Forget those everyday low prices. Shoppers for video games are in a for rude surprise. According to securities firm Piper Jaffray, a survey released last week of seven major retailers covering 30 video game titles showed that Wal-Mart had the everyday highest prices for the set of games. A news report from Reuters on May 5th. declared that Wal-Mart’s price for the 30 games came to $1,231.76 — almost $100 more expensive than the real low-price leader — amazon.com. Wal-Mart came in 9% higher than amazon.com. Wal-Mart seemed as surprised as the average consumer might be — and couldn’t believe the results. “We haven’t had ample opportunity to review this survey,” a spokesperson said, “however, as a company that brought $12 billion in savings to our customers last year alone, we find this hard to believe. But given our pledge to everyday low prices, we’ll look into this.” Amazon had the best prices. Number 2 was Best Buy, then Target at number 3, GameStop, and Toys R Us — all beat Wal-Mart, which came in dead last.
So if you’re in the market for video games, Wal-Mart could have the most expensive deal in town. This market-basket survey will be forgotten in the wash of millions of dollars in advertising by Wal-Mart, showing once again just how brainwashed the American public has become on the subject of everyday low prices. Wal-Mart used to advertise the “always the lowest” prices, but under pressure from advertising groups, Wal-Mart changed its claim to “low everyday prices”, backing away from its “lowest” rhetoric. No doubt some rollback of video game prices have already taken place at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.
