I learned a new term today — showrooming. This is the proper nomenclature for when one goes to a brick and mortar store to try out an item before purchasing it online. While the term is new to me, the concept isn’t. I confess to having done just that once or twice. Big box (shrinking) giant Best Buy has decided to accept this trend and trade on it by matching online prices. With just 40 percent of shoppers leaving with a product in hand, that’s not a bad idea. This holiday season, Best Buy intends to entice the lookie lous with online price matching. While Best buy always had a fairly good price-matching policy, it only applied to other physical shops. By offering to match the lower online rate while the product is in one’s actual hand, this has a fairly strong chance of appealing to those of us who want to save money but also have to fight our inner Veruca Salt.
And if you didn’t get the reference, you are dead to me.
What if the item you desire is out of stock? Best Buy thought of that. The electronics chain will also offer free shipping of out-of-stock items. That’s pretty good thinking from a company that used to have a fake version of its web site with marked up prices to show people in store.
With Best Buy’s shaky past and uncertain future, this isn’t a company I generally recommend to the On the Cheap crowd. However, if you live close enough to a Best Buy — because driving far enough to one would kill the savings — I recommend trying this one out. You can usually find aggressive sales on smartphones and laptops this time of year, and with Windows 8 debuting, you could walk away with an actual good deal here. Just remember to avoid the extended warranty.
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