Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually

mjz_5 said:
people have to realize that many times people like seeing a product in person. Who wants to buy a laptop or cell phone without ever trying it out. There were many laptops that i was interested in but after is played with the keyboard i was not interested anymore..
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This is true but best buys approach to harass people pushes them away. That and their push to sell used notebooks that they "optimize" by setting up incorrectly. Friend wanted a notebook from them that was on sale for a good price that would fix what she needed to do with it. They were out of all of them but the ones they molested and then tried to charge more for it. Ended up getting her a fast track dell.

At the end of the day I can go look at tv's at walmart, bjs, costo, etc and get a feel of them without someone trying to add one extra junk that I don't want and that they don't understand. With other stores carrying more electronics best buys market is failing. Really I'd say their biggest problem is places like the mega walmarts and targets that carry pretty much most of the stuff best buy does along with other things people would want.
 
collegeboy69us said:
good - I won't be sad. The only time I spend any money in a best buy is when I have a free gift card, or when I need a very common part right that very instant to fix something (and even then I take said item back and get my money back after my order comes in from amazon or newegg)

When you mark dumb crap up 1000% and stop trying to help the customer then it's only a matter of time before consumers realize you are a relic in todays digital world. I can't walk around in the store to browse because of the 10 companies who have setup kiosks in the store trying to get me to buy a cell phone. And the 19 year old "geek" you hired doesn't know jack.

Good riddance. If I want brick and mortar nerd fun I go to Fry's (the associates that work there are still retarded, but at least they leave you alone)
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If Amazon would institute a Metadata driven inventory search system for computer parts like newegg, they would probably put the egg out of business too.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Does anyone honestly think Best Buy as a company is going to fail as a company any time in the near future?

There are way too many consumers too stupid to attempt shopping online.

Anyway, Best Buy has one of the best return policies I've ever seen.
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BestBuy caters to the uninformed consumer, no shortage of those.
 
One thing that pisses me off is their pathetic "exclusive" offers for their rewards program. Every single deal I've ever seen is not a deal. It's actually offensive to me as a consumer to be emailed these exclusive offers that don't benefit anyone but Best Buy.
 
They just need to find an online retailer that wants some physical locations at a discount and try and find a buyer. They're already dead. Their prices suck, their selection is mediocre to non existant on a lot of things, and the customer service is worthless.
 
TheBluePill said:
If Amazon would institute a Metadata driven inventory search system for computer parts like newegg, they would probably put the egg out of business too.
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Absolutely. That is the biggest frustration when I shop for parts on Amazon. That and I have to filter by "Prime Option" so it only lists Amazon sold merchandise so I know I'll get hassle free returns and free shipping. Third party sellers, usually not as great an experience.
 
I don't get all the hate towards Best Buy. They don't have the best prices on video cards so they should die in a fire. Really?

They sell a lot more than computer shit. They have a fairly decent car audio section and a great TV section and lots of other appliances and virtually all of their stuff is in line as any other retailer price wise. Stuff they don't have in store you can order online with free shipping.

I saw headphones mentioned. They've also got Sennheiser which are among the best and they have the HD598's on sale for $175. They're $250 on Amazon.

Yeah they're not perfect and their salespeople don't know shit but they only make $8/he so what do you expect. Still I do a lot of shopping at Best Buy and have always found good deals there. And I would think it would suck big time for them to go out of business cause not everybody has a Fry's or Microcenter anywhere near them. I like the convenience when I want a TV, receiver or replacement for my refrigerator's water filter, I can walk in there and get one about the same price as anywhere else. I hope they survive.
 
FranklyShankly said:
They haven't really competed with anyone on price in years. It's not going to affect competition when they consistently charge 20-30% more than Microcenter, CompUSA (TigerDirect), Fry's and of course online.
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One thing I (and other people I know) like about BB is that the stores are neat, clean, decently spaced out, and somewhat sanely organized. Tigerdirect stores (there are two within driving distance of me) are dumps and they look like a computer catalog vomited all over store. If you think the BB reps are bad, the Tigerdirect reps are awful. Many of the products they sell are discontinued models, but they don't say this anywhere.

Tigerdirect also locks down everything. You cannot even get to the desktop of one of their computers because their stupid software locks the computer to their marketing screen.

I'll never buy anything from Tigerdirect (stores or online) just because of my experience at the stores.

