Best Buy Cuts 2,400 More Jobs

[Q1DM6]

I think in the long term a great amount of retail will simply collapse. If you aren't selling key products like clothes or appliances or groceries as the major part of your business, you're going to get squeezed out by Walmart and Online retailers.

Strip malls are dying. I see a tremendous number of mom and pop style stores dying (and most of them DESERVE to die, not being open at night, and on the weekends. How stupid.)

 

[rudy]

Perhaps but I prefere not to take that mentality, problem solvers dont sit around talking about why it cant work. In fact that is why best buy is in so much trouble because they think it cant work. Problem solvers find solutions. And amazon has a problem solving management that has taken them from a simple online book store to one the most powerful retailers in the world with not sign of slowing down.

Think of everything amazon offers already that people probably thought could not happen. Prime is a great example.

 

[I3eyond]

I think in the long term a great amount of retail will simply collapse. If you aren't selling key products like clothes or appliances or groceries as the major part of your business, you're going to get squeezed out by Walmart and Online retailers.

Strip malls are dying. I see a tremendous number of mom and pop style stores dying (and most of them DESERVE to die, not being open at night, and on the weekends. How stupid.)

The only thing I would have to say on that is if you buy authorized you get the warranty, you buy unauthorized you don't.

And what will happen is many people will get frustrated when they find out the great deal they got on their new TV from XYZ online happened to come from an unauthorized dealer. Their TV goes out, it's not covered, and the consumer is upset.

Everything is a cycle. Sometimes getting a good deal is great, but not getting a warranty with your product and it failing and be frustrating.

 

[I3eyond]

Perhaps but I prefere not to take that mentality, problem solvers dont sit around talking about why it cant work. In fact that is why best buy is in so much trouble because they think it cant work. Problem solvers find solutions. And amazon has a problem solving management that has taken them from a simple online book store to one the most powerful retailers in the world with not sign of slowing down.

Think of everything amazon offers already that people probably thought could not happen. Prime is a great example.

Amazon is great, I buy from Amazon all the time. I just don't ever see them having a retail presence.

 

[EvilWays]

About six hundred of the jobs will be from its 20,000-person Geek Squad service and repair unit with the other 1,800 coming from store staff.

Here's a better idea: can ALL 20k Moron Squad members.

 

[I3eyond]

Yeah just let all those people lose their jobs. GREAT idea!

 

[Epicness]

To my knowledge Best Buy is in no way commission based, so why would a "peon" even push profitable products?

Because it's their freaking job... Their job is to sell stuff that makes the company money: it's in their bests interests to sell the money-making stuff.

Why on Earth would Best Buy not provide some sort of incentive for their "peons"???????

You mean like a weekly paycheck?

"Peon" X could sell $10,000 in one day, and "Peon" Y could sell nothing in one day, and in theory get the same paycheck? What's wrong with that picture........

Nothing. BestBuy ends up firing 2,400 of Peon Y. And then the masses gripe.

IMO there's no feasable way Amazon could ever have a retail presence and continue to do what they succeed at now: Extremely competitive pricing.

QFT. Believe it or not, Amazon actually has relatively slim margins. Launching the Fire killed their income off by 35% this year...
Apple makes money because they overcharge ridiculous prices for their stuff. Amazon can't do that. Amazon offers very competitive prices at a VERY small profit. Apple makes money by making massive profit and selling to fewer people (Primarily have Mac in mind here, obviously the consumer base is peeing themselves like an excited dog over the iProducts), Amazon makes money by selling a BUNCH OF STUFF. They do it by sheer volume.

I don't think Amazon *could* offer a retail presence. Their margins are too small already, and if they had to raise prices they'd loose their advantage.

Think of everything amazon offers already that people probably thought could not happen. Prime is a great example.

I'd love to see the numbers behind Prime. They can't be making any money off of it. $60/yr (for many people, less than that)... All it takes is shipping a handful of things 2-day and you make up for that. On top of that they have servers hosting up free movies, etc... I just don't understand how they make money. But, I really don't care: it benefits me

 

[rudy]

your mistake is thinking that a company has to make money off a product, they dont they can make money off the ecosystem. In fact outside of fashionable brands I would the most common company model is to lose money and make it back elsewhere. Amazon may not make alot of profit but they make profit and that is all that matters.

All consoles, printers, even cars now days are about losing money on the initial sale or barely making any and then making it back on other things.

I think the big mistake is everyone thinks you cannot make money in retail but who has really tried? Some companies have and do it just fine, like lowes, homedepot, walmart, miejer, most of the things in the mall etc...

Amazon sells everything, we have pointed out tons of problems with best buy and they never fix it so they arent a good example.

 

[harkerscd]

Perhaps but I prefere not to take that mentality, problem solvers dont sit around talking about why it cant work. In fact that is why best buy is in so much trouble because they think it cant work. Problem solvers find solutions. And amazon has a problem solving management that has taken them from a simple online book store to one the most powerful retailers in the world with not sign of slowing down.

Think of everything amazon offers already that people probably thought could not happen. Prime is a great example.

Amazon isn't a good example. For one, Amazon is an online retailer. Amazon focuses its entire efforts on the Internet. Best Buy has mostly a physical presence. When you're running physical stores, your business overhead will be a lot higher and your prices will have to reflect that. Unlike the online retailer selling from a warehouse, physical stores also cannot store a very large selection of products. Compared to even a knowledgeable salesperson, websites can contain lots more info, and reviews, on the products you're thinking of purchasing. With an online presence, Amazon has an almost global market, whereas each Best Buy shop caters to people living in a 5-10 mile radius.

I don't mean to undercut Amazon's success story but it is far more easier to be creative when selling online. The bottom line is that it is easier and more effective to order electronics and computer parts online, not by walking into a store. No amount of business consulting or problem solving will change that fact. The only physical businesses unaffected by Internet competitors are those that require manual and personal services, like in food, healthcare, sanitation, furniture, you get the idea.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

Funny how it's always the peons and never the upper levels of management that take the hit. Or going through company procedures to cut waste. Or, gasp, giving the shareholders less of a profit.

Not universally true. Unions have written into their contract terms favoriing continued employment. Therefore most of the time, management (which can NOT be union) gets cut. There's usually a bloat of lower level managers. Why? Because no one is willing to be a lower level peon all their life. Everyeone wants promotion because they think it's a more cush job with greater pay.

The ranks of true upper management is very thin and therefor cutting them is not pratical.

My security comes with my skillset. I would be hard to replace.

Signed
Someone who doesn't mind being a peon at a fortune 50 company.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

To be honest, your typical geek squad employee was a tech enthusiest, but really didn't know any more then when I was a kid.

Upper management pushes unneeded services for the geek squad to perform (like optimizing your computer, or pre updating your PS3 with the latest ROM). And quite frankly they aren't needed.