Best Buy is getting slammed

Polkie2009

Best Buy (BBY) reported a horrible quarter and is looking at closing 50 of it's 1100 stores. This probably comes as no surprise to a lot of you who shop there. I've noticed for the past year that the BB stores I've been in have had sorry inventory(at least in the dvd and blu ray section) and very little iniative from the salespeople in helping the customer.

nooshinjohn

Best buy will be gone soon enough, but don't worry audiophiles, Walmart will be there to pick up the slack.

heiney9

I don't what you mean, I don't shop there. In fact I frequent very few B & M stores unless it's something consumable that I need right away or big ticket that doesn't ship well. Like Lowes, Home Depot, Farm and Fleet or for cloths, shoes, food. Otherwise I admit to being a heavy on-line purchaser of goods. Can't remember the last time I bought anything at BB. I bought a new fridge, washer, dryer, lawn mower all from Sears with exception of the patio furniture and my Weber gas grill which I bought at Home Depot.

The last TV and 2 computers I bought on-line from Dell. I recenly bought pants and sandals on-line, etc. If I don't have to go to the actual store and deal with idiot sales people, other rude customers, etc.........all the better. Plus it saves me time.

Those are the only B & M stores I seem to use in the past couple of years.

H9

P.s. I almost bought the last washer and dryer on-line from Sears (just a couple weeks ago), but they had a in store promo so I had to get in the car and go out there, listen to the sales pitch try and upsell me, sell me a warranty, and also wait in line with other people. All of which I didn't have to do sitting at home in my compfy chair.

Polkie2009

I too usually use Sears for my major appliances, but what I didn't know is that more and more people are buying their major appliances at Home Depot, no wonder HD stock is growing like it is.

bigaudiofanatic

Link to the info?

I usually stay away from best buy unless I want/need something right than and there. So a part of me does not care the other will miss it.

sda2mike

bought an expensive camera for the wife for christmas @ BB...i didn't want to go there...really wasn't a positive experience, given the ticket amount

bigaudiofanatic

sda2mike wrote: »

bought an expensive camera for the wife for christmas @ BB...i didn't want to go there...really wasn't a positive experience, given the ticket amount

Heads up they honor amazon prices!!! As long as the item is sold from amazon and not a third party!!

sda2mike

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Heads up they honor amazon prices!!! As long as the item is sold from amazon and not a third party!!

another reason i had to go there: i wait till the last second for christmas shopping...hate it!!...i did look on amazon, but felt fishy about 'promised' delivery times

heiney9

Polkie2009 wrote: »

I too usually use Sears for my major appliances, but what I didn't know is that more and more people are buying their major appliances at Home Depot, no wonder HD stock is growing like it is.

Sears has had some incredible deals if you shop them right and I use the Sears card and usually get 12mos 0% interest or better. Free money. The Washer and Dryer I just bought a couple weeks ago were Kenmore brand with 28% off, plus 18 mos no interest and if I bought the pair I got another 10% off. Geez, how could I go wrong. Delivery and haul away was extra $60. Home Depot was offering a decent sale price plus 12 mos no interest with free delivery but the price for a similar package was $55 more. I decided to go with Sears.

But I usually buy household items from either Sears or Home Depot so I can see that trend.

H9

brgman

Now where will i get my Magnolia high end system i've been saving for???

tommyt21

heiney9 wrote: »

Sears has had some incredible deals if you shop them right and I use the Sears card and usually get 12mos 0% interest. Free money. The Washer and Dryer I just bought a couple weeks ago were Kenmore brand with 28% off, plus 18 mos no interest and if I bought the pair I got another 10% off. Geez, how could I go wrong. Delivery and haul away was extra $60. Home Depot was offering a decent sale price plus 12 mos no interest with free delivery but the price for a similar package was $55 more. I decided to go with Sears.

But I usually buy household items from either Sears or Home Depot so I can see that trend.

H9

Same here I got our fridge and wash/dryer from Lowes 0% interest for 12 months got the haul away done for free plus a energy rebate from the city...I love great deals

sda2mike

slight derail on your new WDs...upgrade to the braided steel hoses! that is all

headrott

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

Heads up they honor amazon prices!!! As long as the item is sold from amazon and not a third party!!

I have found it depends on the person you talk to. Some say they will honor an Amazon price and I have had a couple others say they will not. When I asked to talk to the person in charge (at that time) and explained that in the past the Amazon price was matched, she said it was an error. I then set the items down on the counter (dynamat and a CD) and said OK, thanks anyway and walked out. I ended up ordering the dynamat from Amazon. It took longer, but it saved me $10.00.

IMO, Best Buy is a joke now. It is a B & M store and good for when you need an item quickly. But like a BM, needs to be flushed due to:

1) They no longer are a "best buy" as they were when they first opened.
2) They don't even make an attemp to match a "best buy" as evidenced above.
3) As stated by others, thier selection of CD's and DVD/Blu-rays is shameful. they don't even carry SACD's and DVD-Audio disc anymore (where they did in the past at the Salem, Oregon store).

