Damn. This is a hard one... I think on this one I'm going to go off which one I frequent less.

@mcjake: Scratch that, I'm going with the one I frequent the most. They are the ones that leave me consistently upset.

@mcjake:

Thats an interesting way of thinking about it. I try my best to avoid both stores. Sometimes people make me go to walmart and so my perception of it is definitely worse than BB. What's with people in the south and walmart anyway?

Walmart has a near monopoly in many small towns.. Particularly for groceries, drugs, etc..

BestBuy is a guilty pleasure.. You can almost always circumvent a BestBuy buy buying online.

Walmarts are generally large, incompetant, and benign. While Best Buy's corporate culture capitalizes on stupid people with lots of money.

I don't begrudge Walmart for appealing to the lowest common denominator, but for the prices Best Buy expects, it better cater to those who have taste in electronics.

@HungryTuna: Or going to walmart.

Best Buy cons customers and rips them off. Walmart emphasizes low prices and pays employees well.

Clearly Best Buy is way worse.

@Corporate_guy: Walmart emphasizes low prices and pays employees well.

So how is life in the Mirror Universe, anyway? Do they make you all wear goatees?

I paid $50 more for a video card I needed at Best Buy because I didn't want to wait for shipping.

I was employed at walmart, but I quit because of a staffing problem.

Best Buy was worst - atleast Walmart gave me a paycheck.

@El_Fez: It's just like your universe, but sober.

@Corporate_guy: i'm sorry, and what do you consider being "paid well?" aside from them deleting employees' OT hours (this is true, it happens at the woodbridge, nj store and i know people that it's been done to), they also pay their chinese workers pennies a day. it's great to think about the rest of the world every so often as well.

Drive through what used to be farmland in PA and it's easy to choose. 9 out of 10 of them were put out of business by Wal-Mart.

Walmart locks employees in the store at night without a key. They also pay so little money that in cities with a higher standard of living, their employees have to take second and third jobs, even if they work FT. And Walmart pays its suppliers enough to survive, but not to thrive, leaving them totally screwed if Walmart pulls the account. Best Buy is a terrible company with only 1-2 redeeming qualities, not that I know of any, but there must be something there. Walmart wins this one.

@Corporate_guy:

Walmart emphasizes low prices and pays employees well.

@Corporate_guy: "Emphasizes low prices", yes (though at the cost of everything else). "Pays employees well"? Hell no.

@Corporate_guy: How are the prices at Bizarro Walmart?

@Justin Gross: It's all that passes for entertainment during non-daylight hours in certain towns.

@HeartBurnKid uses Linux: the taint of OS's: Wal-Mart around here pays 8-9 starting out at a minimum. How much money are they supposed to give??

I haven't heard that Best Buy encourages their employees to collect welfare and burden the state's taxpayers in all 50 states like Wal-Mart does. Everyone who considers shopping at Wal-Mart should watch the movie Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Wal-Mart gets my vote hands down. I can't think of a worse company for America.

Easy, Wall mart, far more corrupt and best buy is about to go out of business anyway.

Wal Mart. It is just too evil.
Best Buy? Eff that. I'm going to J&R.

Too easy. I can't stand Wal-Mart for a multitude of reasons, and while I don't shop BB, I was intrigued to hear about their corporate culture (flexible schedules, etc.). With BB I feel ambivalent, with W-M I see red.

@Spectre1125: It's not about how much they are meant to "give" (compensate), it's that saying they pay "well" is....not accurate, most certainly for lower-level positions.

I don't have a problem with W-M paying minimum wage (most grocery and big box stores do the same for new employees these days).

Earlier this year, a Best Buy employee let me into the store about 40 minutes before they were open to buy an emergency part. I knew exactly what I needed, and I walked up to a group of employees who were waiting outside and asked when the store would open. They told me, and I was like "oh crap, I need something now". So, one of them said, hold on, I'll see what I can do.

@adelossa: Are you saying that you paid more to buy from a B&M store because you didn't want to buy online from Amazon?

Walmart = China's takeover and inevitable slavery of American citizens. Bestbuy = terrible retailer.

@watchout5: best buy is about to go out of business anyway.

People keep saying that yet never back up with substantive facts.

@samurailynn: You must have slipped into an alternate reality. Did you hear the theme music for Twilight Zone?

