Play.com clears house

The bigger resellers move such a huge quantity of kit, that their warehousing operations look more like production centres for jumbo jets. Periodically, they need to ‘flush the system' in order to keep things healthy. Right now, that's what Play.com is doing. On a jumbo scale.

Delivering anything from A to B in the UK involves a cost. Not only do you have to pay the courier, you also need to take and process the original order, pick the products off the shelf, pack them, scan them and send them on their merry way. Also, there is the issue that some of them will return – either rejected using the distance selling regulations – or with a genuine problem. Either way, that's another cost.

So, against that background, you can see how offering Free Delivery could be a disaster. It's a sales support tool that you only pull out on low-priced products when you absolutely, positively need to clear everything out of your warehouse. And that's what Play.com has done.

KitGuru has no idea what a Cellardine Foil Cutter does, but it's available for only 99p with Free Delivery. Possibly more useful would be the Blackberry Bold 9700 car charger for £3.95 – which is a little better than the £16 Blackberry themselves want to lift out of your pocket.

If you've been considering something small, useful, but normally expensive and a pain to transport – now might be a time to hit the site and see if you can find a Pound-Store-Style bargain.

KitGuru says: We're off to buy in-car chargers. We'll let you know if the car catches fire or anything.

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