pre-orders are down because everybody at Verizon is telling the customer that they have to wait till the 10th to get their phone in the mail when the phone comes out on the 8th it should be arriving on the 8th and do your house so most people I presume like me are going to the store to buy it on the day it comes out!

Samsung smartphones could be reliably had for 30% off (a few months after launch) for quite a few years now, they're not price-fixed like most Chinese phones. I still remember buying my Note8 256GB online for less than the local asking price of the 64GB version.