Hubert Joly, BB CEO, dares me to spend his $10 gift card . . .

4xoddic

"To inspire you to see for yourself how we are changing, please accept this offer to save $10 on any purchase you make by December 24, 2013 on BestBuy.com or in one of our stores."

Now I have to concede, @ 60, I'm not really a member of the age group Joly needs to entice. But a glance around my house reveals the 60" Kuro, Pioneer BDP-51D, 15" MBP, USB Apple mouse, Apple TV & Airport 2tb Time Capsule purchased there in the last 4 years.

So I took Joly's challenge & dropped in. Yes indeed, they'd changed things. Where have all the CDs gone? Far to the rear & reduced to ~ 20' of display racks. I scanned thru them all once, and again before I made the decision nothing I really needed. A 5-pack of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers CDs came close, but didn't I already have most of those? A new Jimmy Buffett Songs From St. Somewhere came closer, but the Amazon reviews back my initial hunch to pass.

So I made my usual stroll around the store.

Open Box - several Klipsch soundbar/sub pkgs. Naw, the Kuro soundbar is gathering dust in the basement. The Velodyne FSR-15 unplugged in the HT. A Sony USB "turntable?" vs my Marantz TT15S?

Blu-rays? I did score Celebration Day there last summer. But nothing caught my prosthetic eye.

Games? I don't own one. Wii? Do they now come with an user agreement for wife to sign?

Appliances? I've been in the market for Frigidaire Pro separate fridge & freezer for some time. Not available @ BB.

Computers? No, my Apples are working.

Car audio? I've asked several times for a double din with ALAC capability . . . NADA. Where'd the Alpine units go to? Several "light show" models . . . seems like RS had in-home frequency-generated mood lighting in the day. The WAF is pretty low.

New receiver with HDMI & preouts, 250 wpc? I remember the days when Sears displayed Yamaha's near TOTL. Not BB. No Pioneer Elites either. I glanced at the biggest Polk floorstanding speaker. Could 4 fit in an RTiA9?

After the 2nd browse of the CD racks, I made my decision









$15 Itunes card.

Tornado Red

Ha, great story, thanks for sharing.

hochpt21

Haven't been in a BB in a couple years now. Last time I was they had added a musical instrument section...wonder if it's still there.

polrbehr

+1 to that, sad but true how things have "changed" there.

Every now and then Magnolia has some goodies at great prices though.

cnh

So at six decades you're a touch older than I and since you have all that APPLE equipment and a Pioneer Kuro, etc. I bet you were an early adopter of Mac products...'80s? Manhattan, Kansas? 4th largest city in the state, the "little apple". I'd be tempted to say you were a Yuppie back in the day but, let's face it, those guys were a phenomenon of the '80s. And by then we were both out of college and either working or in Grad School. They were younger than us! lol

It was my M.D. who introduced me to the Mac Plus and SE in the late '80s and led me to buy my first Mac. He WAS a precursor to a Yuppie and an early MAC "fanatic"! I never lived down the fact that Macs were yuppie machines and I, a poor Grad Student living on peas, tuna and pasta, spent everything I had on a Mac Plus? Joe Franklin anyone? "Memory Lane!" Are we really that "old" or are we the "youngest" generation EVER? Still dabbling with TECH as we approach our golden years! Dang!

Enjoy the CD!

cnh

4xoddic

cnh, I bought my first puter used, a 2-floppy 512K suitcase ~ 88. I was 1/2 the PR dept @ McPherson College; when a new Biology prof came over from KU w/signing bonus of a Mac . . . my 1st was a MacTV in 92.

I've lived here in Manhattan 2 too-many times: 76-78, 1992 - ?.

Our little neighborhood is surrounded by KSU agronomy & animal science pasture & field. My biggest regret? Not running out & snapping a pic of a KSU "billboard" just down the road: "WEED SCIENCE." It didn't last a growing season.

WilliamM2

I was given a $25 gift card about 3 years ago. I never could find anything to spend it on. Any thing I wanted was always at least $25 less online. It would actually cost me more to use the card. I finally used it to get a couple of 16GB flash drives this summer for $26, just to get rid of it.

I wish them luck with that promotion.

nguyendot

You gotta go to Magnolia to get any gear remotely close to your your expectations, which for the normal stores is pretty unrealistic. They will never carry any of that stuff because the mass market will never want it. There is zero money to be made by carrying what is considered niche items. We want them, but let's face it, we are the minority.

4xoddic

Agreed!

Magnolia - long ago, BB made the decision NOT to place a Magnolia in the largest city in KS, Wichita. There are 2 in the KC KS area.

Our local BB's wares have slid down to where the highest level of Yamaha receiver carried is the RX-V675 @ $599. The Polk TSX330T @ $250 is the only floor stander listed (pretty sure I saw a Klipsch or 2, but the entire display space = 2 soundbar/sub boxes in width.

Manhattan has had a B&M shop for decades. To meet the challenge of BB, it moved across the street. Offers the same low-end models w/ stickers showing BB's prices vs. theirs. The response to asking for higher level gear "I'm sure we could order that for you." The real $-maker for this shop? Insurance-paid replacement of car audio (stand-alone operation in industrial park; not open to public). They've also added very high-end stoves & fridges (1 of each on display) & kitchen cabinets. No longer carry Polk or Alpine (Alpine required too much inventory).