I've been to at least 4 Microcenters all over the country. 3 of them were a mess and dirty. The sales agents can be just as bad as BB, but at least some of the computer parts people are more knowledgeable than BB salesmen.

Frys is a nice store, but there are only a limited number of those. I don't have a Frys or Microcenter in my area so I'm limited to BB or online.

mjz_5 said:
people have to realize that many times people like seeing a product in person. Who wants to buy a laptop or cell phone without ever trying it out. There were many laptops that i was interested in but after is played with the keyboard i was not interested anymore..
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100% agree with you. I was looking at laptops recently and 20 minutes at BB answered what hours of online reviews and comments could not. The same can be said for Cameras, phones, and so many other things. There is a lot of value in being able to see and touch something when making purchasing decisions.
 
MacLeod said:
Yeah they're not perfect and their salespeople don't know shit but they only make $8/he so what do you expect. Still I do a lot of shopping at Best Buy and have always found good deals there. And I would think it would suck big time for them to go out of business cause not everybody has a Fry's or Microcenter anywhere near them. I like the convenience when I want a TV, receiver or replacement for my refrigerator's water filter, I can walk in there and get one about the same price as anywhere else. I hope they survive.
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Did you read the article...? I think it made some important points...

I'd rather wait 2 days for something to show up from Amazon most of the time than wait for 20-30 minutes standing in the store to pick up an online order...while waiting behind someone complaining about their broken computer or arguing with a manager about a return or whatever.

Why on earth does an online order pickup put you in the same customer service line as everyone else?

I don't buy anything like that at BB any more. Amazon is priced better and their CS is much better. I bought my 50" plasma at Amazon, the last BD player we got. Any other electronics or whatever pretty much come from Newegg or Amazon - tablets, flash drives, memory cards - all priced more reasonably 90% of the time.

Sometimes other sites have better deals (buy.com or overstock or whatever). If I want to pay a premium of some sort for better C.S. I order from Newegg or Amazon. Not Best Buy. That's like the worst of both worlds - worse pricing plus worse customer service.

Plus, no one nagging me to buy a extended service contract or warranty, no one trying to rope me into some on-demand crap or a satellite contract or whatever.

Customer service at BB has been replaced by "badger and annoy the customer". That doesn't help.
 
I don't know why everyone is so down on Best Buy. I think their sales staff does a great job.

Especially when they convinced my tech naive wife to purchase 4 monster cables in order to get "True HD" along with a TiVo Premiere XL since it gets more HD stations from the cable card than my Premiere does.

I mean I truly appreciate the 2 trips it took to return 5 unopened items since the manager was at lunch.

They are terrific. Just like Gamestop.

/sarcasm :D
 
Newegg and Amazon need bestbuy. Otherwise they won't look good.

Sure you can charge a little markup and make a profit. But when manufacturer's lose that extra revenue outlet. Newegg and Amazon will be squeezed on the supply side.

And I can Guarantee if bestbuy goes out of business. Internet Taxation will become law instantly in all 50 states. There will be no fighting it when your roads fall apart because you lost a crapton of tax revenue.
 
GreenMonkey said:
Did you read the article...? I think it made some important points...

I'd rather wait 2 days for something to show up from Amazon most of the time than wait for 20-30 minutes standing in the store to pick up an online order...while waiting behind someone complaining about their broken computer or arguing with a manager about a return or whatever.

Why on earth does an online order pickup put you in the same customer service line as everyone else?

I don't buy anything like that at BB any more. Amazon is priced better and their CS is much better. I bought my 50" plasma at Amazon, the last BD player we got. Any other electronics or whatever pretty much come from Newegg or Amazon - tablets, flash drives, memory cards - all priced more reasonably 90% of the time.

Sometimes other sites have better deals (buy.com or overstock or whatever). If I want to pay a premium of some sort for better C.S. I order from Newegg or Amazon. Not Best Buy. That's like the worst of both worlds - worse pricing plus worse customer service.

Plus, no one nagging me to buy a extended service contract or warranty, no one trying to rope me into some on-demand crap or a satellite contract or whatever.

Customer service at BB has been replaced by "badger and annoy the customer". That doesn't help.
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There is still a large subset of un-informed consumers that want to talk to an informed salesman.

