Best Buy Closing 50 Stores

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After reporting weaker than expected sales, Best Buy announced that it is closing 50 stores and cutting 400 jobs in corporate and support areas. The silver lining? The company says it is going to invest in improving customer service.

Despite offering bigger discounts and free shipping to lure shoppers from its rivals including Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc , Best Buy's same-store sales fell 2.4 percent in the quarter, including a 2.2 percent decline at its U.S. stores open at least 14 months.
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Not a minute too late (closing stores). Too little, too late (customer service). Why not work on your pricing and change your online presence to something like NewEgg, Tiger Direct, etc? Best Buy is the Block Buster : Netflix of electronics.
 
I weep for them. /sarcasm

I wish my area had a Fry's or even better a Microcenter, maybe if a few of the local BBs close they'd take a look at a new market.
 
I avoid BB like the plague, and advise others to do the same.
 
Only thing I buy from BestBuy is.... Well nevermind, I don't buy anything from them.
 
BB laughed their way to the bank as they grew to crush hundreds of smaller local shops out of existence, now their own bones join the heap. Poetic Justice.

Too bad for the good people who will be cast into this shaky economic reality.
 
Unfortunately, "Invest in Customer Service" probably translates to:

Even more aggressively push massively overpriced "Geek Squad" services to customers. ($40 to for the 3 minutes to install computer memory, you betcha!)

Even more aggressively push extended warranties. ("Well I'm not saying we sell defective products, but your realize this will cause a rip in the space-time continuum if it fails within the first five years. Please don't kill the children!")

Even more aggressively push overpriced cables. ("If it was me sir, I would buy the oxygen-free, platinum cables to make that 8-inch digital connection. Anything else is crap!")

Sigh. I do like having a big showroom to inspect electronics and listen to speakers, etc. but I despise pushy salesmen.
 
Lith1um said:
Too bad for the good people who will be cast into this shaky economic reality.
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Because the Geek Squad can offer incentives to retain good people. I've seen one of those creeps work at a friend's house and he spent a lot more time trying to look down shirts than he did installing things. I'm sure they're not all like that, but Best Buy doesn't keep good people. They go someplace else sooner or later.
 
Electronic stores are funny. They all start off strong and slowly die off because of bad management.

First there was Sears, then Circuit City, then Best Buy and CompUSA.

It's the same problem over and over.
1.) Make a good store and become popular.
2.) Capitalize on our new popularity by ripping people off, and ignoring product quality.
3.) Hire unqualified people and pay them as little as possible.
4.) Let the good times roll.
 
awsiemieniec said:
Not a minute too late (closing stores). Too little, too late (customer service). Why not work on your pricing and change your online presence to something like NewEgg, Tiger Direct, etc? Best Buy is the Block Buster : Netflix of electronics.
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Their website isn't actually too bad, but they could use way more products. Plus, about half of the stuff is online only, and the other half-ish is in-store only. :rolleyes:

Agreed, otherwise.
 
this is the biggest unsurprising news of the morning. I have to laugh at the 1 billion loss though.

we've been talking about this forever, and wondering how they can sustain a business selling shit for retail or near retail price.

Bust buy needs to stop selling $50 hdmi cables, and start pricing things more reasonably.

and forget about customer service. replace the staff with info-rich interactive kiosks. We customers can seek our own information instead of listening to misinformation from the geek squad.
 
I can honestly say I am happy seeing such GREAT NEWS! :D

I am sad that people will lose a source of income. :(

But, I love seeing a lying, cheating, asshole of a store go bye bye. It's just not going quick enough.
 
awsiemieniec said:
Not a minute too late (closing stores). Too little, too late (customer service). Why not work on your pricing and change your online presence to something like NewEgg, Tiger Direct, etc? Best Buy is the Block Buster : Netflix of electronics.
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The thing you have to understand about a large corporation like that is their size becomes a liability when the formula for making money no longer works right. Large companies are slow to change with the times and many companies can't adapt fast enough to a changing market to survive. Even if they try to adapt quickly, it's always met with backlash and a lack of consumer confidence. Best Buy needs to trim operating costs somewhere because most of the merchandise they sell has a fairly good markup on it, but the problem is that market prices make the magic 35% markup number almost impossible to hit. Many large retail stores worked off that formula and find it difficult to cope with a higher volume lower margin retail environment.
 
One just opened by my work late last year. It usually seems somewhat empty, though.
 
I hope they don't close any near me. Best Buy is a great place to go check out something in person before you buy it online.

But seriously as others have stated, selling at retail or near retail doesn't cut it anymore when even Grandmothers have Kindles, Iphones and broadband connections.
 
