Target’s New Year-Round Price Matching May Make it an Attractive Camera Shop
The war between brick and mortar stores and online retailers ended a long time ago — online retailers won. “Showrooming” was born and the B&M store became no more than a place to try before you went home to buy online. Worst case scenario you needed something right away that you would then return once your online order arrived. It’s not pretty, but that’s the reality of it.
This last holiday season, in an attempt to win back some traction in the fight, Best Buy offered to match online pricing on any item. This offered a great “have your cake and eat it too” scenario for consumers; but now the holiday season is over and people are back to shopping online. Well, Target is looking to change that, and not just during the holidays.
In a recent statement, Target’s chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel announced that the company will begin matching Amazon’s prices year-round starting sometime in the near future. In addition, Steinhafel also explained that:
If a customer buys a qualifying item at Target and then finds an identical item for less in the following week’s Target circular or within seven days on either Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com, Target will match the price.
We’ll be curious to see how this affects the market whenever it actually does happen. There’s little doubt WalMart, Best Buy and the like will follow suit, but how long will they be able to keep it up? And how will Amazon react? All is left to be seen. For now just content yourself with the fact that you may soon have a go-to place in town to get your camera gear on the cheap — plus tax, but minus shipping costs.
(via MarketWatch ia Engadget)
Image credit: Photo illustration based on Target by kevin dooley, and P04+ Exterior by j.reed