Greg

polkfarmboy

BestBuy is awesome and the staff are great and always willing to lend a hand. They also carry our beloved polk speakers so they support our forum in a way. I like going to BestBuy because you can use it as a great platform for looking at a product and getting a lil mini evaluation before you buy it weather it be online or elsewhere. BestBuy gives members of the community employment so thats important


I think the magnolia section's are great and they have great speakers, receivers and video equipment so when that latest receiver comes out you can go listen. For all these reasons I mention I would not be happy if my local BB closed its doors for good

devani

i bought a brand new 42" LG LCD TV last December for $200 (including tax)....of course it was a price mistake on BB.....but I bought it soon enough in time so they couldn't cancel my order....

Polkie2009

You're a lucky one PFB to have such a well run BB near you, just wish more of their stores were this good. I have to agree, with you about how it's nice to go into the store to check out certain gear in person. Sounds like they may try downsizing by moving into smaller stores . I'd be ok if they only sold computer gear and CE products like audio and video related gear in their smaller stores.

heiney9

polkfarmboy wrote: »

BestBuy is awesome and the staff are great and always willing to lend a hand. They also carry our beloved polk speakers so they support our forum in a way. I like going to BestBuy because you can use it as a great platform for looking at a product and getting a lil mini evaluation before you buy it weather it be online or elsewhere. BestBuy gives members of the community employment so thats important


I think the magnolia section's are great and they have great speakers, receivers and video equipment so when that latest receiver comes out you can go listen. For all these reasons I mention I would not be happy if my local BB closed its doors for good

Seriously???? You are quite the assbackward person in these discussions, aren't you. Certainly entitled to your opinion. Mini-evaluation???? Are you kidding me???? How do evaluate a speaker in a wide open, noisy show room floor? Or how good a receiver sounds??? The staff has never been that helpful to me because I usually have researched the item and know more than they do about what it can and can't do. The few times I went in to specifically test their knowledge and honesty, it was an epic fail on their part.

Best Buy is a dying breed and they certainly haven't helped their cause in the past 5 years or so. You'd think the elimination of Circuit City would have lit a fire under them, but it didn't. I fully admit even if the staff and product was top notch, I'd still shop on-line. No lines, no idiot customers, no parking hassles, much less time wasted. So in a sense in my case it's not entirely BB's fault I don't shop there.

H9

DaveHo

I was in Best Buy last weekend for the first time in serveral years. Looking for a new dishwasher. The selection was poor & the store seemed very empty, both with customers & merchandise, from how I remember it. There were huge areas of the store where there was nothing when before it used to be packed with goods. Circling the drain they are.

tommyt21

Circuit city had the worse customer service i have ever encountered. I remember I had bought an XBOX with a promo of 1 year gold membership. The lady rang me up and I paid as I was picking up my bag I asked about the promo card. She said she forgot to ring it up with the Xbox and I would have to talk to CS. So i went to the CS desk and they told me after waiting in line for 30 minutes that fixing that transaction could take up to several hours!! When I complained they said that I shouldnt because the average wait time was much longer...LOL...Needless to say after their genius CEO decided to fire anyone with experince to save money that house of cards came tumbling down.

DMara

Polkie2009 wrote: »

Best Buy (BBY) reported a horrible quarter and is looking at closing 50 of it's 1100 stores. This probably comes as no surprise to a lot of you who shop there. I've noticed for the past year that the BB stores I've been in have had sorry inventory(at least in the dvd and blu ray section) and very little iniative from the salespeople in helping the customer.

Closing 50 out of 1100 store isn't that horrible.

sucks2beme

Other than Magnolia, I don't have much use for BB.
All the stores close to me have them. But other than that, no thanks.
I much prefer Sears to them OR HD and Lowes for appliances.

polkfarmboy

heiney9 wrote: »

I fully admit even if the staff and product was top notch, I'd still shop on-line. No lines, no idiot customers, no parking hassles, much less time wasted. So in a sense in my case it's not entirely BB's fault I don't shop there.

H9

Well I know your polkie of the year who cant get out of the chair to change a cd so your statement does not surprise me

Call me **** backward if you like but I have posted threads on enjoying going to bestbuy. I don't care if the staff does not know how to properly set up some electrostats or have a knowledge of audio because I don't go to a big box store looking for advice.. does anyone? I think its nice to just go in and look around at tv's etc then as I said before, go buy them at home if its cheaper and less hastle to get through the front door.

Staff here at my local bestbuy are kinda dim but nice people to talk to if you have a question

DMara

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Well I know your polkie of the year who cant get out of the chair to change a cd so your statement does not surprise me

Call me **** backward if you like but I have posted threads on enjoying going to bestbuy. I don't care if the staff does not know how to properly set up some electrostats or have a knowledge of audio because I don't go to a big box store looking for advice.. does anyone? I think its nice to just go in and look around at tv's etc then as I said before, go buy them at home if its cheaper and less hastle to get through the front door.

