Black Fri. Pricing Expected to Set New Lows
Black Fri. CE promotions appear poised to set new benchmarks for low-end prices across many categories, from TVs and DVD players/recorders to PCs, our preliminary poll has found. Among the expected highlights is CompUSA’s merchandising of a 42W plasma TV with 852x480 resolution at $1,499, while Cambridge SoundWorks is throwing in a $349 value BenQ DVD+RW recorder with the purchase of a BenQ 26W or 30W LCD TV.
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“We're carrying the package during the holiday season and we'll make a decision as to whether to continue carrying it afterwards,” a Cambridge spokeswoman said of the BenQ bundle. Cambridge is carrying BenQ DVD recorders and LCD TVs for the first time. The line “will help build traffic during the holiday season,” she said.
Retailers geared up last weekend for the post- Thanksgiving bargain bonanza. CompUSA was promoting Daewoo’s 42W panel at $1,799 after a $500 instant rebate and was closing out a 42W Samsung model at $1,999. Daewoo typically asked retailers to maintain price at $2,199, didn’t sanction CompUSA’s price move, Mktg. Mgr. Stan Kowal said.
The Samsung 42W was likely a closeout of a model that shipped in March and isn’t from the company’s current line, Mktg. Vp James Sanduski said. Wal-Mart was carrying a 27W LCD TV at $998, while Circuit City had an Apex 20” LCD TV at $499 after a $100 rebate. Sears highlighted a Memorex 17W LCD TV at $499. Panasonic’s 53W HD-ready projection TV was $999 at CompUSA. Philips’ 55W LCoS- based rear projection TV, which is being closed out following shutdown of the company’s LCoS development program, was promoted at $2,999, down from $3,799.
On the DVD front, GoVideo’s 4-head Hi Fi VCR/DVD+RW recorder was priced by several retailers at $299, about $100 less than its typical price. Panasonic’s entry-level standalone DVD-RAM recorder also hit new low prices including $236 and $229 at Best Buy and J&R Computer World, respectively. Among standalone DVD players, CyberHome’s progressive scan model, which was promoted last weekend at Best Buy at $27 after a $10 instant rebate, had given way to an Apex model at $19.99, according to deal sites on the Web, which said Best Buy also had Norcent’s standard DVD player at $17.99 after rebate.
Besides DVD players, popular Black Fri. barnburners include DVD blanks and DVD burners for PCs. Best Buy is also offering a 50-pack of Dynex brand DVD+R write-once blanks at $2.99 after rebates. Circuit City’s 6 a.m.-noon blowout will match BestBuy with a $17.99 progressive scan DVD player, after rebates. Circuit also has a 50-pack of Philips DVD+Rs at $9.99, effectively 20 cents per 2.4x speed disc.
CompUSA also will push discounted DVD blanks 6 a.m.- noon Fri., offering 100-packs of DVD-R or DVD+R media at $19.99. Office Max will push Khypermedia 50 packs of the same for $7.99 after rebate, and 10 packs of the brand’s 4x rewritable DVD+RWs that are free after rebate. The retailer will advertise an Apex Digital ADV-3800 DVD/VCR combo at $59.99 with rebates, and a Digital Max brand 16x DVD dual-format, double-layer DVD burner for $39.99 after rebates. Staples 6-10 a.m. will offer a similar I/O Magic burner for 5 cents less after rebates, and Teon brand DVD- R and DVD+R 40 packs for $2.94.
In PCs, websites dedicated to highlighting Black Fri. sales at CE retailers, showed Best Buy carrying Gateway’s eMachines desktop PC at $199 after rebate. It contained a 2.6 GHz Intel Celeron processor, 17” CRT, 512 MB SDRAM, 80 GB hard drive and DVD/CD-RW. In notebook PCs, a Toshiba model with a 1.4 GHz Intel processor and 40 GB hard drive was being promoted at CompUSA at $899 after a $200 retailer-sponsored mail-in rebate.