throughout the year to justify the shelf space.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's not the way it works with amazon.co.uk gift certificates. They send me an electronic gift certificate by e-mail; I redeem the certificate on Amazon, and I buy books with it.

+1 for that and I get it from the US store.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Based on Apple's track record with Agency pricing, this assumption becomes an educated guess.

Nope, turns out it was nothing to do with Apple at all.
Guess they aren't the root of all evil, just most?

[ScotiaBurrell]

in total, this affects no one but customer. amazon no, target no, apple no

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by jocampo

The move is related to Apple's presence on Target. Kindle's presence on same store may bother them somehow. If that was not the case, they would not bother on pushing such move. Unless is coming directly from Target stores, which is a retailer anyway.

Another reason, which makes more sense to me, is the "try at the store, buy later online" phenomenon, which we all know is now impacting Best Buy as well. Lot of people go to Target, try at the store, and later buy online for a bit less. That gives no money to the retail store which on this case, is Target.

I'm confused. Apple products have been in Target forever. I haven't read any article that said that any other company was related to this decision other than Target and Amazon. Where is this coming from??

Originally Posted by jocampo

I read another article pointing to Apple, yes ... of course, none of those companies want or will provide names or true reasons.

Link, please?

[JonathanH]

The New York Times quotes a Target exec from January:

“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,” Target executives wrote in a letter to vendors, asking them to think of new pricing and inventory strategies, according to a note that Deborah Weinswig, a Citi analyst, sent to clients.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/bu...g-kindles.html

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by JonathanH

The New York Times quotes a Target exec from January:

“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,” Target executives wrote in a letter to vendors, asking them to think of new pricing and inventory strategies, according to a note that Deborah Weinswig, a Citi analyst, sent to clients.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/bu...g-kindles.html

I think I saw this mentioned in a different thread...

I can imagine a lot of stores hate that Amazon does this. In my local Lowes & Home Depot they match all prices except Amazon and some of the more diligent staff will stop you from price checking. (Some, but not a great deal, lol).

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Link, please?

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Targe...coming_id29719

I did a quick search, and that was the first one I stumbled into. Doesn't say definitively, but I guess what they speculate makes some sense, what with there being mini-Apple stores in Target.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JonathanH

“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,”

Which seems like an extremely valid point to me.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

In my local Lowes & Home Depot they match all prices except Amazon and some of the more diligent staff will stop you from price checking. (Some, but not a great deal, lol).

How can they do this?

[luismonkey]

Originally Posted by JonathanH

The New York Times quotes a Target exec from January:

“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,” Target executives wrote in a letter to vendors, asking them to think of new pricing and inventory strategies, according to a note that Deborah Weinswig, a Citi analyst, sent to clients.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/bu...g-kindles.html

This is interesting. I've done price checking in best buy. But at target I don't see where there would be enough of a price difference that I couldn't just spend the extra couple of dollars & buy it on the spot. I mean I drove all the way out there right....

I wonder how big of an issue it really is.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by luismonkey

This is interesting. I've done price checking in best buy. But at target I don't see where there would be enough of a price difference that I couldn't just spend the extra couple of dollars & buy it on the spot. I mean I drove all the way out there right....

I wonder how big of an issue it really is.

It's very common these days for people to have the attitude of "I want to see it in person but I have no intention of buying it locally. Instead I will search for hours online until I find a seller that has it for $10 less".

Then, typically, these same people lament when their local B&M stores close, or they claim the B&M stores were always trying to rip them off despite the obviously higher cost of doing business in a B&M store. You see it in these forums all the time. It's a huge issue that retailers like Best Buy are desperately trying to overcome right now.

[BeccaPrice]

The trouble is, you can usually find *similar* models on line, but never the exact model you saw in the store. I found this to be true with Consumer Reports reviews - they'll rate something very highly, but I can never find that exact model in the store.