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End of year sales? — Parallax Forums

End of year sales?

Any one know if/when Parallax will be having any sales this year? I have an idea I need parts for. Though I'd ask before ordering.
-dan

Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    Sales usually starts one hour after I place an order.

    Will advise.
  • @Erco - so true!

    @icepuck - maybe we'll get a Black Friday or Cyber Monday offering? Parallax is probably just letting us build anticipation! :cool:
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    Pololu just announced their BF sale. Parallax, we tingle with antici...
  • There is always "Small Business Saturday ".
  • No big discounts planned, but we will be offering free shipping.

    --

    Free USPS Priority Shipping on orders of $50 or more Wednesday afternoon through Monday.

    Online orders only. | U.S. addresses only.

    Excludes products containing batteries, S3, ELEV-8 v3 Starter Pack, and Arlo Complete. Thru Monday, 11/27/17.
  • You guys don't want us discounting too much, too frequently because it leads to the race to the bottom.

    Wouldn't you rather have reasonable prices, American-made/warrantied, with support all the time so that we've got a sustainable business model?

    Just asking. . . .in the same way you asked for a sale :)

    Ken Gracey
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    You're already giving back plenty, KG!

    plax.png
    920 x 768 - 508K
    plax.png 507.7K
  • KG,

    if we want cheap, cheap, cheap we have erco to guide us. I actual think that Parallax is doing quite fine with interesting products at a sustainable price. Starting with the Flip, then the 360 servo and now a laser ping.

    For me the elev-8 was out of my personal price range like the gas-powered rover was. Nice products, just not for me.

    My only (and constant) complain is the USB on every board decision, at least all boards with build in USB should have a jumper to disconnect /reset (like the spinneret has), even better would be to have jumpers for rx,tx and USB power as well.

    I adapted duanes trick to just cut out the usb-part of the boards and reconnect them with jumper cables, but it looks quite ugly (and does not work with a Flip).

    anyways,

    Mike
  • DrPopDrPop Posts: 227
    edited 2017-11-22 05:24
    Ken Gracey wrote: »
    ...American-made/warrantied, with support all the time so that we've got a sustainable business model?...

    This is where it's at. Or one day there won't be much left. I think it's more the anticipation and it's only natural for people to ask this time of year, because everyone and their brother seems to be having so many Black Friday sales (and it's not even Friday yet, people!) that my inbox is jammed full of them. :confused:

    EDIT: And shipping is enough to give away, that's a sale in itself. If you're doing that much, definitely promote it! It's gotten plenty expensive to ship anything lately.
  • It has gotten a bit crazy as companies of all types feed into the Black Friday nonsense. Consumers get conditioned to wait all year until the "stuff" is reduced in price.

    In the case of Parallax, a drastic price reduction for Black Friday might sell products at our cost. However, if there's a Chinese equivalent (like the HC04 and Ping) we're still not competitive. They can build and ship to the USA for less than the cost of the raw materials in the USA.

    This isn't to suggest we won't have sales or don't want them. They've got a place in our business, too. I just don't think we're selling at a cut rate this coming weekend.

    Ken Gracey
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    Please, what is this Black Friday anyway?
    In OZ, Black Friday occurss when the 13th of the month is a Friday.
  • Clusi99,
    In the USA the third Thursday of November is designated as Thanksgiving day, a day of celebratory feasting. Many companies give their employees a four day week end rather than put up with the hassel of people coming back after 1 day of debauchery. Some smart(assed) retailer decided to take advantange of that extra time off to host a big sales event to draw the pre-Christmas shopping crowed to their store. This caught on like a wildfire in dry brush. Now, those of us that work in retail have to prepare for this hugh sale all night the day before and many of us have to now work on Thanksgiving day as the sales start at 6:00PM Thursday evening. So much for a nice 4 day weekend!
    Jim
  • @RS_Jim - yeah, in my mind, things like Black Friday rank with some of the dumbest that our culture embraces for no real reason. We -yes, I say "we" because it's all of us on some level, either by agreeing and participating in the shopping, or saying nothing and therefore enabling - let "them" (whoever the "them" is) - get away with SCREWING a vast majority of the exact people who could use the four day weekend the most.

    For example, think about how much friendlier and happy to help the sales staff would be at most stores when doing your Christmas shopping the following weeks, AFTER they had a wonderful four day break!

    I love holidays. I enjoy the whole idea of a break from the monotony our jobs often become, extra time to spend with family, feasts and cultural events, etc. But, my country has somehow turned EVERY holiday on the calendar into some kind of a commerce event within my lifetime, and on some level that really ticks me off.
    Phew. OK, back to regular programming, now I can go see patients in a happy mood today. :-D
  • erco wrote: »
    Sales usually starts one hour after I place an order.
    LOL! I thought I was the only one with that kind luck.
    -dan
  • Jen J. wrote: »
    No big discounts planned, but we will be offering free shipping.

    --

    Free USPS Priority Shipping on orders of $50 or more Wednesday afternoon through Monday.

    Yea!, free shipping That's enough for me, time to find my parts list.
    -dan

  • Isn’t Black Friday dwarfed by singles day? 11/11. (And JD has a different singles day period which also dwarfs Black Friday.)
  • RS_Jim wrote: »
    Clusi99,
    In the USA the third Thursday of November is designated as Thanksgiving day, a day of celebratory feasting.

    Not to put too fine a point to it, Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday. Don't make it come any sooner than it does!

  • icepuck wrote: »
    Jen J. wrote: »
    No big discounts planned, but we will be offering free shipping.

    --

    Free USPS Priority Shipping on orders of $50 or more Wednesday afternoon through Monday.

    Yea!, free shipping That's enough for me, time to find my parts list.
    -dan

    Ditto!

    Perhaps it's not the right place for this, but instead of looking for a Black Friday deal, this could be the perfect time to inspire someone else to get interested in Tech by buying them a Parallax product as a gift. This way you support a very cool company and pass on the Tech Bug to an individual who otherwise might not have had the opportunity to work with Tech.

    Just a thought.

  • Everywhere I look it seems like its Arduino this or Arduino that. I have a project in mind that I did with an uno, now it's time to try it with my prop1.
    -dan
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    icepuck wrote: »
    I have a project in mind that I did with an uno, now it's time to try it with my prop1.
    -dan

    The December Nuts & Volts has an editor's piece (p.5) on "what your preferred micro says about you". In short:

    PIC: Old school, conservative
    Arduino: Solution oriented, copycat
    RasPi: Power users, rebels
    Propeller:Think outside the box, unafraid
    BS2: Security & safety
    Beaglebone: First adopters, tech, speed

  • Those are good answers for an electronic Magic 8 Ball!
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