I just feel bad for my friends that still work there. I bet the Service Centers are the first to get the big cuts to staff as well. Best Buy doesn't care if they have a 4 week turn time on repairing PC / laptop / stereo under warranty.. Economy already sucks enough in So Cal for them.
 
50 stores isn't too bad considering they are about as abundant as Wal-Mart or Target around here. I do wonder what these 100 small format stores they plan on opening are like as I don't think I've seen anything but their normal stores.
 
Bye bye Best Buy.

I have not bought anything there since the 90's when customer service was getting bad. I hate to think what it would be like now if I went into one of their stores.
 
Memo to Best Buy...

People no longer pay Suggested Retail Price.
 
but they will be opening 100 smaller stores
 
Does anyone have access to the list of 50 stores they're closing? We're getting an hhgregg right next to our local Best Buy and would hate to see ours go, for competition's sake... Even though I never shop at BB.
 
The only thing that I buy there are Blu-Ray movies on sale (ie. $5-$10 ones).

I love all the 2 year old video cards there still at full price. GTX 460s for $250 = lulz
 
There is still a handful of smallish stores near me. I frequently shop at hose places or buy on-line rather than BB or Fry's.
 
DoomDoomDoom said:
Does anyone have access to the list of 50 stores they're closing? We're getting an hhgregg right next to our local Best Buy and would hate to see ours go, for competition's sake... Even though I never shop at BB.
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We have an hhgregg that took over an old Circuit City building directly across the street from the Best Buy near here. Though they really only overlap in a few areas. You can literally stand in the middle of this hhgregg and see everything (which is nothing, basically). All I see there are vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, TVs, audio stuff and a few laptops. That is it.
 
Best buy can suck my junk. Only store I have ever been to where they have bouncers at the door asking to check my bags and receipt as I walk away from the register towards the door.

What kind of BS is that.
 
Eisenblut said:
We have an hhgregg that took over an old Circuit City building directly across the street from the Best Buy near here. Though they really only overlap in a few areas. You can literally stand in the middle of this hhgregg and see everything (which is nothing, basically). All I see there are vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, TVs, audio stuff and a few laptops. That is it.
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Pretty much.... Lol. I went in there to check out the tvs. They have all kinds of off brand products. I wish a Frys would open up in Northern VA. I would buy shit there ALL DAY.

We do have a Microcenter here. They are pretty awesome. They give you a free motherboard with most CPUS...... and they are dirt cheap. I think they do it to lure you away from newegg.com.... and buy the other expensive overpriced crap they stock. But all in all..... if you need something PC related. They got that shit... tons of selection. That is what I love about Microcenter.
 
With or without good customer service, Best Buy has some serious issues with their current business model. They have so many retail presences and such huge overhead, they simply cannot compete with streamlined Internet retailers that operate out of a few inexpensive warehouse locations. It's only a matter of time before they restructure and fold...
 
Eisenblut said:
The only thing that I buy there are Blu-Ray movies on sale (ie. $5-$10 ones).

I love all the 2 year old video cards there still at full price. GTX 460s for $250 = lulz
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That's nothing, local Staples store here still has some olllllld AGP cards on the shelf and maybe even a PCI (not PCI-e...) card. Hard to tell with all the dust on them LOL.
 
How about investing in making prices competitive? That might help things out a bit.
 
What do you call 50 Best Buy stores closing at once?

...Bah, you've heard this one already, haven't you?
 
I think the last item I bought from BB was a PSU I needed in a pinch and could not wait for shipping. Other than that I never go there unless they have really good game deals.
 
mastaBlasta said:
Electronic stores are funny. They all start off strong and slowly die off because of bad management.

First there was Sears, then Circuit City, then Best Buy and CompUSA.
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Somehow Fry's and Microcenter have managed to not suck over the years.
 
I stopped caring about BB the day that PC gaming there became a poorly stocked 4“ x 8“ shelf.
 
bigted said:
but they will be opening 100 smaller stores
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They aren't really stores, just mobile phone closets. This strategy may work for now as mobile is so hot but that too won't last forever as the margins get squeezed in this space like every time a technology matures. And carriers will stop paying commissions to middle men.
 
GotNoRice said:
Somehow Fry's and Microcenter have managed to not suck over the years.
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They definitely don't have the same footprint as a Best Buy though. I saw my first Fry's two weeks ago in California. :cool:

The closest Microcenter is about 1.5 hours away.
 
heatlesssun said:
They aren't really stores, just mobile phone closets. This strategy may work for now as mobile is so hot but that too won't last forever as the margins get squeezed in this space like every time a technology matures. And carriers will stop paying commissions to middle men.
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Yes, once margin compression kicks in that business model won't work well. The same goes for Radio Shack.
 
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