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The Gradual Death of the Brick and Mortar Tech Store
Cutting_Crew writes "As we all know brick and mortar stores have been closing left and right recently. We had CompUSA, Borders and Circuit City all close their doors within the last 4 years. According to an article on Forbes.com, it is spelled out pretty clearly why Best Buy is next in line to shut its doors for good. Some of the reasons highlighted include a 40% drop is Best Buy stock in 2011, lack of vision regarding their online services, management too concerned with store sales instead of margins and blatant disregard for quality customer service."
Thank god we still have Radio Shack. I went in recently and found they were even selling arduinos. I've bought a bunch of components there for my electronics projects. It's not Fry's, but at least there's one 10 minutes away from my home in Nowhereville Vermont.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Yet Apple can't seem to open stores up fast enough. Go figure.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Older stores in the 1990's like Computer City that was active in the USA and even Canada for awhile. I had worked at Computer City in Coquitlam, British Columbia from 1997 to 1998 and it was a very sad day to see the store close down and this was even before the internet and online sales really took off.
You must master your joystick like a fisherman masters bait! - Gimpy
i miss living in texas with a frys a mile away, pittsburgh might be the city of champions but finding any decent computer components Today is nearly impossible.
just look at the apple stores, the sales success is off the charts. brick and mortar is not dead, but yes one needs to offer something "more" in a brock and mortar store to win the consumer over from an e-tailer. The traditional players have just not figured out that change properly. in fact Amazon is now testing brick and mortar stores!
If they close, where will I go to look at stuff I want to buy on Newegg later?
I thought this looked familiar...this article was published on the Forbes web site on January 2nd. It's also a bit ranty rather than well-researched, though there's no doubt that Best Buy is not doing well.
Cutting_Crew...because Best Buy is doing poorly, its stock is down 40%. Its stock price is not one of "the reasons highlighted" for why it's doing poorly. Stock price is an effect, not a cause.
On a related note...is Fry's having problems?
Advice: on VPS providers
They have no concept of the competition that Amazon represents. They think in store purchases will keep them alive. They need to:
1. Fire half the staff, and only hire professional sales people (Not 30 seventeen year olds)
2. Reduce the store size by half or more.
3. Reduce prices by having less selection but enjoy the bulk purchase price point.
4. Stop high pressure pushing of accessories and service plans on people.
5. Work with vendors to have exclusive items made for them not found online (like a white or pink dyson)
Still doomed by their horrible reputation.
I have my doubts about the long-term viability of Radio Shack; they're too small to carry much, they compete with with dedicated cellular carrier stores on phones and plans, and tend to be full retail pricing on everything. So that leaves Fry's or nobody.
Dog is my co-pilot.
"A few days ago, I visited a Best Buy store in Pinole, CA with a friend. He’s a devoted consumer electronics and media shopper, "
oh yes, i forgot, the 'devoted consumer electronics shopper'.
Brick & Mortar will still serve a purpose for a while yet. There will always be times when you need some widget that day, and no amount of money will solve that problem through Amazon. It might not be Best Buy, but it certainly won't be WalMart either; we will have a large nationwide chain carrying electronics for people who need something now and don't mind paying a little more for it than they would online.
That said the complaints listed in the (over 1 month old) article are very similar to what was happening at CompUSA when they were in their death spiral; young kids were being hired with no knowledge of anything, and corporate suits with decision making power were being promoted who knew even less.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
When there's Newegg? I mean, honestly: $25 USB cables and re-boxed returns vs easy return, no tax and better prices (even including shipping).
Since when did CompUSA close? I was just in a CompUSA YESTERDAY. Granted the sign on the road changed to Tigerdirect.com, but the building is still CompUSA. I honestly didnt know they had ever closed anything.
They sell TV's, car stereos, washing machines and video games.
I thought that in Canada, Futureshop stores were being gradually phased out in favor of Best Buy, who now owns the former chain.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Obviously the way they did business didn't sit right with the existing market, or they didn't change as the market changed.
