[geeks] FYI: CompUSA is offering OS X 10.5 for $99 (after rebate)

[Joshua Boyd]

On Fri, Oct 26, 2007 at 01:14:38PM -0400, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
 
> Rarely were they ever priced higher than CompUSA until near the end  
> when they all started dying.
> 
> One thing that happened here is the local distributors are  
> outrageously expensive themselves, and so any store doing business  
> with them had to raise their prices.
> 
> 20 years ago the distribution channel was a lot cheaper than it is now.
> 
> These days your joe on the street gets better prices than the  
> computer dealers.

How much profit margin does a local computer store need?  I would expect
that on average they would shoot for 30% of the sales price to be
profit.  At least, that is the markup for plumbers, mechanics, and
general contractors from what I can see.

So around here, for example I can buy a 500 gig drive at staples for
$160 in a box from the manufactor.  I can buy the same drive from newegg
for $109.  Presumably the drive from newegg is for OEM rather than a
retail box.  The same drive from the local computer store is $250, and
they just give me the drive in a sealed anti-static bag.

If that store was paying retail prices, they are still getting more than
a 100% markup.  If their prices were merely 30% over Newegg, I would buy
from them a lot more often, and really I would think that their prices
should be more like 10-20% over newegg worst case because they should
still be getting some sort of wholesale volume discount.