Circuit City was actually beating Best Buy by a fair margin with that fairly large group in the late 80s and early 90s. However, CC's management wanted to try to complete with the larger Best Buy Chain and tried to adopt the same model as BB with disastrous results.

CC had commissioned sales staffers. When you put commission in there, you attract a much more astute class of employee that is able to cater that segment of consumers that need expertise. The problem is, the commission meant some sales staff was pulling in $20-$30 per hour (and this is the early 90s..).

So CC decided to can commission and pay their people an average of $10 per hour. It put them on the same playing field as BB, where the larger BB could out-maneuver them on price and floor space.

Bad move, and we know where CC is now..

I think BB needs to take a page out of Apple's Playbook and start pushing a more experienced and expertly trained staff. hell, Cut their work force down a bit and institute commission in their high dollar departments.

They need to better manage their online=store software, pricing and inventory, as the article suggests too.

Hell.. I would even make strides to compete further by introducing more of those Best Buy Vending Machines in more places (like they have in major airports). I could even see putting those same vending machines in front of their stores and fill them full of new releases so people can buy them after-hours..
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Anyway, Best Buy has one of the best return policies I've ever seen.
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14 days??? You must not get out much.

Wal-Mart/Target will slowly absorb the remainder of their B&M and the interweb will put the nails in the coffin. Writing has been on the wall since before CompUSA & Circuit City shuttered their doors.
 
Not sure if their staff does a great job but also not sure about the negative statements about BB in particular. They are just a store and I don't find many other stores to have any more greater service or knowlege. I don't go to MicroCenter for the service, but that they have better prices for Intel processors than even online stores. On the other hand even if MC has better overall price for something, If BB has a great deal on something (like the $39 Corsair H50 deal they had a while back), I will go buy at BB.

I guess if you don't like a store, just don't buy from them.

I probably will continue to buy from BB if it has an attractive enough deal to buy from them. If not then I won't. Similarly if Amazon has a great deal on something, I will buy from there. Ditto the egg, MicroCenter, etc. If BB ever does anything that makes me lose overall trust of them that no sale is worth buying from them, then I will stop buying from them overall.
 
TheBluePill said:
There is still a large subset of un-informed consumers that want to talk to an informed salesman.
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That is true. Like someone posted above though, and I think you see from the discussion about Circuit City. What Best Buy tends to have is uninformed (or lying) workers that just make people angry. Telling them they need a $100 HDMI cable to get real HD or whatever. People don't like finding out they've been lied to or told ridiculous things. The lack of competence of their own employees (and the emphasis on selling warranties or on demand service or whatever instead of competence) is going to get them in trouble.
 
If BB goes away at least we'll still have Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples - lol... (I guess they're still alive)
 
I had to go into Best Buy the other day to return something I had received for Christmas and what I saw while I was waiting in line makes me truly hope they're out of business sooner, rather than later.

First to the left of me stood a rack of cables, including HDMI cables ranging in price from $49 to $99 for 3 to 10 feet cables. HDMI being a digital signal, a cable either works or it doesn't, there no difference in quality from one of those cables to the $4 cables you can get on Monoprice, but I'm sure they sell this crap to unsuspecting people, "You want the BEST cable for that brand new TV for the BEST picture..."

Then on the right side was a rack of computer components. Looking at the video cards they only had 2 cards that were current generation, grossly overpriced, everything else was two or three generations old and lower end cards to boot. There were Radeon 5000/4000 series and even Geforce 8400's there, all for ridiculous prices that you could easily get for 50-75% less online. Once again preying on people who don't know any better.

Seeing all this made me actually mad and they're going down the same route as all these other idiotic stores like Cicruit City and CompUSA before them.

Good riddance I say...
 
That sucks, where will I go to take a look at products before I buy them elsewhere?
 
words do not even begin to describe how ANGRY I am everytime I attempt to shop at BB. Last time I tried to purchase a copy of Win7. They keep them locked in a cage at the registers at my local store. The 17 y/o girl didn't know who to ask for a key to open the locker so she spent roughly 10 minutes trying to squeeze her arm through the gaps in the cage and sift through the products until she finally gave up and told me they must be OOS.

I make the mistake of going in there maybe once or twice a year thinking it won't be so bad and every time I leave fuming.

Good Riddance.
 