In other news, Microcenter is doing quite well in my area, and they sell the same things as Best Buy does and Circuit City used to(if not better), sans the dishwashers and car accessories. The people there are also very knowledgeable and aren't constantly blazed, at least if they are they still know what they're talking about.
With consistently higher prices and terrible customer service policies, I can't imagine how Best Buy has stayed in business as long as they have. There's a reason I've always called them "Worst Buy". They usually are.
To give you an idea of their customer service, I priced a product online with Google, and it told me that Best Buy had it for a great price. I went there, and found that they had just raised their price by nearly a hundred bucks. I knew this because they had a recently returned unit available for less than their previous price. I bought the returned unit.
Unfortunately, it was defective (flaky HDMI output). At most stores, when a product is DOA, you can go in and they'll swap it out with a working one. Not at Best Buy. Because they didn't have any more customer-returned products from when the price was lower, my only option (at their store) was to pay an extra $120 to get a working product.
I pointed out that their new, higher price was about thirty or forty dollars higher than Fry's, just two blocks away, and over a hundred dollars higher than Amazon. Needless to say, I opted for a refund.
I then drove to Fry's. They matched Amazon's price, so I ended up getting it for almost exactly what Best Buy had been charging two weeks earlier.
Why anyone ever darkens the door of Best Buy is beyond me. I could see buying stuff like DVDs from Best Buy online (where you can price compare easily), but just walking into the store, your odds of getting even an acceptable deal are right up there with winning the lottery.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
The closest one to me is a good 40 min away, and when you get there its almost a circus of disorganization. Example when you walk into our location theres geek squad, and some networking on the first isle, then pens and paper and post-it notes, then printers, then celphone accessories, then laptops then camera accessories, oh then celphones, then laptop accessories and on and on until your in the back of the store looking for the power supply you went there for in the first place they are out ... even though their website says in stock in that store.
so while you are somewhat forced to check every fucking isle cause they are now interweaving departments, that way you wont miss some stupid gadget you dont want, you cant find anyone to answer a simple question cause all 3 of them are busy upselling the newest HP laptop and your wasting your time cause these people wouldn't know what they have in stock even if they were paid to.
Hm sounds just like compUSA doesnt it?
The only reason I ever go in there anymore is because once in a while you can find a openbox or floor model deal, which is why I have a stainless steel microwave that only cost 35 bucks, but its at the very bottom of my list to even consider when I am out to get something specific.
Ummm.... doesn't Microcenter count? Guess not according to Forbes, because in 2006 they had 19 stores, 20 in 2007, 21 in 2008, and in 2012 Microcenter has 23 stores. Sure that's slow growth, but still growth none-the-less, and they're much better than CompUSA, Circuit City (is Circuit City "tech"?) and Best Buy because Microcenter actually has competitive prices.
Want a new MSI Geforce GTX 580 video card? $500 from Newegg, $520 from Microcenter. Think I'd just pay that extra 4% to have the card TODAY and have a local shop to return/exchange it to if there's a problem and judging from the 13% 1-egg reviews I'd there is a good risk there could be a problem.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Some things you have to see, touch and/or hear before you buy, I can't imagine it all going away. Plus there's nothing like instant gratification of buying something as opposed to waiting a week or two for it too arrive.
you are probably a hedge fund guy, or friends with a hedge fund guy, or some other type of person who makes money by buying and selling big chunks of other people.
you see a story about an electronics retailer.
they see a story about an opportunity to short sell or buy credit default swaps against a company's debt. imagine if you are sitting at a poker table and instead of chips you are playing with coins that each say '1 million dollars'. you can start to get an inkling of the mindset here. you dont care if the other people at the table are nurses, waiters, hairdressers, authors, poets, politicians, soldiers, etc. all you care about is what is in their hand, and which way the game is going to go, because you can get rich off of it, but more importantly, you can get the high you get from winning. thats what the "their stock price is down" thing means. it doesnt pretend to have any intelligent commentary on cause and effect. its poker information for poker players.
