Imagine my complete and utter shock....

Gee, I guess screwing over your customers and employees wasn't such a good business plan after all...

tis a sad day to see such a wholesome company give this news.

hopefully this doesnt happen to monstercable....

Okay, I'm not the most numbers/financial-savvy person, so someone please explain where the AP got "profit skidded 77 percent." That number appears no where in the article other than that initial assertion... (?)

Off to use up my gift card.

@rinse: But you can find it on the site if you look:
[finapps.forbes.com]

im going to make a drinking game out of this.

You know some people might think that Best Buy letting go all of its management as a sign of desperation. This may not be the case, in fact most people might not notice. Furthermore this might actually be an improvement.

While getting rid of their incompetent corporate people certainly can't hurt, I'm still not going back into my local Best Buy until they get some competent employees. Which unless I hear otherwise pretty much means never.

There sure are a lot of comments saying that they had this coming because of bad service. I think this goes beyond crappy customer service, and that this is more economy related. You don't see Fry's going under.

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)

I feel so sad for such a thoroughly fine and honest company. I don't know where I will now be able to go to receive that "special" level of service.

good...i hope they go under like circuit city.

@rolla: Why? So Wal-Mart can rule the world? Less competition is bad.

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...

Wholesome company! HA! It's like saying sharks are soft friendly and cuddly @Jordan Martin:

This doesn't really surprise me at all. I swore off BB after buying big ticket items from two different stores and noticing afterward that both were previously returned and put back on the shelf. Good riddance!

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.

I hope LP harasses them on the way out the door like they do everyone else. "Can I see your receipt please?"

@Raekwon: I feel you on this. There is so little choice these days.

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.

@rolla: Yeah. It would be great if thousands of people lost their jobs.

@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).

Who will install my xbox games now!?

@downwithmonstercable: i want fry's in the midatlantic!

@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.

I wonder if financial troubles are driving people to the internet where they get a much better price, or if they have just stopped buying things all together.

@albear: Yes. That was the joke. :P

@Raekwon: I still have an Ultimate Electronics by my house. I get cheap DVDs there, nothing else.

@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).

@Trick: Keep fighting the good fight! :D

@Jordan Martin: That would be sad. I love golf.

@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.