HP-33s Dropped by local Wal-Mart?

[Paul Brogger]

I drop by the calculator section in Electronics every time I'm at Wal-Mart. Last week, there was a single HP-33s (large decimal point). Yesterday, there were none, and its place in the pegboard display has been squeezed out by TI & etc. (There were still some HP-10b's.)

Online, www.walmart.com shows the 33s as "in stock", at ~$46, but I notice that the 33s isn't pointed-to from any other calculator's "Similar Items" links.

Not sure it means anything other than that they're temporarily out of stock. I don't need any more right now, but local retail presence might indicate longer-term availability.

(See also: earler, related message.)

Edited: 24 Apr 2006, 12:03 p.m.

[Richard Garner]

I wrote something similar about a week ago. I was in one of the local Wal-Mart stores and the HP-33S was moved to the clearance area of electronics. I looked this past weekend and the price had been dropped from $46 to $38. With a second person now seeing what I saw a week ago, it looks as if Wal-Mart is pulling the 33S from its stores.

[Namir]

I still see the HP-33s in the local WAL-mart, here in Richmond, Virginia. The price is reduced but it is still selling. Granted, the number of calcultors available in the few stores I have seen has dropped.

I think WAL-mart is phasing out the HP-33s, slowly but surely.

Namir

[Matt Kernal]

Quote:

---

I think WAL-mart is phasing out the HP-33s, slowly but surely.

---

I thought the same thing about a year and a half ago when I found 10BII's were clearance priced for $17.00. I bought all three they had. Now they're back at regular retail price. So here I am, stuck trying to get rid of these suckers.

On the other hand, since the 33S is a relatively expensive scientific calculator, maybe Wally-World is forcing HP into pricing concessions that they so famously demand from all their suppliers. If HP doesn't bow, Walmart could therefore retaliate by eliminating the 33S from their brick & mortar stores to make room for even cheaper Chinese calcs. Of course, this is only a theory.

Matt

Edited: 24 Apr 2006, 2:35 p.m.

[E. Young]

I'll have to check my local Wal-Mart. Hopefully this doesn't mean that HP is going to cancel the 33s, unless it has an improved replacement in the wings.

[Howard Owen]

Of course! That marvelous mythical mathematical machine, the 43S, is almost upon us!

But then, I'm often in dreamland. 8)

Regards,
Howard

[Namir]

Order a million unit from HP and the HP-43s will become a reality!

[Thomas Okken]

Or order a rather smaller quantity from OpenRPN and the HP-43S will become a reality, too!

[Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.]

I checked the WAL-MART's in Largo, Florida, in Macon, Georgia and in Brevard, North Carolina this weekend. All three had several 33s calculators in the usual location, at the $45.95 price and with no indication of a clearance.

[E. Young]

did you happen to notice if the units they had were the older version with the micrscopic decimal point? The last time I checked my local Wal-Mart still did, and this was back in December.

[Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.]

In each of the three locations the versions were new with serial numbers even higher than the one I purchased earlier this year. That was not the case last December when the Largo store had older and newer units intermixed.

I would agree that Wal-mart might put the older units on clearance since no one who knows better really wants them, and anyone who inadvertently buys one will probably return it under Wal-Mart's liberal return policy. But, unless Wal-Mart has gotten a lot easier on vendors then it is more likely that the older units were returned to HP at HP's expense.

[E. Young]

If that's the case it's my opinion that HP got what it deserves for releasing such a flawed design on the market. Forgetting aesthetics, I am pleased with the newer 33s with the improved display and keyboard. It's actually my daily use calculator now, something I never thought I would ever say.