Is a Big Box good price a Bad Thing?

November 21, 2010 8:50 AM

Is "Best Buy exclusive" a warning sign? A friend is looking at a laptop at Best Buy now; the specs are identical to those sold online, but the price is significantly lower (at least today). Does that mean there are corners cut somewhere?

The reason I'm asking is I've been told by contractors that brand-name stuff like faucets, cabinets etc. sold at places like Home Depot is lower quality than the very similar items sold at smaller stores - that the prices Home Depot pays forces the manufacturers to use cheaper parts and materials. Is that the case for electronics too? We've looked at the reviews, but they don't tell us much. It's an Asus, if that makes any difference.

posted by still_wears_a_hat to Shopping (7 answers total)

Is the model number the same? If so, I really really doubt that there's any difference. It's more likely that the reason is something like the model isn't selling well (or is about to be replaced with a newer version), so BB bought a large lot at a significant discount.

still_wears_a_hat: "I've been told by contractors that brand-name stuff like faucets, cabinets etc. sold at places like Home Depot is lower quality than the very similar items sold at smaller stores"

This is somewhat true. Brands will often make cheaper "downmarket" versions of their products for big box outlets, but again, they'll be different products (the sku/model # will be different).
posted by mkultra at 9:13 AM on November 21, 2010

Generally speaking there are only a couple of sources for any given components in any computer. The CPU is either AMD or Intel, the memory probably comes from Samsung or a handful of other manufacturers, there are half a dozen hard drive makers, etc. Most of them are pretty similar in quality. Laptops might be a little bit different since more of the components are integrated but there might be even fewer variation for the same reason.

The short answer is, in my opinion, that laptop is just as good as any other brand or model.
posted by VTX at 9:15 AM on November 21, 2010

My experience looking into "Best Buy exclusive" laptops found, in addition to the marginally different specs mentioned above, that they came pre-installed with even more bloat-ware than usual. If you're comfortable uninstalling/clearing/getting rid of lots of demo games and demo tech support programs and pre-set homepage websites that advertise various junk you don't want, I think you'll be fine.
posted by vytae at 9:47 AM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Folks, the OP said that "the specs are identical to those sold online".
posted by mkultra at 10:28 AM on November 21, 2010

In my experience (as a package designer) big box stores will regularly request something as simple as a model number difference or slightly larger LCD screen on a piece of electronics, etc, just to be able to say "_____ exclusive". It doesn't necessarily mean the product is of inferior quality. But it doesn't mean that it isn't, either.
posted by carlh at 11:08 AM on November 21, 2010

Not to go off-subject, but I have found http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ very useful with a new computer, as vytae says.
posted by lungtaworld at 11:10 AM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

The problem is that you're reading far too much into the word "exclusive". As far as I can tell, it means only as much in the world of advertising as my claim that "well-reasoned answers are exclusively available from astrochimp".

That said, my exclusively well-reasoned answer is ...

(a) if machines with identical specs are being sold elsewhere,
(b) it's not that there's a difference between the machines at BB and the others,
(c) it's that BB isn't selling them exclusively.
posted by astrochimp at 3:25 PM on November 21, 2010 [1 favorite]