Best Buy Employees Feel Threatened By Amazon

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Ummm, Best Buy employees should feel more threatened by the people running their company, not online retailers like Amazon. :rolleyes:

As you probably guessed, most of the products scanned came up with lower prices on Amazon, with 100% of electronics and toys costing less online than at any of the retailers. But that didn’t phase the employees at Target and Walmart, who told the analyst they don’t consider Amazon a material threat. It’s a different story for the crew in blue at Best Buy, who “were less enthused about the ability of their firm to survive the impact from Amazon.”
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I chuckled at the Darwin reference in the article. I don't own a smartphone, so I was surprised that Amazon only recently released an official price checker app, as Amazon book resellers have had similar apps for years. Pity the editors at Consumerist don't know that "phase" is a homophone, not synonym, of "faze." :p
 
Yeah, Amazon should be the least of their worries. Best Buy is slowly collapsing under the weight of their poor/bloated management, bad business decisions, limited selections and non-competitive pricing. I give them another year or 2 tops.
 
^^ As for price match, it's not worth my time. I would rather order it online for less than dick with customer service trying to price match an online retailer.
 
well amazon doesn't have to face customers, just talk to them. of course if you're not trained you'll be scared too.
 
BestBuy employees should worry about BestBuy ruining the company and not competition. There are times I have had to run out and get something I couldn't wait on delivery for. BestBuy is always my last option.
 
Yeah at this point they should be jumping ship. Hopefully Best Buys gravy train of robbing middle class rubes with $100 cables is coming to a close.
 
All Worstbuy, Fry's, Microcenter, et al. have become nothing but try before you buy and price comparison outlets. That's it. I never buy from these places anymore.
 
To me price is a major factor, but it is secondary over customer service, I am willing to pay a little more for a lot better shopping experience, Best Buys problem is if I can even find someone, the likely hood they will be able to tell me more about the products in question than what the price tag says is close to zero. So why should I pay more than at Amazon when I am not getting anything extra in customer service for the extra money they are asking me to pay.

If Best Buy goes back to good old fashioned customer service, and having well trained employees with well staffed stores, so people can get a more personal experience than clicking a mouse, they might just survive. But that's unlikely, as the majority of blue shirts are pizza face idiots, who could care less what my shopping experience is.
 
Amazon is one of the few sites that ships directly outside the US (I'm from Jordan) and accepts shipping to a mailbox address and different shipping and billing address's (used by freight forwarder like Aramex shop&ship service) with great packaging and customer service.

for example it's impossible to order from newegg, performance-pcs, etc.

I ordered from Amazon 3 complete PC's in 2012 for me and friends with no issues. personally I ordered everything but for others I advice them to buy the case & PSU locally because of the high shipping cost (about 10USD/pound).

we do this because of the llimited options we have here and the high prices (a $500 video card on amazon might cost $650 locally).

at any time of the day when I go to Aramex shop&ship office I wait in a long line and 90% are people ordered from amazon, I read hardware forums from around the mideast and everyone orders from amazon. so I guess this generates alot of sales to them.
 
I used to work at Best Buy up until a few months ago and had worked there since 2006. If I had owned shares in Best Buy I would have sold them in 2009 as I could tell at that point the company was on its way down from an internal view, but not based off anything specific. Upper management stopped caring about employees who were knowledgeable in one area and required everyone to know everything about half of the products in the store without properly training them. So you basically you got less staff who knew less about what they were trying to sell. No wonder their sales are dropping. Best Buy's business model is so far out of whack I think they have lost touch with themselves and unless they decide what direction they want to go, they will continue to suffer in the marketplace.
 
H@RD5 said:
To me price is a major factor, but it is secondary over customer service, I am willing to pay a little more for a lot better shopping experience, Best Buys problem is if I can even find someone, the likely hood they will be able to tell me more about the products in question than what the price tag says is close to zero. So why should I pay more than at Amazon when I am not getting anything extra in customer service for the extra money they are asking me to pay.

If Best Buy goes back to good old fashioned customer service, and having well trained employees with well staffed stores, so people can get a more personal experience than clicking a mouse, they might just survive. But that's unlikely, as the majority of blue shirts are pizza face idiots, who could care less what my shopping experience is.
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I feel compelled to ask you this question in light of the statement you made about customer service.