This is similar to a related article in Digital Trends I read a few days ago:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-buy-needs-to-win-back-shoppers-before-its-too-late/

"Big box electronics stores are starting to look ancient. In an age where small, tailored outlets like Apple Stores have become something of a Mecca for fans, large tech empires like Sony are following suit, and Amazon has become a go-to for your every purchasing needs, the era of the gadget department store might be coming to a close.

Best Buy could become the latest victim of our changing times. In a recent Wall Street Journal blog post, investors have been warned that Best Buy has definitely seen better days—and that things aren’t looking up. Despite the fact that its largest competitor, Circuit City, has closed, the retailer’s shares continue to plummet and its UK business is in the process of being shut down."​
Those who've had good experiences in Best Buy, I'd honestly like to go to yours instead of the three near my house.

I've seen several faults in Best Buy:
  • Prices are considerably higher than buying them online for a lot of the computer parts.
  • Geek Squad being more of a marketer of Best Buy products than fixing your computer. Look at videos on Youtube regarding Geek Squad. I recommend the one where a news reporter took a laptop in for repair and Best Buy didn't even fix it but still charged her for the repair. I've witnessed first hand where a customer brought in a computer to Geek Squad and they told him that it was "beyond repair." The GS employee suggested he go look at the laptops they have on sale. I actually looked at this guy's computer and wasn't "beyond repair," it was still fixable-- dead hard drive. I suggested he get a new hard drive, gave him instructions on how to install it, and have him call me if he had questions.
  • Their employees do everything they can to get you to pay for the higher-priced TV, computer or appliance and to tack on the warranty service. I've seen that happen to three of my friends and my own parents. Their customer service is rather lacking.
  • Their online store fails in comparison to Amazon or Newegg in terms of features, items, and availability and prices.
Best Buy really needs to rethink how it is doing its business or face its fate the same way as Circuit City.
 
I guess I'm the minority here? I'm not a big fan on shipping back items at my own expense or paying a restocking fee.
 
Quite a few people didnt get that the article wasnt against brick and mortar stores, but instead was giving a nice "take on" with the current situation of Best Buy and how their strategy shift to try and push their inhouse services is actually costing them more than it was worth it, alongside the huge blunder of preorders during the holidays.

Also cant dismiss the fact that like it or not, the chain is really on Death Watch by two reputable entities (Forbes and WSJ), and is following the two stages of bankrupcy, the slow decline and then the sudden death...

If management was smart, they would try and study the current standing and the complains expressed while studying the succesful competition in hopes to avoid the current visible outcome. Personally i wouldn't bet too much on it, as others have pointed out that wether they do well or bad, the employees are the ones that will pay, not them.
 
Derangel said:
That isn't the only downside. It would also put nearly 200,000 people (180,000 employees in 2010 according to Wiki) out of work.
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And most of them are expendable & replaceable. Doesn't take skills to work at BB other than to swallow your moral code and push bad products.
 
Lith1um said:
I stopped shopping at BB 4 or 5 years ago.

They kicked PC gaming to the curb, it's less than a 4 x 8" shelf.
They never stocked a decent video card.
They never stocked a high end monitor.
The service was virtually non-existant.
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The components then and now are typically $20 more than online. And they have some funny return policies. I remember once they wouldn't take a DOA product back and told me to go through the vendor first, who replied to take it back to the retail location if within 30 days of purchase.

I shop Best Buy mostly for movies and occasionally for a video game. They are my LAST resort for an emergency PC part. I'll drive 40 minutes to Frys when I have two BB within 5 minutes of me.
 
Sixthsense said:
I guess I'm the minority here? I'm not a big fan on shipping back items at my own expense or paying a restocking fee.
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Then you should be a fan of Amazon.com and Newegg as you don't have to do either with them. Unlike Best buy where you pay a 15% restocking fee on electronics.
 
Hopefully the other electronic retailers don't see it as an excise to raise prices now there is less competition.

They did give PCs in general a bad public image. Surprised manafacturers even want to work with them anymore.
 
