Retailers Promoted Anniversary Sales, Not Holiday Weekend, Our Survey Finds
Consumers who scoured the aisles or webpages of major electronics retailers last weekend for hot Memorial Day weekend deals were likely disappointed and sometimes confused by the offers, we found in a scan of websites Friday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Best Buy’s online weekly circular made no mention of a Memorial Day sale on Friday and a Best Buy blog forum member who queried the company about a holiday sale was told on Tuesday that the company doesn’t announce sales in advance but to “watch out for the weekly ad.” The customer, who noted there were no special Memorial Day savings mentioned in the current circular, said, “It doesn’t make sense to start a Memorial Day weekend sale on Sunday, when it’s considered a three-day weekend.” When he said he would be “upset” if he bought a TV during the week only to find it was on sale “for cheaper this weekend,” the forum host told him he would be protected for 30 days if the price dropped on a TV he purchased.
Sony was busy trying to push out inventory of Google TV Blu-ray players, offering them for free with purchases of 55-inch LED TVs at at least two retailers, P.C. Richard & Son and Abt Electronics. Instead of a Memorial Day sale, Abt held a 75th anniversary sale, promoting prices good through Monday on “thousands of products,” according to the website last Friday. Although the anniversary sale was slated to run through Monday, the free Sony Blu-ray player offer ended Saturday, according to a webpage detailing the offer. The daily deal at Abt, meanwhile, was a surprising 45 percent discount on audiophile-brand Martin Logan Source Tower loudspeakers, down from $2,195 to $1,198 a pair.
At P.C. Richard, sale prices for the company’s “Huge Memorial Day Sale” were good through Saturday only. Sharp Quattron was the featured TV brand with savings of $220-$330 on TVs ranging from 46-70 inches. The lead sale item at P.C Richard was a 32-inch Coby 720p TV trimmed by $30 to $248.64. A Kodak flash camcorder was dropped to $49.99.
Hhgregg was more aggressive with its Memorial Day promotions. The chain ran a company-wide 20 percent-off sale for everything over $99, which it touted as “employee family discount pricing.” It threw in 24-month, no-interest financing. According to the online flyer for hhgregg stores in the Pittsburgh area, consumers could nab a Mustek DV518L flash memory camcorder for $29.99, half off the suggested retail price. The camera price was only good in stores, ensuring that customers could use their savings on other items before hitting the checkout. By Friday morning, the hhgregg website had already sold out of a Compaq 15-inch laptop selling for $284.38, down from $449.
Third-tier brands led the TV discounting at hhgregg for the holiday weekend. Hisense opened the TV sale with a 24-inch 1080p model, discounted 28 percent to $179.74, and a 32-inch model was discounted by the same rate to $249.74. In larger screen sizes, a Seiki 55-inch 1080p model got a $200 shave to $799.74, in stores only. Most of the TV deals were focused on less featured models, with few connected TV or 3D TV specials called out on the store circular. An exception was a Sharp Quattron 46-inch 3D LED TV, marked down $380 to $1,419.99.
At J&R Electronics in New York, in-store and online shoppers were offered a modest $15 off purchases of $150 or more through Monday using the code “Memorial Day.” The retailer is also celebrating its 40th anniversary with a weekly deal. Last week’s was $100 off an Olympus X-940 14-megapixel digital camera, bringing it to $69.
Radio Shack’s weekly circular ignored Memorial Day altogether and pushed graduation gifts instead. Its lead sale item for last week was five days of free shipping on cables, batteries and accessories.