Best Buy Falling On Hard Times
"Best Buy Co. Inc. offered voluntary severance packages to virtually all its 4,000 corporate employees Tuesday as the nation's largest consumer electronics chain announced its third-quarter profit skidded 77 percent," says the AP. [Forbes]
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Here's my problem. If I want electronics and don't have time/money for shipping or need to see stuff first hand here are my choices:
Best Buy
Circuit City
Walmart
Target
Neighbors unlocked back door
Previous choices that went under:
CompUSA
Ultimate Electronics
So basically brick and mortar fails me. It's just a lesser of two evils thing for now.
@rinse: From [bestbuymedia.tekgroup.com]
MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 16, 2008 -- Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today reported net earnings of $52 million, or $0.13 per diluted share, for its fiscal third quarter ended on Nov. 29, 2008. These results were compared with net earnings of $228 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, for the prior-year fiscal third quarter.
@sarusa: They probably can't draw people that know their stuff, because they are paid hourly instead of on commission. I sure as hell wouldn't go work for $9 an hour to sell TVs when I could be making twice or three times that at a commission based job. (depending on your salesmanship abilities of course)
Glad to see that I am just a small fraction of their over-all loss. 30+ people have now went elsewhere and spent over $25,000 at Best Buy competitors thanks to me.
For the Best Buy flunky reading this website while keeping track of all the negative info on Best Buy, no need to thank me. I am more than happy to continue sending people elsewhere!
For me Best Buy's main problem is that they lie about their warranty coverage. Until they become honest about that and actually honor warranties without hassle when a customer wants to use the one they bought that they are entitled to then every online store has my business over them. That and outsourcing their warranty coverage to the lowest bidder so you have plenty of stories of horrid warranty repairs.
Also they need to stop pushing all that crap at the register and stop signing customers up for magazine subscriptions automatically. Any store that bugs me too much at the register has lost my business.
@downwithmonstercable: The lousy economy is thinning the herd; firms providing bad value are the first to go. Poor customer service is one symptom of bad value, overcharging for commodity items :-) is another...
Hilarious. I actually just got off the phone with a CSR at Best Buy who hung up on me when I called her out on not knowing their return policy changes from month to month.
They seriously need to rethink the way they treat customers there (instore and out). It's downright antagonistic.
So, where to shop for DVDs, game systems, and electronics if they go under? And don't say the internet. "The internet" is not an answer.
@Jackasimov: newegg
amazon
fry's
dvd planet
target
walmart
gamestop
gamefly
ebay
blockbuster
border's
barnes & noble
toys'r'us
hollywood video
suncoast
etc., and many supermarkets and thousands of independents
and I forgot to mention costco. and pacific sales.
FWIW, you shouldn't disclude "the internet" as a source for electronics. There are many fine online retailers that will treat you properly (newegg is a shining example) and you will often find prices low enough to offset shipping, avoid sales tax, and/or hit a free shipping discount.
I think we will start to see a small (key word there "small") resurgence of smaller regional and mom and pop stores. I know the smaller stores are dying as well, but, anecdotally, I have seen the well established mom and pop electronics, appliance, and hardware stores here in the Northeast busier with longer lines than Best Buy and the big boxes.
I honestly think that yes, they need to change the way they do business instead of forcing things down people's throats, every best buy has a different experience imo. However I don't wish anyone out of a job, Best Buy employs thousands of people none of which I want to lose their job. So to wish them out of business is to contribute to the already raising unemployment rate. Plus there are a lot worse companies out there, you have a choice where to shop, if best buy isn't your choice, so be it.
Fine by me. I hate Best Buy. I hope they crumble.
At one point in time they used to truly be your "Best Buy," but now that they have everyone hooked all they do is nickel and dime the s**t out of everyone on their smaller items like Movies, Games and DVDs. A DVD that normally runs $19.99 at an Store X is $21.99 at Best Buy. A $9.99 DVD, $12.99 at Best Buy. So on and so forth.
And remember when they offered double and triple points on items every week for Rewards Zone members; not anymore. Now they are reserved for special events or are reserved for companies who have a big ad buy or marketing spend with Best Buy.
Not to mention that they opened the Rewards Zone to everyone for free after so many people had already paid for their cards and then proceeded to raise the number of dollars you had to spend to get a $5-off certificate that 4-6 weeks to obtain.
I try to shop there as little as possible.
@dangermike:
Ooooh yes Pacific Sales. Isn't that the company behind the door-to-door magazine subscriptions? I have heard some bad stuff about them.
