My Fry's and ones I've been to in other western states will have a bright colored sticker that says "REFURBISHED" on them and "OPEN BOX" for opened and returned items.
My Fry's price matches to the item name. Never the SKU. That must be an east cost thing. I've been to about 4 Fry's on the west coast and they all price match to name, but it must be sold by a competitor and only that; no third parties. "Shipped and sold by Amazing, Sold by NewEgg, etc." or other stores. If you order online, you must email them with an online listing and wait a few weeks. If you buy an item in store and later find it cheaper elsewhere, like I did last year, you can take the receipt in and a print out or bring it up on your phone or ask the cashier to look it up, and they'll adjust the difference. Often crediting a credit card, even if the item was bought in cash.
This happened to me last September and just last week again. I was distracted and it never crossed my mind why the salesman was so excited to help me out. The up-marking they do benefits the sales person who sells you a high price item. There was a $30 difference last week and last years was around $170 or so.
Fry's, Best Buy, Staples, et al. will carry different named products, though. They will still price match if you can prove it's the same item. An example would be Asus routers. Something like an Asus A95U and an Asus A95R would be the same thing, the U would be Universal and the R would Retail. Call me a dick if you must, but if someone salesman tries to push that they're two different units, I simply tell them "So you won't mind if I contact Asus US and your company's HQ and ask them to resolve the issue, right, [insert name]?"
Usually shuts their trap and they're happy to oblige. It's a PR nightmare simply because they're the same product and a third party examination of the hardware would confirm it. Easier to eat the price difference than loss of business when they get blasted in the press.
Years ago, Best Buy and Fry's, to an extent, had a trick up their sleeve. Best Buy would price match if asked to, but they used an internal site with fudged numbers. This was before smart phones were common place. The bulk of Fry's consumers are prosumer individuals wanting the best hardware and products (your locations may differ). Fry's was there after Radio Shack stopped giving a damn about their specialist customers in the late 1980s. Fry's has since and still picks up the slack other companies can't.
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What you guys have never bought anything from bestbuy that seemed like it was opened before? I know I have.
It does happen. I tend to examine boxes for several minutes on each side to see if anything's wrong. Might be a small crease where one would never be able to produce without opening the box, or misalligned tape where it shouldn't be, incorrect taping not seen with that company's standards, odd looking shrink wrap, tackiness where it shouldn't be indicating previous taped area, etc.
