B&Q Pricing??

[Andy Hall]

Ever heard of loss leaders?

Go into store and buy monitor.

Also buy cable and printer cartridges while you are there.

[Tim S]

Of course.

If I decide on that model I will, but I'll probably take my own DVI source and insist on testing it as the silly sods were demo-ing all their kit off an 800x600 analogue signal of a crap marketing film.

No, but I might chuckle a bit.

Cheers

Tim

[John Rumm]

Would it not make more sense to buy an "Action Pack" from MS?

[John Rumm]

Depends allot on what you want as well.. some high profile things are actually quite price competitive. It tends to be the £20 USB leads where they really make a killing.

[atticus]

It's a well-proven strategy - draw punters in with well-priced large items at minimal profit - while they're in they buy all the little extras (plugs, leads, screws, brackets et.) at huge markup.

[Tony Bryer]

machine and check out our software on it as that's what the users will be doing. The box it will replace is 3-4 years old so it owes us nothing. £560+VAT for a Core Duo box with 2GB RAM is much the same as the mail order people charge for a similar spec. Unfortunately for PCW I didn't buy anything else!

[DrLargePants]

yeah, I just bought one of those from PCW, was cheaper than ebuyer and amazon.

Very good monitor btw

S

[John Rumm]

Ah sorry, mis-interpreted "vista box" as being just vista - not a whole machine to go with it ;-)

Having said that, the action pack is still a very cheap way to >£20Ks worth of software for very little (about £200, last one I got)

[John Kelly]

I have bought a few things from PC World and they've always been the cheapest. I always reserve it online first so I know it's in stock and waiting for me and then go in, pay and walk out. If I need cables I ask around in work first. It's amazing how many people will give away cables they don't need :-)

-- John

remove dimspam if replying by mail.

[tim.....]

I recently bought a PC and PCWorld was as competitive as anywhere else. Plus I didn't have to factor in the cost of having to be in when it was delivered.

Ordered online and used the pick up at store option which effectively gave me a branded monitor instead of a no name one. [it also has a digital input and the salesman was telling me how much better a picture I would get with the digital cable. Unfortunately the PC doesn't have a digitial video output ;-(]

tim

[tim.....]

It's probably because you don't buy from them every week.

It Sainsbury's charged 50p for a tin of beans you would soon start to buy them somewhere else.

If B&Q charge twice the price of a competitor for a packet of screws, it will probably cost you more in petrol to go to the competitor so you buy the screws anyway.

tim

[tim.....]

I don't consider a 70 quid, gold plated, Scart cable a distress purchase.

tim

[Andy Hall]

John, it's not *really* £20K's worth of software....

[Owain]

I was wondering how it compared to a £6 Linux DVD-ROM (which comes with a free magazine) from Smith's.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Well certainly not *worth* 20k... that is just what they would charge you to buy it! Rather like when MS "gives" x millions to charity in the form of software licenses - just printing their own money.

(the licensing terms are nowhere as nice as they once were either - it used to be you "owned" the stuff in perpetuity and the only limitation was that it did not qualify as a base to buy "upgrade" discount versions from (not much of a disincentive since another AP was cheaper than most upgrades), but now it is a subscription where you are supposed to fork out year on year IIUC).

[Kay]

Re: it being cheaper to buy an extension lead rather than a short length of cable on it's own(deleted post so can't reply direct!).

Watch the prices in Tesco as well, bought a load of the cheap 50p and £1 DIY stuff today. Whilst I was there I noticed a cable reel, wanted one for a while and it was at a price I was prepared to pay. There were two types available, both from the same manufacturer and with the same ampage and voltage ratings, the ONLY difference one was 15m the other 20m. But they were both the SAME price.

Last week it was with pickled red cabbage. Same manufacturer, the 215g jar was 35p the 400g jar 90p, so I got two 215g jars (430g) for 70p instead of one 400g jar for 90p! Seen a few of the 'value' foods which when compared to the normal (and usually higher priced) equivalent have been more expensive.

[Andy Hall]

Ah well....

Trouble is that you then have to select which Linux religion you'd like.

[Owain]

But there's a different one every month, so try them all :-)

Owain