Staff here at my local bestbuy are kinda dim but nice people to talk to if you have a question

So did you break anything you bought from Best Buy? :biggrin:

dkg999

BB is in trouble. Looking at some of the available data there's a larger problem than is being reported. They need to close more like 100 stores just to cut their way to survival. You cannot cut your way to growth, so a different strategy would be needed for that. I cannot remember the last time I went to a BB store and didn't leave feeling it was a waste of time. Either they didn't have product, didn't have anyone who knew anything about a product, or I just plain felt lied to by the poor excuse for a sales associate.

Home Depot and Lowes (and Menards too) are making a comeback, because appliances and other home accessories are very well positioned in a consumer's mind with everything else they offer.

heiney9

I guess window shopping is OK, but it doesn't pay the bills. I just don't have a use for BB in my area. Just a difference of demographics. We have a couple of independent style audio/video/furniture stores (mass markert) here and I really don't have a use for them either.

H9

rdb2001

I know alot of you will not be happy with this but I dont think bestbuy is going anywhere. If legislation is passed for the likes of amazon and other online retailers to start charging tax, thats one up for Bestbuy. Also Manufacturers are going to a universal pricing. Samsung is doing this with alot of the new 2012 TV's. LG, Panasonic, and others are said to be following suit. There will be no more you can get it cheaper here than there. The manufacturers will be setting the price at which it sells and no one can deviate from it. You take those two events, and that will help bestbuy recover. I have had the worst experience ever when buying appliances at sears. You can never find anyone at lowes or homedepot when you need them at certain time of the day. Yes bestbuy can improve on alot of things but my store near me is a great store and I go there when I don't have the patience to wait on something coming from an online retailer. They will match amazon, as long as it is not below their cost.

polkfarmboy

rdb2001 wrote: »

I know alot of you will not be happy with this but I dont think bestbuy is going anywhere. If legislation is passed for the likes of amazon and other online retailers to start charging tax, thats one up for Bestbuy. Also Manufacturers are going to a universal pricing. Samsung is doing this with alot of the new 2012 TV's. LG, Panasonic, and others are said to be following suit. There will be no more you can get it cheaper here than there. The manufacturers will be setting the price at which it sells and no one can deviate from it. You take those two events, and that will help bestbuy recover. I have had the worst experience ever when buying appliances at sears. You can never find anyone at lowes or homedepot when you need them at certain time of the day. Yes bestbuy can improve on alot of things but my store near me is a great store and I go there when I don't have the patience to wait on something coming from an online retailer. They will match amazon, as long as it is not below their cost.

Thats a shocking post about universal pricing and one step closer to communism

rdb2001

Also, I don't think some of you guys have ever visited a Magnolia Design Store in a bestbuy. They are not your typical magnolia stores. They sell much higher end equipment including Sonus Faber, Mcintosh, Primare, REL, Arcam, Marantz Reference, and that is just to name a few. They are set up better than alot of dealers I have auditoned speakers at and their staff is pretty darn good. Very knowlegdeable about the product from my dealings with them.

rdb2001

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Thats a shocking post about universal pricing and one step closer to communism

Yeah I learned this the other day when looking at the samsung 2012 models in my local bestbuy. The tags on the samsung tv's at the bottom says that this is a umrp item. This is nothing new though. Apple is the same way.

heiney9

Many of your higher end brands seem to have a version of Universal Pricing so that's nothing new and I doubt very much you will see every single item in a certain catagory that way. For instance for a decade it seems Weber Grills follow uniform pricing. Did that stop people from buying a Weber Grill? I don't think so. What it does allow for is other lesser brands to undercut the price of a Weber gas grill. Sometimes the product is almost equal in performance and build, etc but most times it's not.

I bought a Weber gas grill and paid a premium because it's one of the best consumer gas grills going for the money. I could have spent $100-150 less on a similar unit from another brand, but in my experience the Weber at the higher price is the better buy. Eveywhere I looked an authorized Weber seller all had the same pricing, on-line or B&M store.

Ever try and buy a Honda mower? Pretty much the same price universally unless it was on sale, which it rarely was and then all the sale prices were the same.

I think you will start to see this for the higher end products, from well established brands and market leaders in electronics for their leading edge and higher end products. Like Panasonic and Samsung. I don't think you will find as much universal pricing with their entry level and lower end stuff as those typically are loss leaders to begin with. If you are a market leader you can universally price your stuff and be successful.

This universal pricing scheme is nothing new, just maybe "new" to some of the products that didn't normally use this scheme in the past.

H9

Syndil

This was a long time coming. Not Best Buy's fault, just the way the market is going. Even a lot of people you find inside a Best Buy store aren't really shopping Best Buy, they are using them to demo the products and then using their smartphones to find them cheaper online. They will have to adapt to this market if they intend to stay in business, otherwise they will follow Circuit City.