I'll be visiting USA (specifically Austin) in 3 weeks. My friend wants to get a new Macbook (most probably; though she might go with a normal laptop instead), which are supposedly cheaper in US.

Since it's my first visit, could anyone advice:
_ A good place to buy a Macbook. Not online, since I won't have time to arrange it. Should I go to an Apple store or somewhere else?
_ What are the prices there? Even a rough figure. Just so she can compare and see if it's worth it.

Thanks.

Best Buy sells Apple. She can check their website to get get an idea of pricing, check stock, etc. Shoot, she can order one now and pick it up from a local store upon arrival. Looks like Fry's also sells Apple.

http://www.frys.com/category/Outpost/MACtab/Mac+Laptops/
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/all-laptops/macbooks/pcmcat247400050001.c?id=pcmcat247400050001

Found this one, too: http://www.macalliance.net/

disclaimer: I don't shop Apple or Austin, so these could suck or be awesome. No idea. But at least you can see pricing and availability.

A big box store chain like those mentioned above may have a sale, but those are usually seasonal; otherwise the Apple Store would be your best bet. Otherwise, you could try asking around in an Austin-specific Mac user group like this one: http://www.capmac.org/Contact.html

Based on the 3 weeks mentioned by OP he'd be there around time of thanksgiving which means he can go for black friday deals right?

The best deals(not online) I've seen when it comes to laptops here can be found at Best Buy stores.

I would definitely forego the official Apple store as they as good as never deviate from their suggested retail price.

I also would recommend Best Buy, especially since they're pretty good at price matching.

I'd recommend looking into the duties on that. You may save some money, but it's likely that the duties added to the price will result in a more expensive purchase than buying one in Ireland.

I'm not sure about Irish law, but generally you pay duties based upon the price you paid for the laptop. A whole saler, will be paying based upon the whole sale price rather than the retail price which is always much higher.

As far as prices go, why don't you just go to Apple's website? You might need to use a VPN, but that should give you a pretty good idea what the price is going to be. Perhaps, but I'm not sure I'd recommend going without a firearm or at least some mace. Black Friday might as well be named black due to the violence and people being killed every year.

Or get rid of the box, throw it in a laptop bag, and claim it as a personal item. There's no way customs could prove that laptop was or wasn't in their possession prior to their trip.

Most people get killed during Black Fridays by being trampled to death so I'm not sure a firearm or mace will help. Maybe wearing armor with a bunch of spikes will help.
http://photos.metrotimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/dimmu-i.jpg Nobody is going to step on this guy to get 50% off an HD TV. That is for sure. :P

All this time I thought South Park exaggerated that aspect of Black Friday. Looks like I was wrong.

Yeah it's really bad here, alot of pushing and shoving and also fights. We really are a consumer culture. The only advice I can give and it's coming from working as loss prevention in Best Buy is after making a big purchase as in a laptop is to NOT put it in a car and continue shopping but to make all your purchases at whatever store and head directly home/hotel because some career criminals will break into your car or follow you to another store and then break into your car. Please don't get the wrong idea that America is a bad place or crazy it's just idiots who are constantly looking for an opportunity to steal.

Not just South Park exaggerating. :( When the doors open, those people rush in like a Tsunami and will not stop. So if you trip or slip and fall, you are fucked. I'm sure a lot of people who took part in the killing of these people were unaware they were taking part in such a thing. Maybe they didn't feel anything unusual under their feet. But I'm also sure, a lot of the people knew better and are just selfish feral beasts with no morals. It is common for people to die this way, whenever there are a large number of excited and motivated people trying to get from point A to point B.

Every country has got a few bad apples, won't be fair to judge an entire country using them as basis.

Damn!

I would also recommend looking into refurb machines if you're willing to look into going the online route. They're slightly older-gen machines that are almost as good as the latest and greatest, but still covered under Apple's warranty and are as good as brand-new machines, only sold for substantially less.