Stop shopping at the Apple Store

Why you shouldn’t buy straight from Apple

Plus: How Best Buy tries to trick you

Jared Newman   |   November 25, 2025

Hey there! I’m Jared Newman, a longtime tech journalist, and you’re reading the free edition of Advisorator, my weekly tech advice newsletter. Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up to get it every Tuesday.

This week, I’ve got two Advisorator columns for the price of one, and because I’m terrible at business, I’m not paywalling either of them.

If you like what I’m doing here and want to support more of it, you can think about becoming a paying member, but we can discuss that more at the end of the newsletter.

Stop shopping at the Apple Store

Unless you like getting ripped off, there’s little reason to shop at the Apple Store for anything but an iPhone.

I’ve mentioned this here-and-there over the years, but with the holidays coming up, and Apple announcing its usual slate of insulting Black Friday deals, it’s time to lay out the case in detail. If you buy an iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or AirPods directly from Apple instead of third-party stores like Amazon or Best Buy, you might as well be flushing money down the drain.

Everything costs more at the Apple Store

I track the cost of Apple gear pretty closely as part of my weekly deal roundups for this newsletter, and I’ve learned that deep discounts are the norm with every retailer except the Apple Store.

Some examples right now:

This isn’t just a Black Friday thing. Whenever Apple launches a new product, we see the same pattern: Third-party retailers might hold the line for a few weeks, but soon they begin slashing prices, and the discounts get deeper over time, even as the Apple Store keeps charging full price.

13-inch MacBook Air price history on Amazon.

What do you get by spending more at the Apple Store? Nothing, really. The same one-year Apple warranty applies regardless of retailer, and you can also buy AppleCare+ if you need more coverage. You can also still call Apple for in-warranty support or bring your device to a physical Apple Store for repairs. If you want to check out a product at a physical Apple Store first, you’re welcome to do that as well—and then buy it for less elsewhere.

Apple’s pitiful Black Friday deals

Instead of joining other retailers in offering real money discounts, the Apple Store is doing what it’s always done on Black Friday, which is to offer gift cards toward future Apple Store purchases.

These gift cards typically have less value than what you’d save by shopping elsewhere. The base 13-inch MacBook Air, for instance, gets you a $175 gift card with your $1,000 purchase, versus a straight-up $250 discount from Amazon or Best Buy. An iPad Air gets you a $100 gift card, versus a $150 discount from Amazon.

So, in exchange for paying too much on Black Friday, you’ve locked yourself into paying too much again on some later date. Please do not do this.

Where the Apple Store still makes sense

One thing you might still want to buy at an Apple Store is a new iPhone, which is seldom discounted elsewhere.

The biggest iPhone deals instead come from wireless carriers, who offer cheap (or even free) iPhones in exchange for multi-year service commitments. Apple will set you up with those subsidies at its own stores, so you can avoid your carrier’s store if you’re worried about being upsold on unnecessary services. (Apple also offers a program for yearly upgrades that doesn’t depend on carrier financing.)

A few other minor exceptions to the rule:

  • Some products, like the Vision Pro headset, are exclusive to the Apple Store.
  • At least on Black Friday, getting an Apple TV 4K box with a $25 gift card from Apple’s store makes sense, as it’s rarely discounted otherwise (though it’s currently selling for $99 at Costco).
  • Education pricing could make the Apple Store worthwhile in some cases, especially if you’re able to stack it with gift card offers.
  • The Apple Store is a necessity if you want your product engraved for free.

Also, I can’t really speak to retailers outside the U.S. If you’re part of Advisorator’s international audience, I’d love to hear if the situation is similar where you live.

Where to find Apple deals

I continue to recommend Apple Insider’s Price Guides page for finding lower prices on Macs, iPads, and other Apple gear. It doesn’t list every store, but it tracks Amazon along with some retailers you might not think to look up on your own. (It’s especially useful for specific Mac configurations that the big retailers don’t carry.)

Usually, though, a quick sweep through Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart is enough to see if the Apple Store is charging too much. Most of the time, it is.