For what it's worth, I have never been disappointed by anything -- electronic, clothes, home goods, whatever -- that I bought from Amazon that has more than 10 reviews and 4+ stars. And when you look at TVs on Amazon, you don't have to rely on 10 reviews -- most TVs have hundreds of reviews to rely on.
Best Buy is a horrible, horrible place. Those stores are typically overpriced, asshole-filled warehouses with a stench I can only guess is dead animals hidden in the car audio department. Lump all that in with morons on the sales team and even bigger morons in management and you have the reason this place will not be missed by most people.
If you are a Best Buy idiot (read: employee), I apologize for offending you... but you deserve it. Last time I went to a Best Buy was to buy a family member a flat-screen LCD television. I asked for help from no less than 5 people before someone ACTUALLY came back "in a couple of minutes" as promised repeatedly. It was a mistake, especially since the same set was $70 cheaper online. Too bad it was too close to Christmas at the time to bother ordering it online.
Good riddance, assholes.
P.S.
I am sure this will be modded flamebait or troll or whatever... I simply do not care. Especially since those titles (flamer and troll) are used to say "I disagree with you" these days, instead of what they are really meant for. Which is to label someone who actually IS trolling.
I am in Denver. The Microcenter, in my area, seems to be packed all the time.
When I want to Illinois, last October, the Frys there also seemed to be doing a lot of business.
Every time I go into a Staples they have more and more computer stuff. They seem to be doing ok.
The Apple Store should disprove this, though: At $4,032 per square foot per year, the NYC Apple Store is the most profitable retail store per square foot in the world, period.
Wonder what the public key field is for?
That's putting it politely.
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
None of Amazon, Newegg, Ebay, or even [gasp] Tiger Direct has ever annoyed the @#$%^ out of me for a useless warranty.
I actually ran up to RadioShack today to pickup a CMOS battery for a computer repair today. I needed a known good battery. I didn't have to wait days (NewEgg) just for a $4 battery. While I was there I love just looking around. They have a lot of great stuff for DIY projects. Wish they stocked a ton more electronic components. I think RadioShack could really capitalize on offering DIY projects along with the materials to make them. Check out Instructables lately? Most of that stuff needs a RadioShack kind of place. RadioShack does serve a purpose and they never got to big for their britches like Best Buy and Circuit City. They have a small footprint which is smart. The only thing I hate about them is their retarded name change. GJ on destroying a huge brand name.
That place is a shit show, if one more sales guy tries to sticker my stuff I am gonna donky kick him. You should not have commission based sales people in a tech store like that. They are assholes.
Let us not forget that mail-order catalogs were yesterday's equivalent of today's Amazon and Newegg, and competition between them and brick and mortar stores is nothing new.
I used to be on the mailing list for both Allied Radio and Lafayette - bought stuff from both. Lafayette even had it's store in Newark, NJ. All long gone. Allied Radio was merged into Radio Shack. (Allied Electronics - the industrial supply side of the business - apparently still exists.)
Heath (remember Heathkits?) had a store in California. Gone.
Tons of independent shops selling stereo gear, TVs. My favorite independent shop was called "Parts Unlimited" - nothing but caps, resistors, vacuum tubes, wire, solder, connectors, coax cable, hardware, etc. All gone.
The only knowledge that I have seen at a Bestbuy is how to annoy and defraud customers. I can't tell you how many times I, was or heard their sales people, pushing Monster DVI or HDMI cables.
Fight Spammers!
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The helpful staff and their urgency to sell those stupid warranties are the main things that keep me away from Best Buy unless I really have to have something today. The last time was when I was looking for the Tranformer TF101 on launch day. I knew if I didn't find it I was going to have to wait a long time. The sales guy wanted to chat me up on the tablets - and flat lied to me about the capabilities of the HP Touchpad, trying to push that product. Anyway they did have the Acer Iconia tab, and I nearly bought that instead - but being lied to really ticked me off and I drove 40 miles to Fry's instead and found the Transformer in stock.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I'd like to see a chart of the revenue growth of "brick and mortar" Apple stores over the last 10 years. Fry's also seems to be doing alright, and like Best Buy they also have questionable customer service.
