Best Buy, hhgregg Use Cart Pricing Post-Super Bowl to Sidestep TV MAP Policies
Super Bowl, the headline event for big-screen TVs, has passed, but retailers were still trying to shove TVs out of inventory at hefty discounts the day after the Super Bowl, we found in a scan of retailer websites Monday. Most of the best bargains were on plasma TVs, with several sites requiring consumers to place models in online shopping carts to avoid violating minimum advertised price (MAP) thresholds. Retailers have gotten around the MAPs by not flagrantly advertising prices that dip below MAP and require shoppers to go through extra hoops to uncover a sale price.
Hhgregg, which held a Super Sale XLVII for the week before the game, supplemented that with a two-day sale on Samsung TVs at savings up to $1,400 on Friday and Saturday ahead of the Super Bowl. Then it announced yet another sale “in every department” in a Sunday e-mail blast that included TVs, appliances, exercise equipment and “computers and more."
LG is the featured brand in the latest hhgregg promotion, with a 60-inch 60PA5500, chopped by $500 to $899. Shoppers had to click on the item to go to the next page to see it was a plasma model, unlike the LED-lit LCD models that displayed that information on the lead page. Savings were more modest on the LED-based models, including a $200 discount on a 55-inch 55LS4500, selling for $799, and $120 off a 47-inch 47LS4500, selling for $579. A Samsung UN55EH6000 LED-based LCD TV, meanwhile, was sale-priced at a $500 discount to $899, a price matched online by Best Buy and Sears.
At Best Buy, what the chain called “incredibly affordable” TVs started this week at close to Black Friday doorbuster prices, including $199 for an Insignia 720p LCD TV. Many of the TVs in the “incredibles” section were refurbished models, we found. A Coby refurbished 32-inch 720p model was selling for $169, compared with the new price of $299; a refurbished Samsung 32-inch LED model had a sticker price of $209 compared with the list price of $419; and a used Sony 32-inch, tagged for $219 compared with its list price of $329.
In the big-screen category at Best Buy, we had to put a 55-inch ST series plasma model -- along with several plasma models from Samsung -- in our cart and go through multiple steps to see the sales price due to manufacturer MAP policies: “Because our price on this item is below the manufacturer’s suggested price, the manufacturer does not allow us to show our price until you take a few more steps,” the disclaimer said. The sale price after we completed the steps showed the 55-inch ST series plasma for $699.
The $699 Panasonic price for the 2012 ST plasma model compares with a $1,599 list price that Panasonic is advertising on its own e-commerce site for a 2013 55-inch plasma model in the same series. The company is taking full-price pre-orders for 2013 models that are estimated to ship in April, according to the website. Panasonic was also discounting a few remaining 2012 models on its own website Monday, including the step-up 55-inch TC-P55UT50 plasma TV for $849, a $550 discount.
Best Buy also featured top-shelf 2012 Panasonic plasma models from its Magnolia store at prices too good to be advertised. The TC-P55VT50 55-inch plasma TV was slashed to $1,999 from $2,499 on the Best Buy site (after placement in a cart), but shoppers could find better deals at other e-tailers including J&R Music World ($1,627) and Abe’s of Maine ($1,688), while Amazon matched the $1,999 Best Buy price on the VT series 55-inch model.
Smaller and lower end plasma TV prices at Best Buy were noteworthy as well. Samsung’s PN43E450A1FXZA 43-inch 720p plasma TV ($499 suggested retail price) was a steal at Best Buy at $379, which undercut discounted models at Dell and Sears ($399), Abt Electronics ($397) and B&H Photo ($397, with a $100 rebate offer included).