@dangermike:
Ooooh Suncoast...I wish we had one here. I love Suncoast. They always have DVDs I'm looking EVERYWHERE for!
There are a lot of places to get stuff.
The prices charged by brick and mortar are also just too high. I have a Best Buy gift card, but I am not really able to buy anything there, given the hyper-inflated prices they charge.
On the e-tailer side, I live in California so I am unfortunately subject to sales tax when buying from Buy.com and NewEgg.com
However, the worst possible shipping choice on NewEgg, combined with NOT checking the "$2.99 to expedite" box, still gets me everything next business day.
With this, I can get items next day (not instant gratification) for the price of tax and shipping, but at the substantially cheaper NewEgg price (as compared to best buy).
(Thankfully NewEgg is NOT like Amazon; where if you choose the super saver shipping, they sit on the package for a 5 day penalty period before actually even mailing it).
@billbobbins:
You do realize that employees get the same treatment you do when they shop there right? In fact, they are not even supposed to put on coats until the LP guy can pat the coats down. You don't see the LP person asking you to take off your coat do you? Yeah didn't think so.
In these economic times you all who are wishing loss of jobs, income, and prosperity on your fellow man should be ashamed. It's your choice to not shop anywhere but to outwardly wish thousands more people become unemployed is short sighted IMO.
This is the one company that I truly hope goes out of business (sorry to anyone working there that isn't a fundamentally bad person, a type of Best Buy worker which, so far, I have yet to meet). Their prices are beyond horrible, their policies are terrible, and I have never once had a good experience there.
@Mercurywaxing: The regional mom and pop appliance stores here are doing quite well. They have built a reputation and the only other stores for appliances and small appliances in my immediate city are Walmart, Target and Sears. When your talking large appliances like washing machines and stoves the only retailer of them here is Sears. Most residents here know to avoid Sears and I am talking about the older residents who don't even need the internet to tell them that Sears sucks. Therefore the independent stores come in and take over.
@Raekwon:
This is my problem as well. I keep hearing "Company X is terrible" and "Company Y mistreats consumers". Where do I shop, then? I can't even buy things online, since it's pretty much impossible for me to get packages.
@downwithmonstercable: @JLTucker: I would normally agree with both of you but my personal experiences force me to agree with him. Best Buy and everyone I have ever met working there are just fundamentally bad, if not flat out evil (sorry to anyone good out there working at Best Buy, I'm just incredibly bitter about every experience I have had with them).
@NitrousO: So the evil people you've dealt with at Best Buy means that every employee working for company deserves to lose their job? You can piss off, sir.
@sarusa: Nobody should rely on their employees anyway. Research on the net and walk into the store armed with the knowledge that you need, circuitbuy's employees will probably only confuse you more. I generally only try to talk to them to "get a kick out of the reply"
I could not care what happens to any of these retailers, but being able to buy something I need at a convenient time sure is handy.. I don't need use of their staff other than a cashier.
@voteccow:
That's probably the most sensible comment I've seen yet. They will have to change their business to adapt to the economy and they need to promote consistency. Having tons of stores with great customer service is canceled out by all the other stores with mediocre to bad customer service. Best Buy will not go under but they will have to drastically change their business model to make it through the next 2 years.
@FLEB: ahhh! you must be thinking of monster.com, they specialize finding people jobs as golf caddies for overpriced cable salesmen.
i'm lucky to live in nebraska. here's why.
we have a "local" electronics store called nebraska furniture mart.
i am a best buy reward zone card holder and i love getting rewards for things like video games, blu-rays, cds worth buying or anything else mass produced all being sold at pretty much the same price during their first week of release. no matter where you go everyone sells madden 09 for $59.99. sidenote: yes, i bought it on maddenoliday.
however, the nebraska furniture mart always sells their appliances there for cheaper. i got a washer and dryer set for 1200 there, same one selling at best buy for $1400. i also got a hear of tide he detergent, free delivery, install, and take-away for my old get my clothes not so clean, but really wet and smelly machines. not only are their salespeople commissioned, but they are friendly and knowledgeable. when was the last time you got a business card from someone at best buy?
i am glad for places like this as they offer incentives such as zero percent financing for 18-36 months, depending on how much you spend. if they mess up, they do everything to make it right.
kudos to nebraska furnture mart. their website - www.nfm.com -- does not do it justice.
one good thing about best buy... they did replace my ps3 when the hard drive went out on me. they told me to grab a new one off the shelf and be on my way.



















Imagine my complete and utter shock....