Woot, First round bye for Best Buy!

Ooooo tough choice.

Yeah, geez, Target is like the winner of the play-in game playing UNC.

I heart Target. I'd rather go there than Wal Mart any day. Theres no internet equivalent to replace Target, where as I'd rather shop around online than but at Best Buy.

Best Buy by a mile. Target has some rough edges, but a no-questions-asked return policy for monitors is all Best Buy has going for it.

I'm pretty sure this one is going to be one of the most lopsided "victories" in the whole "tournament". Wow, 98% for Best Buy right now.

The 2% must work for BB Corporate.

How can Target seriously even be IN this contest? They are so full of win, it's crazy.

Can't believe Best Buy is besting Target here in the 'Worst of the Worst' shootout! I went so far as registering here just so I can tell my Target return story. Stay tuned!

LOL is this some kind of joke? Target at least donates to local communities and since it is a discount store, customer service isn't high on my list of priorities there.

Best Buy on the other hand forces people to work without adequate training to sell products and services that are virtually worthless. They sell products at exhorbitant prices and give 'coupons' to make their dumber customers believe they're getting such a great deal. Don't even get me started on overpriced cables/power cords.

Best Buy will be Circuit City 2.0--a huge hit in the beginning but after awhile people will realize that it's one of the worst companies out there and then they'll shop at the newest electronics megastore.

I think it's a TKO.

My personal Best Buy horror story: I bought a "new" car stereo and it came with a CD in the drive.

well so far - all 9 that I have picked, others have picked also.

Target sells really complicated napkin holders.

Meg, you didn't even try to make Target sound bad. Why didn't you say "Looked like BestBuy.com but displayed in-store prices?"

This one is really easy and somewhat comparable.

Bestbuy is the devil, I've been boycotting them for years now.

@SOhp101: Target at least donates to local communities and since it is a discount store, customer service isn't high on my list of priorities there.

If Best Buy isn't a discount (consumer electronics) store, what is it? And they do donate to local communities.

@SOhp101: Or the Internet outlets. Personally I think giant B&M electronics stores like Best Buy and Circuit City are on the way out. They have inferior selection, pricing (even accounting for shipping costs most of the time), and service than loads of places on the Internet, and they usually stock obsolete models of electronics too. The only thing they offer that the Internet doesn't is immediate gratification. But most cheaper items that Best Buy sells (software, music, video) will soon be available, or already is available, even more conveniently online. And for more expensive electronic items, the inferiority of Best Buy is starker. Those are probably items that people research to a degree before buying anyway, so why should I care about getting it instantly?

@Michael Belisle:

For regular readers of this site there is no greater evil in retail than Best Buy. See the above comments just in case you don't want to take my word for it.

darkjedi26 nailed it when he describes this matchup as a "first round bye"...

I will give target negative points for making fat people wear red and khakis, which is never a good look for someone who is big and tall.

However, when a busty and cute team member is wearing the same ensemble while checking out your order and flirting, it's a win for everyone so it cancels it out.

Target also lies to their employees and pays less than Wal-Mart.

LOL! No contest! Worst Buy ALL-THE-WAY!!!!

I have Best Buy going all the way in my Bracket! Better not lose this early!

@Major-General: Of the four different Targets I worked at over the years, our base pay was always more than Walmart. I would love to hear why you hate them, it's probably a pretty good story.

@BuddyGuyMontag: I hate red and khaki more than any other color combination in the history of the world. The day I stopped working at Target I donated all my khakis to Goodwill.

this one is not much of a nail-biter.

@durkzilla: I am a regular reader. I'm one of the minority (1%? 0.1%?) who defend Best Buy when appropriate. They have issues, sure, but I accuse the Consumerist of an unfair bias against them over all the rest of the evil in the corporate world.

Why not add "Best Buy has a Reward Zone program, which gives you 2% back on your purchases?" I don't know; I just can't spin that to sound evil. "Best Buy's Reward Zone program gives you a list of your purchases online." Nope, can't do it. Can anyone help me out?

Really? Target? Target should not be on this list by any stretch

Well, maybe if you consider that Target has a crappy return policy and their commercials are total camp and um, um...ok I give up. I don't even think a Republican sized rationalization effort can justify a Target vote here.

@statnut: lol, nice comparison

Best Buy has no competition in the sh!tbag department. Target never had a chance...

Best Buy wins this one hands down. I would have bracketed Target somewhere else so they could have stood a chance for an ultimate loss to WalMart.

After all, CBS and the NCAA wants NC to win it all...again and Ben wants WalMart to win.

@Michael Belisle:

How about full disclosure - you are or were a Best Buy employee and it is in your best interest to defend your employer?

Everything listed as negative about Targe is not really anything 'wrong' whereas selling a box of tile as another product is just wrong on every level.

BB FTW

I love Target! And I've never had a problem returning anything there - I plan to return a belt there today and expect no problems. This poll is silly ;p

target at least sells some useful stuff for cheap (sheets, hangers, transformers). Best buy has nothing cheap, nothing quality, and the people that work there are idiots.

Biggest margin yet. Definately 'first round bye.'

stealing porn vs complicated napkin holders. i simply don't know what's worse.

oh wait.

[X] Best Buy
[ ] Target

An Exorcism couldn't save Best Buy. DIE Best Buy DIE!!!

Hmmm... bad return policy vs. Security Nazis at the door. This one was easy.

@Michael Belisle: Do you own Best Buy stock or something? (its actually doing really well) You either havent shopped there lately or you own stock or manage a store or something. My horrible best buy story:

I called them and asked if they had a Mini DV Cassette Head Cleaner. They said they did, they even said it was 15.99. I ask them to hold it for me. I show up, and they dont have it. They tell me "we thought you meant a DVD head cleaner." so I say "there is no such thing, you just use a CD cleaner." I ask them to show me the DVD cleaner, and they cant find it.

