back to article Apple ditches Costco. Or vice versa. Or both

US mega cash and carry chain Costco is ditching Apple products. The discounter, best known for vast packs of food, groceries and consumables also carries some computers, electronics and media stock. Costco said it was getting out of the Apple business by mutual consent. It previously stocked iPods and pre-paid iTunes …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Small items at Costco

    It was probably supposed to be humor, but Costco does sell things much smaller than iPods such as SD cards, micro SD cards, thumb drives, etc.

    1. Marvin the Martian

      Megapacks?

      Yes, but, it makes (some) sense to buy a 10pack of say 2gb SD cards, which you can nicely discount; that family pack of iPods may not sell so readily. So large quantities of small objects may differ in saleability...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    gotta love costco

    It's the only shop I know where you can buy new tractor tyres, a multipack of cocopops, and a canoe all under the same roof.

    1. paulf
      Happy

      Don't forget

      Grand Pianos: three for the price of two.

    2. Ef'd
      Heart

      Welcome to Costco

      I love you

    3. Stoneshop

      So

      it's just the US version of Canadian Tire?

  3. -tim

    These guys play hardball

    Last time Costco tried this was with Coca-Cola and Coke backed down. To bad they haven't figured out that its better to have several shops in one Aussie city than try to get one store in a few different ones.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    I can't see Costco losing sleep...

    ... over not selling Apple products, they were never great prices anyway - so they might as well use the store space for other more profitable items,, hopefully at much better prices to their customers as well.

  5. John Dougald McCallum

    I think

    ....That Apple would not let them sell the iwhathaveyous at the usual ridiculous discount that Costco usually sell things at.The last time that I was in one of them,in Edinburgh,eg they were selling Ralph Lauren(Polo) denim jackets(embroidered) For £50 These normally sold for £100+ then( early 1990's).Would have bought one but for that bloody embroidery covered the whole back of the jacket.Pretty for a teenager or twenty something not a mid forty 's biker

    1. frank ly

      re. embroidered denim jacket

      The serious and really cool bikers do their own embroidery. If you'd worn that Ralph Lauren item, everybody would have known it was shop-bought; you made the right decision.

  6. Jonny F

    SAMs Club has gone 100% ipod

    Cost Co's main competitor in the USA, SAMs club (owned by Walmart) has gone 100% ipod for mp3 players. And they do sell them online (afaict). they used to stock Philips and other brands. No more.

  7. Michael C

    other reasons

    1) warranty and return issues vs costco's own policies

    2) return issues with customer's trying to screw Costco by product swapping (costco cashiers are not exactly geek squad, a lot slips by them)

    3) not cheaper than any where else - not a reason to have a membership

    4) people buying tech at Costco are not exactly tech-savvy shoppers

    5) They sold iPods at Costcos?

  8. David Kelly 2

    Lines are long

    Lines are unreasonably long at both Costco and Sams Club. A Business membership at Sams is great because the lines are much shorter between 7AM and 10AM when only business members are allowed in.

    As with every place, some have better deals on some things than others. Often both Costco and Sams are higher than Walmart.

  9. JeffyPooh
    Joke

    Costco shopping - it's a whole new approach

    You can save several thousand of dollars per week by shopping at Costco.

    Seriously. ;-)

  10. Velv

    Hmmmmmm

    "Costco said it never got huge discounts from Apple, and was not allowed to sell them online."

    I'm thinking...

    Price fixing.

    Anti-competitive practice.

    Racketeering.

    Apple has long been fixing the price of it's goods, artificially inflating and maintaining the price for it's own ends.

    1. g e

      Ummmmm

      Doesn't price fixing have to involve >1 manufacturer?

      Not that Apple make anything I want anyway

  11. Nya
    Grenade

    Sadly it's just the way Apple behaves

    Actually goes to show how Apple utterly screws over the channel in regards to it's own stores. They actively don't want competition and overprice everything at wholesale level so high no one can make a standard margin they would get off any other tech company.

    Sadly it's just another control system which Apple is using to screw money out of the end user by not having price competition in the marketplace. Get rid of the channel and they become their own closed ecosystem which enables them to overcharge customers as they do. They just get around the competition laws by allowing some sales through the channel with the joke for companies to make as little as 50p on a Macbook Pro unless they can get a little more out of Apple if they are very lucky. Not in the consumers interest, the channel or anyone but Apple. It's borderline criminal behaviour really.

  12. Ivan Headache

    Sudden change or what?

    I was in Costco in Watford last week. They were selling iMacs (and had quite a few of them) at about £50 less than Apple or John Lewis. I hadn't seen imacs in there previously. They did have MacBooks and iPods previously but they weren't in evicence this time.

  13. Greg J Preece

    Shame

    Costco aren't the cheapest place to get electronics, but IIRC they have a 5 year warranty on everything. That might annoy Apple...

  14. Ascylto
    Big Brother

    The trouble with Costco ...

    The trouble with Costco vis-à-vis Apple is that Costco have a no-nonsense returns policy. If it's not to your liking or doesn't work they give you your money back. Simple. Not at all up Apple's street.

    I will sometimes buy at Costco knowing that I can get the item slightly cheaper elsewhere purely because I know Costco wont bilk me if I need to return an item.

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