14 DAY TRIAL // ifoAppleStore, the only dedicated news source on the activities surrounding Apple's retail stores, is reporting that employees have been given the green light to match the prices of other authorized retailers.
Apple has recently announced that its Online Store will be featuring a special one-day-only Christmas shopping event, in what the retail world calls “Black Friday.” This way, Apple is promising customers to find dozens of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas, all with free delivery. Now, the company's retail stores are being prepped to include holiday offerings as well.
“Apple has apparently fired the first shot in the holiday shopping battle, by announcing internally that retail store employees have the authority to match the prices of other authorized retailers,” ifoAppleStore says. “The stores have also cancelled all regular presentations on Black Friday, posted holiday buying tips on Apple’s retail Web page, and created a special iPhone 3G gift card to help bolster holiday sales.”
Apple is informing its employees of the price-matching program ahead of time, as the company anticipates extremely heavy demand. It is unclear which retailers Apple will be “syncing” prices with, but it's a fair possibility those will be its own, authorized re-sellers. What is known, though, is that the stores have not given managers the ability to approve certain “deals,” for the time being.
There has been no general price-matching policy either, while Apple has historically never offered discounts on its products out of the blue. Events like Black Friday are pretty much all that can sensitize Apple. Additionally, it is not clear if the price matching will even be announced officially through advertising or other means of widely informing customers.
It has also been revealed that some restrictions will be imposed as far as flexibility goes. As ridiculous as it may sound, the customer needs to deliver proof of the competitor’s prices, this being one of the restrictions. What could be considered good news is that, last Sunday, Best Buy announced $50 to $150 discounts on various computer models, with Amazon also being expected to slash some figures on Macs ahead of the holidays.