Screwing their customers at every chance.
I bought my son a NEW Wacom tablet and found it very suspicious that the cable wasn't neatly wound and tied with a cable tie. Then again I hadn't bought anything from Wacom before so maybe that was normal. Then we discovered that the card with the license keys for the bundled software was missing. Someone had bought the tablet, returned it minus the license keys and BB had sold it on as new.
Before that I bought a NEW landline phone with answering machine and when I set it up someone else's address book was programmed in the phone and there were messages already on the answering machine.
Before that in January I bought a NEW netbook for work. The My Documents folder had documents in it and the Pictures folder had photos of someone's Christmas day!!!
Fool me three times damn it! Now I buy NOTHING from that store.
Wow, Best Buy in the States sounds awful. Best Buy in Canada isn't anything like that. Took back a DVD last week. I got it for Christmas and my wife hid it in the laundry basket until a couple weeks past the return period. They said they weren't supposed to, but they took it. Never had any problems with customer service. I much prefer Best Buy to Future Shop. Online is great for obscure stuff, but the waiting kind of sucks and we have to pay sales taxes on online orders in Canada.
I say good riddance to Best Buy. They are all actively offensive, blaring loud music as you walk in. They did have the best price on Wiimotes lately, so I bought them there. Needless to say, I spent the least amount of time in the store as possible.
I have to drive 45 minutes from where I live a Microcenter, which is the only store that sells computer parts. Best Buy usually has nothing and is more expensive for older gear. The small business computer stores nearby are bullshit rip-offs that take advantage of people that don't know much about computers.
Let's not forgot that this is the same place where if you go in citing a price on their website they will pull up an intranet site that is a clone of bestbuy.com with different prices to "prove" you wrong. Getting busted for that was the end of me shopping there.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Spending a few hours reading user reviews on amazon or newegg, and being able to google unfamiliar terms, is more valuable than the most tech savy and personable sales rep. And because most sales reps are subpar, internet shopping wins by a landslide.
Except for the fact that 90%+ of the people who shop at Best Buy havent a clue on how to Google anything, otherwise why the hell are they paying $34.99 for a usb printer cable they can buy elsewhere locally for $4.99? (figures in Canadian $ from my Calgary Best Buy & Memory Express).
And we sell a lot of fscking printer cables at my Best Buy... it makes no sense, you can't explain that... except to accept that the vast majority of people are too ignorant to use Google pro-actively for their own education and self-interest. You cannot expect these average Best Buy buying mouth-breathers to display rationality or intelligence. They are the herd, they are easily lead, but also easily spooked. They fear things they do not understand, but lack the evolved intelligence to actively pursue education to improve their own lot. They are comfortable in their ignorant world, and when you work at Best Buy your job is to milk them with high-margin cables if they're too stupid not to know any better. Should you feel bad about this? Only your own conscience can inform...
"Amazon showroom" ?
Even the Internet is starting same day delivery .
I guess I am one of the only ones that noticed the way Best Buy did business more than 15 years ago? As a child I remember them charging an exorbitant fee for diagnosing and repairing a radio, only to have replaced the batteries. Best Buy has always been a racket. In the early 00's, Monster Cables were apparently made out of Pixie dust and Myrrh, from the way their employees talked them up. The poor employees. They are hassled and forced to mess with customers, but they get no commission for being pushy salesman. Best Buy has an opportunity now to prevent failure. If they don't change, you can bet that someone is making money on their failure.
Unlike Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.: they have a decent inventory of stuff, and don't presume to be helpful. In other words, they cater to people who would buy online, if "online" were a fifteen minute drive. For those of us who generally know what we're looking for before going to the store, this is a godsend.