If you know what the product is that you are going to buy, then why would you spend more money on a 'better shopping experience'? What does that mean?
 
I think it's prefectly reasonable to feel threatened by Amazon. I got really scared for my personal safety when I found out they were selling 55 gallon barrels of personal lubricant because the guy in the apartment next door to me seems like the kind of person to really stock up and that has sort of alarming ramifications for nearby Skribbels. :eek:

http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Natural-Water-Based-Lubricant-Gallon/dp/B005MR3IVO
 
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Methadras said:
I feel compelled to ask you this question in light of the statement you made about customer service.

If you know what the product is that you are going to buy, then why would you spend more money on a 'better shopping experience'? What does that mean?
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Okay so lets say I have a set idea about the blu-ray player I want, but they have a different model from a different brand that offers more features for slightly more money, if the sales person can explain to me the difference in features and the benefits I would realize if I purchased the more expensive player. I would for sure consider purchasing the more expensive model over the one I had originally come to purchase, and would for sure purchase from that store despite Amazon having it for a better price. Because I had gotten some information I didn't know, and having the ability to do research and real time comparison in store with knowledgeable employe's is worth paying a little extra to me. As it saves me time and keeps me from having to scour the internet and read mountians of reviews and trust anonymous and faceless strangers, who could be speaking out of their ass, because they have a hard on for one brand over the other.

To me that is a better shopping experience, than doing the research on your computer and then hoping the reviews you read were good, and buying from amazon. Plus there is the instant gratification of not having to wait 2 days for your stuff to come in the mail. Now let me preface this by saying as long as the price difference is only 1-4% more than amazon I am okay with paying more. But if I am buying a $3000 dollar TV, and Amazon can offer me $100 or more in savings I'm likely going to buy from Amazon.
 
Target and Walmart sell groceries and other crap you wouldn't buy from Amazon.

Best Buy should be worried.
 
Of course BBY usually higher prices, they pay for rent/lease of their buildings, local and state taxes.
Amazon doesn't have to worry about they unless they have a local presence.

BBY employs 1550000 employees; almost 6 times as many as Amazon. BBY failing is bad for both the local and state economy.

Yes they have management issues and training issues but they also have unfair competition with Internet stores that don't have to pass on the tax liability. Granted most states you're supposed to report out of state purchases but almost no one does that.

Could their prices be a little lower; yes but to compare Amazon's prices and BBY without taking into account all the factors is wrong.
 
They make the employs sell crap that customers don;t want or need instead of actually helping them. A lot of these CEO's and corporate decision makers are making poor decisions and running these companies into bankruptcy. Best buy was teh first to do away with mail in rebates. They used to eb a pleasant place to shop. I usually go online or go to a microcenter.
 
OregonLAN said:
^^ As for price match, it's not worth my time. I would rather order it online for less than dick with customer service trying to price match an online retailer.
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same here especially considering I have prime, even though products ordered with prime shipping do not always come in their 2 day period well at least from the day I ordered it.
 
harlock328 said:
BBY employs 1550000 employees; almost 6 times as many as Amazon.
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No.





Anyway, bust buy employees should feel most threatened by their own laziness. You don't get a job slinging house brand TVs because you studied hard and got a degree in engineering.
 
Brick and Mortar will always have higher pricing , the cost of offering a show room floor and birthing hundreds of stores across the country. Even with price matching they simply can't come close to the experience of order an item on your smartphone while you are at work or at lunch or relaxing at home in your "lazy" clothes (PJ's or whatever).

This is the way of things right now. But If Best Buy can make some tweaks it could still remain valid. People still want to physically "see" an item before they buy it , especially if it costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. Amazon is great and all and I love it to death for cheap shipping and its catalog but I've had bad experiences with shipped TV's for instance and having to cross ship a TV is a nightmare in reality. Best Buy on the other hand , experiencing the same issue , is just a matter of returning the item for another the next day with little fuss.

Home Audio is another thing people like to experience and cross shipping large speakers with big heavy magnets is not fun with Amazon either (I've also had to ship back a sub before , again not an experience I wish to repeat). So Best Buy has another advantage in that returns of this item are also less of a hassle.