The "mass market" here is college students & military (~ 50% of pop.). One can understand why insurance replacement of car audio is such a big business in a town of 60K.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I put my $10 towards Man of Steel on Blu Ray, money well spent.

AsSiMiLaTeD

The 'real' Magnolia at the Best Buy down on Park Lane isn't too bad. They've got some decent gear in there and when I bought my Oppo 105 they were the only guys in town who actually had one in stock. I have yet to find an audido shop though that I don't have some kind of problem with, they all piss me off in one way or another.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Agreed, I've never found an audio store with employees that I like, You either get guys who don't know anything, could care less, or are too snobbish. I'm trying to think of an exception to that, and the closest I can come is an audio shop I visited in Chicago called Saturday Audio - I've done business with those guys several times and have always had great service.

sucks2beme

I've done ok in Audio concepts, but that's only some salespeople.
About half only are looking for $$$$ sales.
The guy out at Hi end theater and audio is ok. Less selection, though.
I have been to a couple of nice shops, one in Kansas city, and one in Milwaukee.
Magnolia is hit and miss. I had a good conversation with a guy one day, and
he said it was nice to talk to a customer that new audio. Most people coming in
to Magnolia don't know anything. and the salespeople reflect that.

nguyendot

This is why I go in with a list and tell them to load the cart up and check me out. No questions asked. It's like Frys.... the less you have to actually say the better result. You just have to realize their target market (hint, it's not us) and the easiest thing for them to skimp on is labor. If you utilize that labor correctly by having them only check the product out for you, then you're fine. If you expect a real conversation, you're just going in there to feed your ego honestly. You should know better.....

Now, you might actually get someone who halfway knows what they're talking about but that is a result of their own betterment and absolutely nothing to do with what Best Buy/Magnolia has trained them in. This will likely never change. I sold audio there for many years.... not a single shred of what I know came from there. I'd say 90% of it came from these forums. I used to go in there and chat just to see what they knew, and yeah it fed my ego back then. Now I just know not to to ask above a certain level of question because I can google it faster than they can make some crap up.

EndersShadow

^LOL. Exactly my thoughts..... Their is an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon goes to buy Leonard a gift and ends up helping like 50 people because they think he works there and understands the system better than the employees....

Thats how I feel in BB and Frys.... I cringe literally when I hear things the employees say to a customer..... OFTEN I actually correct them to my wifes chagrin unless we are in a hurry.

I have had 4 job offers simply because I was looking at equipment and talking to the managers about the pro's and con's of the units they had no idea someone could actually know about the products they were looking at lol.

Magnolia employee's are my favorite, they are even LESS skilled than most normal BB electronic folks, which is ironic IMHO.

nguyendot

EndersShadow wrote: »

^LOL. Exactly my thoughts..... Their is an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon goes to buy Leonard a gift and ends up helping like 50 people because they think he works there and understands the system better than the employees....

Thats how I feel in BB and Frys.... I cringe literally when I hear things the employees say to a customer..... OFTEN I actually correct them to my wifes chagrin unless we are in a hurry.

I have had 4 job offers simply because I was looking at equipment and talking to the managers about the pro's and con's of the units they had no idea someone could actually know about the products they were looking at lol.

Magnolia employee's are my favorite, they are even LESS skilled than most normal BB electronic folks, which is ironic IMHO.

That place looked oddly like MicroCenter.....

I don't correct them anymore. I'm friends with the GM and Sales Manager at the store nearest me and they give ridiculous discounts on openboxes, therefore not a bridge I'm likely to burn soon.

cnh

EndersShadow wrote: »

^LOL. Exactly my thoughts..... Their is an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon goes to buy Leonard a gift and ends up helping like 50 people because they think he works there and understands the system better than the employees....

Thats how I feel in BB and Frys.... I cringe literally when I hear things the employees say to a customer..... OFTEN I actually correct them to my wifes chagrin unless we are in a hurry.

I have had 4 job offers simply because I was looking at equipment and talking to the managers about the pro's and con's of the units they had no idea someone could actually know about the products they were looking at lol.

Magnolia employee's are my favorite, they are even LESS skilled than most normal BB electronic folks, which is ironic IMHO.

Funny stuff there and very close to home. I've almost sold a few items at BB myself when no one else was around to answer any questions. Some Polk speakers, and a couple of flat screens, lol. My daughter gradually increased her distance from me in the process! Dads are so embarrassing!

cnh

EndersShadow

nguyendot wrote: »

That place looked oddly like MicroCenter.....

I don't correct them anymore. I'm friends with the GM and Sales Manager at the store nearest me and they give ridiculous discounts on openboxes, therefore not a bridge I'm likely to burn soon.

LOL, I get no discounts and I hear too many up-sales to not get annoyed. For instance (little dated but still) did you know that you have to have HDMI 1.3 in order to get audio over coaxial or optical? Or that "Plasma TV's blacks are not as good as LCD's"... I wont continue but you get the point.....

nguyendot

Putting earbuds on when going in there will save a lot of sanity.