Note that this market isn't merely "techies": who wants "help" buying a particular movie or video game? Apple's iPhone 4 dock? A toaster? An electric razor? In the last two cases, I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but it's not as if Best Buy has helpful "toaster experts" on-site. And even if they did, they'd be "experts" in upselling unnecessarily fancy toasters with "performance guarantees."
(full disclosure: I ended up choosing an unnecessarily fancy toaster anyhow. I'm not at all sure why I'd ever need two simultaneous "temperature zones", but it looks nice, it's easy to clean, and it's outlasted the sum total of my previous three "cheapo" toasters, so I'm not complaining)
Over here, our biggest online computer and electronics retailers are generally also our biggest brick and mortar stores. Places like Centrecom, MSY and Scorptec have all their stock available online, have stores or warehouses in most areas of the state I live in and each warehouse has a small shop front. You can buy online from them, and they ship it from their physical stores for a postage charge, or you can pick-up locally. Sometimes I have to drive to the second or third closest (30mins drive) to get an item which is out of stock next door.
They easily compete with, and out perform, bigger tech stores by giving the best online service, whilst still offering a physical location as an alternative. If I buy something online and it breaks, I can go to my local store and speak directly to the company who sold it to me.
I don't understand why so many retailers with physical stores are against online retailers. It isn't adversarial, it is a new distribution method. I can understand why a family running a fish and chip shop may not want to offer online services. They may not have the expertise to manage any of it themselves, meaning increased costs. They also may not understand the technology and risk being exploited by developers. But electronics stores shouldn't have any excuse for being so slow to the party with online offerings.
For a hard time buying: try CircuitCity 2 full years before they went out of business, on multiple occasions there were ZERO cashiers and we have product in hand and wallet out, and the customer service people right next to the checkouts are ignoring us even when asking for a cashier.
Happened 3-4 times.
The theory presented is that Best Buy is dying due to lower than normal sales and lower margins. This is presumed to be caused by poor customer service based on personal experience with the writer's local Best Buy store and some inventory issues for items that NO retailer had in stock during the Christmas season.
The truth is actually more boring. Best Buy sales are down because the economy has been in the toilet. Best Buy margins are down because margins are down for all electronics. In addition, the mad rush to 3D that electronics manufacturers were hoping for never happened. Very little of this has to do with customer service.
Personally, I have never had a problem with my local Best Buy. I've been able to return items without question and they have been very helpful when I am looking for a particular item. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big proponent of Amazon. But there are many people like me who just don't feel comfortable buying appliances and expensive TVs over the Internet.
Priced a product online with Google, and it told me that Best Buy had it for a great price. I went there, and found that they had just raised their price by nearly a hundred bucks.
The thing about Best Buy is that the price their advertise online is always lower than the price at the store. I learned this a while back, and as a result I always buy at their online store and choose "pick up at the store."
Usually I'll just avoid them completely, but if they do have a competitive price, or if I can't wait for the shipping from Amazon or Newegg, then at least I save myself the annoyance of going over there expecting a price only to see it 50% more expensive than the price advertised online.
Circuit City had the same problem. Years ago I needed a wireless keyboard, and they had a pretty good deal advertised online. I showed up, saw their in-store price was significantly higher. I figured, "hey, I'll just price-match it at the register," only to have the cashier tell me that they couldn't price-match online offerings, even if they were their own. So I walked to the side to make sure I wasn't blocking anyone else in line, pulled out my PDA and logged on to their website using their public wifi right in front of her (blast from the past, huh? It was before the smartphones took over), ordered the keyboard with pick it up at the store, showed her the confirmation number and asked, "can I pick it up now?"
