That's common with some stores, like large department stores and mattresses being a common example. But the manufacturer has to be part of it.
And it's simply not common or widespread in electronics. Apple isn't doing it. Logitech isn't doing it. Etc.
There might be a few brands or product categories which do... but it's also not generally to avoid price-matching, but rather to sell a lower-quality product that Best Buy pays less for. They're not just slapping a different model number on it -- it also has less memory, or cheaper packaging, or a lower-quality screen, or whatever.
I think Best Buy's strategy is to just get people into their stores, hoping they will walk away with more than the thing they came to price match.
Kohl's has adopted an interesting strategy recently of becoming an Amazon drop-off location. By doing so, they get people to walk through their store, browsing their merchandise, if only via a brief visual scan. Once you've dropped off your return, they give you a card good for a discount on anything in the store for one day.
I think it happens, but not because of price matching. It's more about merchandising, hitting a retail pricepoint, or keeping the model in play for some period of time.
For stuff like SanDisk sticks/sdcards you see multiple SKUs for the same product all of the time -- they may have a clamshell sku for merchandising on a shelf or clip, have a "bonus" storage case, etc.
Apple is different because they exert alot of brand control. But PC OEMs have many models of similar products, especially at retail where factors like how long a CPU will be available for restock may matter more. The shitty HP Model whatever laptop on the shelf at Walmart will usually not share a model number with the shitty laptop at Costco or Target. Sometimes retailers insert their own upsell in the packaging as well.
Absolutely yes I have. Those are the real model numbers from my experience. They also did the same thing to me about ten years ago when they refused to price match a Western Digital hard drive.
That's common with some stores, like large department stores and mattresses being a common example. But the manufacturer has to be part of it.
And it's simply not common or widespread in electronics. Apple isn't doing it. Logitech isn't doing it. Etc.
There might be a few brands or product categories which do... but it's also not generally to avoid price-matching, but rather to sell a lower-quality product that Best Buy pays less for. They're not just slapping a different model number on it -- it also has less memory, or cheaper packaging, or a lower-quality screen, or whatever.