Was doing a bit of grocery shopping today and since I need an HDMI cable, I thought I'd pop upstairs and have a look round the electrical section. The only cable available was £50! I would have paid £20 for a cable, but £50 is ridiculous. I mentioned it to customer service on the way out that I thought the average Tesco customer would probably not know the difference between a £5 and a £50 cable and maybe they ought to offer a better choice. I wonder if I'm being too cynical thinking that maybe Tesco are cashing in on consumer ignorance and are stocking expensive cables hoping people will not know the value of such new technology. I'll log on to ebuyer and buy a £5 one instead.
There hava a budget range on there website, so it really depends on the store and there stocking. To be fair, how many people would think of Tescos when looking for an AV cable. Supply and demand thing.
Yes, that is a shocking price. I doubt that £50 one from Tesco is any different to the 99p one I picked up at Sainsburys.
Our tesco also has their own brand (Technika) HDMI cables. I think it was £12.99 Even so, it is an area where "every little doesn't help" in this case. Given their potential buying power it is something they could undeniable sell cheaper if they wished. I guess they just have little demand. Hasn't stopped Sainsbury's or Lidl selling them at bargain prices though.
Ditto for me, I've needed cables at short notice after the usual shops had closed and after seeing the prices of Britain's biggest retailer made me turn around and order them online. TBH, I wouldn't buy any cables from a bricks and mortar retailer other than a specialist dealer (even then I'm very wary of the inflated prices) anymore. Currys and Comet are the worst culprit, stocking over engineered/packaged cables often costing as much as the DVD player you're connecting them to. Think Monster....... Better getting your cables from the various VFM online retailers.
Same with Maplins. I was looking on TVcables.co.uk at their Scart to RGBS converters which they had for £6.99. I went into my local maplins who wanted, for this one simple converter, £30 for a monster cable version of it. And this was the only one they had. Whoever would pay that amount for that is simply certifiable.
Don't know if they still have them, but Asda were selling a Philips Gold 24k range of HDMI cables. Fancy looking things with clear plastic insulation, double braided screening, 2m length..... blah, blah..... Anyway they used to be priced at something like £39 & were then reduced to £12...... wonder why With the motto being 'Asda Price' I don't think the type of customer who shops there is wanting to pay £40 for a piece of wire !
Well this is a point I raised with Tesco customer service. Their electrical section has all sorts in there. PCs, mobile phones, PS3s. A few real budget TVs. A 40 inch LCD for £600. The kind of people shopping for electrical goods in Tesco are unlikley to know the cost of HDMI cables and given a choice, would rarely spend £50 when there was a £20 one available.
I had a similar problem with the bricks & mortar stores and cables. I was given an old lcd monitor from work and needed a vga cable to connect it at home. I didn't want to wait for one to be delivered so I went to the local Retail park with PC World and Maplin. Tried PC World first for a laugh, (didn't expect to get one at a decent price there.) Finally found them, £15 for a cheap grey plastic cable. So off to Maplin... £20 for a nicer looking blue cable. Couldn't see any others in either store. I decided it was worth the wait and ordered one online for ~£1.50.