Best Buy’s sale price shenanigans

While looking to replace the small TV in my office, I came across something sneaky on Best Buy’s website:

Pictured above is the product page for TCL’s QM5K 50-inch Mini-LED TV, showing a “Black Friday Deal” price of $280. Best Buy claims that you’re saving $370 with this offer, versus what looks like a regular price of $650.

But if this TV ever sold for $650, it wasn’t for long. When the QM5K launched in June as a Best Buy exclusive, the 50-inch model immediately started selling for $350. The Black Friday Deal isn’t a bad one, but it’s really only saving $70.

Inflated list pricing isn’t a new tactic for retailers, and it’s one of the main things to beware of when shopping for Black Friday deals. In this case, though, I noticed that Best Buy isn’t even showing a list price. Instead, it’s advertising what it calls a “Comparable Value” price, described in fine print (emphasis mine):

Our “Comparable Value” (Comp. Value) prices are based on the price at which the product, or a comparable item, was (or in the future will be) offered for sale by Best Buy, marketplace sellers, manufacturers, suppliers, or other retailers, online or in-store.

In other words, what looks like the list price could just be something Best Buy came up with. What products was Best Buy referencing to arrive at a $650 “Comparable Value” price for TCL’s QM5K? There’s no way to tell. What I do know is that a similar TV from rival Hisense has never cost more than $464 and shows a $399 list price on Amazon. (It’s also on sale for $278.)

The QM5K isn’t the only product to which this applies. Having taken my own TV buying advice, I’m also looking at LG’s 48-inch B5 OLED TV, which Best Buy is selling for $550 while showing a “Comparable Value” price of $1,300.

In what world did this TV sell for $1,300? I’m not sure, because LG doesn’t publish a list price for it. (Seriously, LG’s website just leaves the price blank.) But if we look at last year’s B4 OLED, LG’s site clearly shows an MSRP of $800 for the 48-inch model. Best Buy is somehow claiming that the 2025 model is worth $500 more, even as LG’s larger OLEDs have gotten cheaper.

One more example: Best Buy is selling a 16-inch Acer laptop for $750, versus a “Comparable Value” of $1,250. But we can see from PCWorld’s review that this exact laptop has an MSRP of $1,200. Amazon, meanwhile, has never sold it for more than $1,019, which it lists as the regular price.

Retailers have to be somewhat careful with list pricing, because failing to reflect actual prices can get them sued. Just ask HP, which settled a lawsuit earlier this year over deceptive deal pricing in its online store. Showing shoppers a “Comparable Value” price instead might give Best Buy a little more wiggle room to stretch the truth, but you’re better off just treating it as fiction.

News in brief

Google’s AirDrop workaround: Google has figured out how to make its Pixel 10 phones work with AirDrop, Apple’s proprietary feature for sharing files between devices. Pixel 10 users will be able to use the Quick Share menu to send files to nearby iPhones, iPads, and Macs, while Apple users will be able to see nearby Pixel 10 devices in the AirDrop menu. Google says it’s creating a direct peer-to-peer connection between devices, so files never go through an external server.

There is a catch, however: The feature only works when Apple users enable AirDrop’s “Everyone for 10 minutes” mode, as opposed the default “Contacts Only” mode. Google says it wants to work with Apple on a version that works with contacts only, but my money’s on Apple trying to block Google’s implementation instead. If that doesn’t happen, Google says it hopes to expand AirDrop support to more Android devices over time. (PairDrop, LocalSend, and Payload are great cross-platform alternatives either way.)

More notable reads:

Spend wisely

Would you like a place to discuss actually-good tech deals with me and other friendly folks? I’m maintaining a running list of recommended tech deals in my Tech Buds forum and encouraging folks to chime in with questions and additions. (The format is similar to the big list of streaming deals on my Cord Cutter Weekly website, but for all kinds of tech gear.)

All you need to gain access is an Advisorator membership. It’s cheap at $5 per month or $50 per year, and I’ll also send you more in-depth advice than you’re getting in the free newsletter.

More buying advice for Advisorator members:

My hope is that a membership will pay for itself by saving you money and keeping you from getting ripped off. But I also offer easy cancellation and no-questions-asked refunds upon request if it doesn’t work out.

Thanks for reading! Catch you next week.

Until then,
Jared

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up to get it every Tuesday.

Thanks for subscribing.