'Interesting' Digikey prices policy for EURO zone

inaki

If you enter Digikey.com with an EURO zone·prefix (instead of using www. use 'fr.','es.',it.',etc)·you will be delighted to know that you will get free shipping if you buy for 65 Euro or more!

However·if you look·closer you will notice that EURO prices are 10% higher than USD prices!
Try with any EURO zone prefix like: fr.Digkey.com, es.Digikey.com, etc.
Just pick any item and·translate the EUR·price to USD (you can use for example www.xe.com to ease the translation at the current rate).
The price will be around 10% higher than the one· you get when you enter through www.Digikey.com.

On the other hand, if you live in Europe (in EURO zone) and you order through www.Digikey.com, instead of using your country prefix,(in a try to outsmart Digikey guys!)·you will get cheaper prices but then you will be unable to take profit of the shipment discount! :-(

A possible explanation·for this 'policy'·would be that EURO/USD rate fluctuate so much that Digikey has decided to give EURO purchases some advantage.
However an easier·method would be to keep everything in USD and translate to EURO at 'check out' time.

Depending on the order it may be cheapper to buy through EURO sites, with the discount,·or through www.Digikey.com.






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Duffer

Maybe what you're seeing as "discrepancies" in pricing has more to do with currancy fluctuation and Digikey's inability or unwillingness to change their prices on a daily basis. I have the same problem with pricing merchandise on my site that I purchase from Australia. It's sometimes difficult to "keep up" when currancies can fluctuate as much as 10-15 percent in a span of weeks.

But I agree with your idea of "doing the math" and choosing how you buy to make sure you're getting the best possible price on any given day.

Duffer

Tracy Allen

Along a similar vein, Newark (USA) and Farnell (UK) are joined at the hip. Those of us in the USA can purchase any amount of stuff from Farnell (through Newark) with a flat shipping charge of US$20. That is a bargain when you have a lot of stuff and when you consider that it arrives at your door via UPS overnight service. It does take a week to get it because they consolidate the shipments from Farnell and then break it out into UPS red once it jumps the pond. I just received a 22 pound shipment of Deltron connectors on this basis, and the per item price too was better than I could get from local distributors.

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com