Best Buy and Others Cry Foul at Walmart iPhone 5 Pricing

Remember all the discounts Walmart was offering over the holidays on the iPhone 5? Walmart’s competitors sure do and Best Buy, Toys R Us, and others have filed complaints in several U.S. states claiming Walmart used unfair business practices and hurt them financially.

Walmart using unfair business practices? Oh, no that would never happen!

Uh huh.

Anyway, Best Buy is alleging that they lost $65,000 profit in one day because of price matching Walmart’s discounts. Not only that, but Best Buy claims that the ads were deceptive because Walmart didn’t actually have enough stock to cover the sale in the first place:

Walmart claims that it did have sufficient stock of the iPhone 5, quoting 98% availability at its stores carrying the device. Walmart had noted as the sale launched that it was working closely with Apple on the promotion and was securing significant numbers of iPhones, but that the sale was first-come, first-served with no rain checks offered at stores where the device was out of stock.

Best Buy had already been selling the iPhone 5 for $149.99 when Walmart announced its own sale, but it is unclear if Best Buy used the $73 difference from regular price or $23 difference from Best Buy’s sale price in calculating its profit loss. Assuming the latter, Best Buy would have price matched on approximately 2800 iPhone 5 sales in one day.

Via: Mac Rumors

Surprised? Not really. Retail is a cutthroat business and if Walmart undercuts everyone else to lure them into their stores, well…

We’ll have to see how this plays out. I’m betting Walmart might get a tiny smack on the wrist. Maybe.

Photo from Flickr by Walmart Corporate.