There are more examples that can be made but the one thing I fucking HATE about Best Buy is how much they over charge with Geeksquad. While one of my close friends works as a manager in Geeksquad and I respect the work he does , he is always on them about lowering there pricing structure for basic PC/Mac services. Best Buy is only to happy to charge you hundreds to complete an action that takes no more than 20-30 minutes at best and has an almost zero failure rate. Hell to even LOOK and diagnose a problem is a sizable fee as well. This whole thing needs to be lowered to normal levels otherwise people will simply go else where (most of the people I know who did go there go to local shops for cheaper servicing).

Best Buy could still have a shot. I hate going there but I don't want over a hundred thousand employee's out of work simply because I don't frequent there , there is a larger picture involved besides the constant whining (like from some of the haters in this thread). Some people really depend on these jobs even if they aren't great ones , finding ways to stay competitive is not only good for the work force in general but it will force Amazon to keep prices low because if BB is gone ..kiss those cheap ass prices along with it on Amazon.
 
Only reason I go into Best Buy is for the bargain bin blu-rays or video games. That's where they'll easily beat Amazon in pricing.

Like my $5 Jackie Chan 4-movie blu-ray disc. $7 on Amazon, then I have to wait a few days for it to come in. After that, I have to wait like 30 mins in line at the Post Office to pick it up.

Other times, I'll get something cheap, cause they mislabeled the price. Got Resistance for PS Vita for $19.99. 2 were labelled as that, while the other like 10 were labelled $29.99.
 
Aluisious said:
No.





Anyway, bust buy employees should feel most threatened by their own laziness. You don't get a job slinging house brand TVs because you studied hard and got a degree in engineering.
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If you look at the next post, you'll see that I corrected it ( I couldn't edit my original post).
 
That because Best Buy sucks and Target doesn't :p. I still go to Target all the time, despite Amazon. For one, the prices are near enough on many things as to not matter much. Also Target does stock items Amazon doesn't, like food, and of course there's the whole "I can get it whenever I want" thing. Also no hassle on returns. While Amazon is great on returns, it is even easier to just take something back to Target.

Best Buy is just shitty though. They want to push their crap like overpriced cables and extended warranties at every turn, but they also charge too damn much. Like one of the last times I went there, it was for speakers. I'd decided on JBL Northridge E speakers for my living room. J&R sold them online (J&R is a retail store in New York, by the way) for a reasonable price, shipping included in the price. However, these were big floorstanders, so shipping was surely a non-trivial part of the price. I figured maybe I just buy local, pay a similar amount, and of course then I can take it back if there's a problem. I'll pay a price premium, 10-20% is no problem.

So BB is the only local dealer. I trot on over there and they have them in stock... For DOUBLE J&R's price. No I'm not paying double. Somehow J&R can manage to afford their retail space, their warehouse, all that jazz and still charge HALF the price, including shipping. So J&R it was.

I have no problem paying a bit more locally. I have a problem paying a ton more, and that is what BB wants.
 
Sycraft said:
That because Best Buy sucks and Target doesn't :p. I still go to Target all the time, despite Amazon. For one, the prices are near enough on many things as to not matter much. Also Target does stock items Amazon doesn't, like food, and of course there's the whole "I can get it whenever I want" thing. Also no hassle on returns. While Amazon is great on returns, it is even easier to just take something back to Target.

Best Buy is just shitty though. They want to push their crap like overpriced cables and extended warranties at every turn, but they also charge too damn much. Like one of the last times I went there, it was for speakers. I'd decided on JBL Northridge E speakers for my living room. J&R sold them online (J&R is a retail store in New York, by the way) for a reasonable price, shipping included in the price. However, these were big floorstanders, so shipping was surely a non-trivial part of the price. I figured maybe I just buy local, pay a similar amount, and of course then I can take it back if there's a problem. I'll pay a price premium, 10-20% is no problem.

So BB is the only local dealer. I trot on over there and they have them in stock... For DOUBLE J&R's price. No I'm not paying double. Somehow J&R can manage to afford their retail space, their warehouse, all that jazz and still charge HALF the price, including shipping. So J&R it was.

I have no problem paying a bit more locally. I have a problem paying a ton more, and that is what BB wants.
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My experience is quite the opposite. The best deals at best buy are there the clearance sales,. I got Monitor Audio RS1's for $125ech (SEALED) Monitor Audio RS6 $275each (SEALED), Monitor Audio RSLCR for $200ish. BDI entertainment console for 60% off MSRP. On the computer side of things, 2 packs of 20 DL Verbatims for $20 (and this was 3 years ago). Toshiba 1080p 32" LCD for $200ish (last year)
 
Sycraft said:
That because Best Buy sucks and Target doesn't :p. I still go to Target all the time, despite Amazon. For one, the prices are near enough on many things as to not matter much. Also Target does stock items Amazon doesn't, like food, and of course there's the whole "I can get it whenever I want" thing. Also no hassle on returns. While Amazon is great on returns, it is even easier to just take something back to Target.