Best Buy and Staples are both one of the worst companies to work for and shop at. Let me explain:

Best Buy - My job was to sell computers (no surprise) with anything you can imagine. My general manager would speak to everyone and encourage us to lie to the customer to get them to buy the extended warranty/protection plan, useless accessories, geek squad services, and so on. I was a seasonal worker so I worked there for a few months, I would get into hissy fits with the only full time worker who was in computers. He wasn't knowledgeable about computers at all, he knew how to sell and he was the sleazy type of guy. I wasn't sad when they said my time was up and they hired a few other kids on after the holiday season. Most of my coworkers pissed me off as if they had more important things to do, they just tried to look busy.

Staples - Was better than Best Buy at first, at least I didn't have to lie to the customer and I worked as an EasyTech there. I started hating it when my supervisor didn't know shit about computers and would ask me constantly to go harass customers on the floor if they'd like to bring their computers for a $10 PC Tune up. I got fed up when my general manager called me, the other tech, my supervisor for a meeting and said that Staples is going to become exactly like Best Buy in terms of how much you sale equals how many hours you can work. A few weeks later, after another person quit, I did the same thing too and he tried to charm me back into staying. I turned him down.

In a nut shell:

Best Buy - Do NOT listen to anything a salesperson here says, unless you can verify it do not believe anything they say.

Staples - Apart from buying office supplies, be very leery of buying equipment and furniture here. They will coerce you into buying the extended guarantee which does work. Don't let them do that.
 
Last time I bought anything from a BB was a few years ago when they had a price mistake on Modern Warfare 2 lol
 
Sixthsense said:
I guess I'm the minority here? I'm not a big fan on shipping back items at my own expense or paying a restocking fee.
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I bought a 2 bank battery tender from Amazon 2 weeks ago..it was $20.00 cheaper than anyone local... one bank did not work..They sent me a new one the next day and sent a pre paid label for me to return the defective one at my earliest convenience ....

There is a reason Amazon is as big and successful as they are...and its not from pushing extended warranty's on over priced TV sets
 
I received a $250 BB gift card this pre-Xmas from our Director and almost laughed out loud! I quickly ordered whatever I could online as presents for the family, which you can only order in-store items with a gift card. Not dishing the gesture, which was much appreciated but wasting good cash paying retail+ at that place almost made me choke.
 
Crosshairs said:
I bought a 2 bank battery tender from Amazon 2 weeks ago..it was $20.00 cheaper than anyone local... one bank did not work..They sent me a new one the next day and sent a pre paid label for me to return the defective one at my earliest convenience ....

There is a reason Amazon is as big and successful as they are...and its not from pushing extended warranty's on over priced TV sets
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I had a similar issue where Amazon didn't send everything they were supposed to and I called them up. They let me keep the extra stuff and redid the entire order. I was blown by this cause I asked them if they're going to make me a shipping order for the extra stuff but they said no and let me keep it.
 
3 strikes and Worst Buy is out.
All within the last year at multiple stores.

Wouldn't match hard drive price to site

Waited in line for 5 - 10 minutes. No cashier to be seen, Waving to the door man who didn't seem to care. Finally tossed my item on the register and left. Door man didn't even bother saying anything as I walked past.

Decided to try ordering online because the newest store has Online order pickup separate from Customer Service line. I was the 3rd person in line. First guy was yelling about a printer not working ~10 minutes. 2nd guy wanted to drop off a laptop for geek squad ~another 5 minutes until they finally moved him. Sweet finally my turn. Couldn't find item so they had to go pull another from stock.

I actually kind of miss my Circuit City.
 
fps4ever said:
I received a $250 BB gift card this pre-Xmas from our Director and almost laughed out loud! I quickly ordered whatever I could online as presents for the family, which you can only order in-store items with a gift card. Not dishing the gesture, which was much appreciated but wasting good cash paying retail+ at that place almost made me choke.
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My brother got me a $50 gift card for BB last year and I was okay with that. So I bought a webcam which was priced $20 higher over what was on newegg however I was planning to buy one anyways on newegg had it not been for that card.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
Does anyone honestly think Best Buy as a company is going to fail as a company any time in the near future?

There are way too many consumers too stupid to attempt shopping online.

Anyway, Best Buy has one of the best return policies I've ever seen.
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this is the sad truth. I used to use them frequently to rent video cards to test performance or when i had to rma a pc part.

that said, I view them as just that, sort of a tech joke. I shop smart with them, sit on slickdeals and wait for the price mistakes or sales they are taking at a loss. I've got a couple good things that way, but frankly I don't shop there unless it feels like i'm taking them for a ride...
 
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