Have you recently gone to make an electronics purchase somewhere other than Best Buy, but found yourself wishing you could engage the services of the Geek Squad onsite, or buy one of their special Black Tie warranty plans? If you’re one of the regular readers of this site, probably not. But plenty of other people do, and the Nerd Herd is expanding outside of the walls of Best Buy.

Their services will be available to eBay buyers, and Geek Squad outposts will soon open at all of the Denver-area Target stores. Geek services will also be available at one Target store in Minneapolis, hometown of all three companies: Geek Squad, Best Buy, and Target.

“Who thought this was a good idea?” writes tipster Amy. Well, it could be that the Geek Squad’s brand is strong separate from Best Buy’s. Brick-and-mortar retailers can’t complete with online-only retailers on prices alone all the time,but they can offer support, onsite services, and juicy, profitable extended warranties and protection plans. Expanding to eBay also represents an opportunity to sell Geek Squad services to people who may never set foot in a Best Buy.

The key is to make sure that the geeks look out for the customer’s best interests, and not those of parent company Best Buy. “Target is probably not interested in having Geek Squad refer business to Best Buy away from Target’s electronics sales,” Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens told Bloomberg News.

Geek Squad expands beyond Best Buy [Bloomberg]

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