By the way, I voted for Best Buy

@Michael Belisle: Nowhere close to the amount that Target does. In this comparison, there is one clear winner, and it's not just because this is Consumerist.

Best Buy is hardly a discount electronics store. The only time you can snag a good deal is [sometimes] during a clearance or purchasing one of their loss leaders but everything else is just way overpriced.

Holy crap! I imagined Best Buy would win this one, but a not like this LANDSLIDE! Even EXXON didn't win by this much...

@Michael Belisle: I don't really care if BB gives me 2% back if they sell me a box of bathroom tiles...

Target is the best retail store ever. Did you know that they have a rule, that there can never be a cardboard box out on the floor? Did you notice that they never play music over their speakers?

Don't even get me started on how much I love their line of generic products!!!

Plus the girls always look so hot in those uniforms. ; )

The customer service is really good too. There's been times I'd be asked "Can I help you find anything" by 5 different people in less than 10 minutes. Try getting that at Sprawl-Mart.

Target makes me smile

I was just in Target the other day and purchased a $60 video game for $40. There was a sale that ended on 2/25, i was there on 3/18 and someone forgot to take the sale tag down. I purchased the game for the sale price with no hassle at all even though the tag clearly stated that the sale was over on 2/25. On another note, I was at bust buy days before purchasing a movie on Blu Ray. I asked the salesperson if it would play on a standard DVD player just to see what they would say. They told me yes it would. After I got home I decided to check to see what the price difference would be to have that same movie overnighted to me from amazon. it was less. The movie was returned to best buy and I watched the one I ordered the next night.

I suppose it's a good thing that two Minnesota-based companies would meet early on as opposed to later in the brackets.

That being said, I don't think this is Target's year...as a former employee of the BBY I think you've really got to root for Best Buy to go all the way this year and finally clinch the title.

woot!

@se7a7n7: Let me guess, you work at Target, or used to.

Wow. Bad match-up, here. Target is easily the least evil company listed so far. Best Buy is far from the worst, mind you, but Target is so harmless that I'm not surprised that its barely putting up token offense against Best Buy. Best Buy will get blown out eventually, but not here.

Honestly, I got Google's inclusion, though I thought they weren't very evil at all. Target's list of offensives is a list of petty misdemeanors. (though to be fair, you left out some worse offenses). Of course, you also left out how Best Buy broke the law bad-mouthing a former employee trying to get a job at Target. Isn't that cheating of a sorts in a competition like this?

Pushing 3000 votes, and Target hasn't even hit 100 yet? Yeah, sounds about right.

I've never left Target mad. It's usually clean, and the employees have been helpful. I like those little "price check" kiosks.

Best Buy, however - employes receipt checkers. In fact they were one of the first to do so in my area. I've also heard outright lies so many times while listening to salespeople in the computer section.

Target had a very cool commercial a few years ago, with Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick and Torry Castellano from the Donnas doing a drum duel. (it's on YueTube now if you haven't seen it) The marketting team at least keeps things interesting.

Best Buy has boring commercials.

So yeah - why is Target on this list??

"Target also displays Easter decorations on Dec 26th."

That's like saying everybody should vote for Hillary because Obama rips the tags off his pillows.

Target has stupid problems that are isolated. Bestbye, well, they are just PLAIN stupid! It's a shoo-in for BBY.

I like Target a lot. I'm pretty surprised that they're even on the list. They're one of the most philanthropic corporations in the country and they're usually pretty good about customer service.

And, no, I don't work for Target and never have.

This one was the easiest yet.

I didn't even know that Target was on the list, seems kinda padded to me.

@durkzilla: How about full disclosure - you are or were a Best Buy employee and it is in your best interest to defend your employer?
@pda_tech_guy: Do you own Best Buy stock or something?

Yes, I was and I do. I occasionally disclose both of these facts. I'd like to see them get their shit together. Sometimes I consider showing up to the annual shareholder meeting, pass around printed copies of 3 years of Consumerist reporting on Best Buy, and ask them what the hell they're doing about it. They know who we are.

I used called Best Buy "the evil empire". It took the Consumerist to convince me otherwise: at times it seems some readers hate Best Buy just because they read a story about them here every other day. Seriously, there are companies that rape the environment and kill people (sometimes lots of people). Thankfully for them, The Consumerist has Best Buy to distract us.

But I did voted for neither Target nor Best Buy. I'm sitting this one out. You'll see me vote for DeBeers in DeBeers v. Best Buy (if DeBeers survives the other Consumerist darling, Comcast).

Best Buy's internal website now says it displays the lowest price available sans instore discounts. I sent the consumerist an email with a picture of this about a week ago; at least theyre trying to unbotch the website.

Holy cow, the biggest blowout so far. I wonder about the 0.00124 of voters that targeted (heh) Target. Archery haterz?

@Michael Belisle: Well, my reasons for disliking Best Buy are NOT based on stupid Consumerist stories, for the most part. I'm aware that all retail stores will have some isolated problems. The more fundamental problems I have with Best Buy are in my post above (high prices, poor service, poor selection, obsolete electronics). Why pay more to shop at Best Buy, get less, and get hassled by stupid staff members in the process?

Many years ago my mom bought a 32" tv that went out from a power surge shortly after the warranty period. When she had it fixed by a tech he told her the set had been opened and repaired prior to her purchasing it. Long story short they denied it, wouldn't do squat. The tech had nothing to gain by telling her this.