[quote name='turls']A couple of things here. First of all, like another poster, I didn't realize it is a trend that they don't really price match on these sales items, but "sort of" price match. If it really is a trend, along with everything else Amazon has done lately that has already been mentioned, its a disturbing trend. You are either price matching or your aren't. Why mess around?
Second, are you telling me that wholesale price on this item and others that are in sales flyers drop enough for this not to just simply be a loss leader? I find that hard to believe. If Target's sale price is $10 lower than everybody else on a title that just recently got a likely universal drop, it seems like it would be a loss leader.
But in general, it isn't good where Amazon is heading on this stuff. They can obviously do whatever they want, but these new wrinkles make it hard to understand why they bothered to have the best deals they've ever had around Christmas time.[/QUOTE]
I can only tell you that since early January, Amazon has repeatedly near matched MSRP drops and some price drops in weekly ads. On occasion, they have matched the price exactly, but I know just on my wish list, there are 10 games right now that aren't even at MSRP on Amazon, but $2-$3 or in some cases $10 higher which is significant for a $20 game.
As for the wholesale pricing, the game which is $30 at Target this week is now at $40 MSRP which means that Target probably got credit and has an actual unit cost of about $28 each. Amazon is entitled to the same deal, so they actually made a couple of extra dollars over Target here at $32.
A lot of what Amazon has been doing recently is puzzling to me. It started with taking away price protection and has extended to this current practice. They have also become very sloppy in shipping items, using padded packs instead of boxes and not doing much to pad items. I realize the economy is bad, but in bad times retailers need to actually try harder to go after the smaller group of consumers able and willing to make purchases. I'm lucky that the economy hasn't impacted my spending, but I have shifted almost exclusively to Best Buy and Target lately since they seem to take the lead on deals and offer incentives like Reward Zone and Gamer's Club that actually end up being a better deal even when you add tax and gas/time to go to the store.