@samurailynn: Truly an above and beyond story.

@Spectre1125:
Shit, that's nothing if you don't get any hours.

I have never understood the Best Buy hatred. All retail outlets suck, you know what you are getting into the second you step in the door, so you can't cite general retail suckiness for hating BB. They are great for
1) When you need a computer keyboard/mouse/power supply/dvd/batteries right now and not next week
2) Low prices on clearance/returned/floor model items
3) Checking out items in person that you are going to order from Newegg

Seriously? Find your item, say "no" to the extended warranty, say "no thank you" to the receipt checker, and head out. No problem.

Wal-Mart is a blight and represents the very worst of the worst. Dirty (filthy) stores, low pay, institutionalized sexism, terrible in-house clothing brands, foreign labor in horrible conditions.

@AbsoluteIrrelevance: What is the basis of the claim that Walmart locks employees in at night? I'm sure the local fire marshall would be interested in hearing about that, if true.

@HungryTuna: Absolutely, this one shouldn't even be close.

@Garbanzo: Huge media coverage and a law suit: [www.msnbc.msn.com]

Maybe they don't do it anymore, but I don't know that. GIS "walmart locked employees"

@rondalescott: This webiste despises Best Buy for some reason that they just can't explain. I've had issues with specific Best Buy stores, but generally my experience has been good. I spend a lot of money there.

By contrast, I've always hated Circuit City and only shopped there on Black Friday. It should have gone out of business 5 years ago.

With the exception of the extended warranty issues, I have yet to hear a valid argument against Best Buy. And even on the extended warranties, Best Buy is not intrusive about the issue. A simple "No" ends the discussion. You want evil; just look at Gamestop.

I have to go with Walmart. Any company who gets one cashier go on break when she just started while another who's been working longer is forced to do the "pee-pee dance" while being told "Sorry, I don't have anyone to cover for you" has got to be the worst. That's not even getting into customer service, either.

@RB_Bhoy: "they also pay their chinese workers pennies a day" I assume you're referring to workers IN china? As opposed to some kind of mass racism in the U.S. that would never fly... of course if you're aware of Chinese workers in the U.S. making literally pennies a day I would love, LOVE to hear about it.

@Spectre1125: Wal-Mart around here pays 8-9 starting out too. Target and all the supermarkets (union or non-) start at 12-15.

Best Buy for the win!

@AbsoluteIrrelevance: All the Wal-Marts I know of are open 24 hours a day, not even sure how this would work.

@RB_Bhoy: Yeah, cuz Best Buy, Target, and Kmart certainly don't get any of their products from China.

My mother worked at Walmart for 10 years. Yes, the benefits sucked, but she was never going to get fired, because Walmart, unlike the Target and Kmart in the same town, was always busy.

Many of her coworkers would leave and go to Target, Costco, etc. for their "better benefits" people always tout. Well guess what? You have to be full time to get those benefits. And guess what else? They don't hire anyone full time! Her friends were lucky to get 15 hours a week, whereas my mom had her 40 hours at Walmart no problem. Most of them ended up crawling back to Walmart. I'd rather have a full time job with crappy benefits than a part time job with no benefits at all.

@morganlh85: Of course they do. But Wal-Mart's the only one that browbeats their suppliers into moving all their production over to China in the name of low prices.

@Radi0logy: I, on the other hand, have only ever seen one 24-hour WalMart, in a state a couple thousands of miles from where I live.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this yet: Jdimytai Damour trampled to death

As far as I know Best Buy managed to have a Black Friday sale last year without anyone getting killed.

@rondalescott:

I agree. When you have 950 stores nationwide who each do thousands of transactions a day youre looking at millions of transactions a day company wide. Youre bound to get 10 or so upset customers each day. Its impossible to run a complaint free business

@Justin Gross: Welcome to Real America™.

Best Buy (like every other electronics stores since they started existing) sells non-essential toys with expensive unnecessary warranties that you can find cheaper other places. You know that going in, they know it too. You're just lazy, needy, and have money burning a hole in your pocket, so you don't shop around. Best Buy as a corporation needs you to have that money (or a credit card with an adequate limit) in your pocket.

Wal-Mart as a corporation is celebrating this year because so many of us(not just their employees) have only $100 left over every month after rent and bills.

@rondalescott: I could not have said it better. I agree 100%.