Researching prices on the internet is not very productive. The economy is so bad now that the retailers are putting products on sale without advertising the discounts on the web. I learned this today when I decided to buy a new TV.
The TV that I selected was $799 on the internet, $748 at Leons and $659 at Future Shop (including 6 months free HD TV). Definitely worth taking a few hours to drive around.
I started with the Samsung website and used their selection tool to determine the best TV for my living room. Once I had a couple of models in mind I checked the store locater and found several in my immediate neighbourhood. I checked the on-line prices at each store and then started driving around to the different locations. This didn't take long since I live in the big box store shopping district.
The short version of a long day was that Leons is having a weekend sale and the sales price was cheaper than the internet price. Future Shop was undercutting Leons sale price in an unadvertised sale the salesman told me was designed to compete directly with Leons. Best Buy was not having a sale but their accessories were cheaper than the other stores. I checked the price on identical models and also had a look at the overall inventory pricing.
Bottom line - Future Shop had the best price on TV and Blu Ray players. They also threw in free stuff like 3 free Blu Ray movies and a 6 month free HD TV package from my service provider. Best Buy had the cheapest HDMI cables and surge protectors. Leons - not worth the trip since I was paying cash, but they do have a payment plan available if you want to finance your purchase.
Other points -price guarantee and return policy. They both offer a 30 day price guarantee. Future Shop offers returns up to 5 January on today's purchases but Leons will only do an exchange - not a return - if you change your mind about the purchase.
Now it is time to stop blogging and start TV watching.
Cheers
BB
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Ottawa 2009
- Balcony Babe
- This summer I moved to Ottawa to start a new job. When a visitor comes to Ottawa he or she is likely to have limited time and will want to see the major attractions: Parliament, the Canal, the Babe (Balcony type, of course). Since there are other little tidbits that are interesting, but not necessarily interesting enough to visit, I will make some short blog posts about them for your reading pleasure.
1 comment:
Congratulations on making a decisive and relatively swift decision. I found that I was driving myself crazy trying to equate apples and oranges a couple of years ago when I was researching digital cameras. Now - will we see this blogger's name change to Sofa Babe? Or, in view of the fact that you know one 'Cycling Potato' how about 'TV Potato'?
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