Best Buy is just shitty though. They want to push their crap like overpriced cables and extended warranties at every turn, but they also charge too damn much. Like one of the last times I went there, it was for speakers. I'd decided on JBL Northridge E speakers for my living room. J&R sold them online (J&R is a retail store in New York, by the way) for a reasonable price, shipping included in the price. However, these were big floorstanders, so shipping was surely a non-trivial part of the price. I figured maybe I just buy local, pay a similar amount, and of course then I can take it back if there's a problem. I'll pay a price premium, 10-20% is no problem.

So BB is the only local dealer. I trot on over there and they have them in stock... For DOUBLE J&R's price. No I'm not paying double. Somehow J&R can manage to afford their retail space, their warehouse, all that jazz and still charge HALF the price, including shipping. So J&R it was.

I have no problem paying a bit more locally. I have a problem paying a ton more, and that is what BB wants.
Click to expand...

My experience is quite the opposite. The best deals at best buy are the clearance sales,. I got Monitor Audio RS1's for $125ech (SEALED) Monitor Audio RS6 $275each (SEALED), Monitor Audio RSLCR for $200ish. BDI entertainment console for 60% off MSRP. On the computer side of things, 2 packs of 20 DL Verbatims for $20 (and this was 3 years ago). Toshiba 1080p 32" LCD for $200ish (last year)
 
BB isn't making much if any money on their clearance crap or bargain bins.
They are bleeding money from all the other stuff that people don't buy because it is just easier and more pleasant to buy them online.

BB will shrink if they are smart to something that they can keep profitable. Would be best for them to become private co. and concentrate on survival for a while. They can't grow with that business model in todays economy, if ever.

also, I mentioned this in another BB thread, is it just me or does walking around BB make anyone else have to poop? For me, every time...
 
Aluisious said:
Anyway, bust buy employees should feel most threatened by their own laziness. You don't get a job slinging house brand TVs because you studied hard and got a degree in engineering.
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Your average Best Buy employee on the floor who is the face of the company to customers are generally high school or college age kids who use that job to help pay for school. At least around here they are. Also, the manager of the Geek repair team can make over 80k a year. Not to bad of coin...
 
OregonLAN said:
^^ As for price match, it's not worth my time. I would rather order it online for less than dick with customer service trying to price match an online retailer.
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This exactly. If they made price matching less of a hassle, i would use it more. When they start CALLING the store in the advertisement to make sure the item is in stock locally, they take it too far.
 
best buy started declining when they started selling dynex and rocketfish crap.
 
It's because Amazon employees do drivebys in Amazon vans, and shoot at them with water pistols. No one gets hurt, but the threat is constant.
 
Granted brick&mortar is at a disadvantage due to higher overhead / infrastructure costs - if they can use immediacy or the hands-on experience as selling points, I suppose those could be advantages.

But online retailers can't really pressure a website to sell more extended warranties. That doesn't make for pleasant customer interaction - yet I keep seeing more B&Ms dogpile on this idea like it's going to save their margins. (What customer wants to be hassled at checkout? What kind of margin is worth scaring the net savvy customers out of the building?)

Also, I agree that the proliferation of junk brands and store specific SKUs contributes as well. My experiences with price matching have generally been abject failures of customer service - some with managerial hostility included!

I would LOVE to see a secret shopper article (like the old Tech Support one) to test price matching - it would likely be hilarious.
 
Amazon started charging tax here lately..and I thought that would make me buy more stuff from physical stores.

But I've gotten used to shopping from the computer - I don't want to waste time and gas going to a store anymore.

Unless Bestbuy starts selling Milk and Bread I can't imagine I will ever visit them again:)
 
They should. Best Buy sucks ass and should be looked at as a last resort only. That being said, people still like to go look at products and shop, which is why the storefront will never die completely.
 
I really hope Amazon does not start sending me emails now when that stuff (55 gal drum of lube) goes on sale..
 
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