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
reminds of something that happened a few months ago to me. i bought a new two terabyte external hard drive for school so i could move my virtual machines with me between computers (several computer labs, my home computer, and my laptop), i spent a the bit extra that for one with eSATA so it could transfer the files i needed at a reasonable rate. I bought it online because no one in town carried one with eSATA drives at the size i needed for a reasonable price. when it arrived from newegg it did not have the eSATA cable with it. so off to the stor to buy it i went. at staples the sales associate said they didn't carry them so to try radio shack and walmart,(the only other stores in town that would conceivably carry them), but the did have Martha Stewart brand home and office stationary. staples didn't carry them only SATA. i was told to try walmart and staples but that they would probably not have them so try Amazon newegg or radio-shack.com, i tried walmart grudgingly and the sales associate told me they did not carry cables for inside computers... i explained to the sales associate that that the e in eSATA was for external and still didn't know where to look. so i hunted and they didn't have any. i bemoan the loss of real electronic stores
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Brick and Mortar tech stores have the possibility of being great. I for one much prefer shopping in physical stores for any sort of medium to major purchase. For example, some laptops have very comfortable keyboards, others... not so much. Similarly some displays look very good while others... not so much even though they have the same "specs" if you look online.
The problem is the service which could be their number 1 selling point is terrible. They sell you things you don't need and leave out the things you do need.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
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It will just open the door for a new tech store. The fact is, people often have a need to actually play around with a device before purchase, as well as the need or desire for instant gratification (having the item immediately after purchase, rather than shipping wait).
Tech stores may be in decline, but there will never be an ultimate death of them all, they still fill an important need online stores can't.
I buy almost everything online now, can't stand going into stores or malls they are depressing.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
How can they be going out of business with profits that have remained steady in the just-over-$1B for the last 3 years and sales steady at $50B/year.
The profit margin is low, but what do you expect? They're a retailer.
When your name is "Best Buy" It better damn well give the best buy.
Any 10 year old can walk in that store and know he can get a better deal at so many other places.
Soon you realize why the fuck am I here.
A lot of people don't understand or are afraid of tech. Box stores give the illusion that they'll have someone to hold your hand and tell you want you need to get that home theater going. Online shopping only works for people when they are reasonably sure what they are looking for. This is why book stores are going the way of the dodo, people know the authors they like and can get the identical item online. For a computer you might have to stare for 10 minutes trying to figure out why two slightly different models are $200 difference in price. But you still don't get the goofy kid saying "oh that is a great computer it will plug right into your TV". For a lot of people not knowing and not even knowing how to properly search for the info online means they want a store.
These people will get rarer with time but I think we have 20 or so years before we've gotten rid of the generation that hasn't grown up with computers.
My big black box Sony TV died last year. Took 12 years.
I went shopping for a hi-def flat screen and started at Best Buy.
The store was horribly laid out with not much choice and the customer service sucked. No one to talk to me about the models on display and the choice was limited. I left and did my research online. Ended up going with an 44" Samsung LED from Amazon with the knowledge that a return would be smooth if necessary.
Only drawback was that Amazon uses UPS so I had to drive to the UPS warehouse (15 minutes) to pick it up as I obviously didn't want it left in building lobby and they wouldn't.
Totally pleased with it.
And I saved $350 or so along with no sales tax.
Not sure why I would go back to a Best Buy...................
Exact same thing happened to me at Circuit City. I just dumped all my products on the counter and walked out of the store empty-handed.
That finally got their attention ("Sir! Sir! Come back!")...but screw 'em. That former Circuit City is now a furniture store.
Los Angeles is full of them. They don't have big signs out front but they're all over the place. Tiny places packed with stuff haphazardly all over. They're really sort of bizarre outlets. I go to them when I need a "widget"... they always have it. They know what I mean the first time. And the prices while not competitive with online retailers are no more expensive then the big box stores.
I have no idea how they stay in business... they just do. They don't sell games. They don't sell TVs. They don't sell anything but computer junk. I think their primary business is IT service or something. But they've got lots of computer stuff and they're very happy to sell it.
So if and when bestbuy implodes and I need a widget faster then the online retailers can get it to me... I'm covered.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
In Massachusetts, we have MicroCenter chain which is a brick and mortar for computer stuff, basically a CompUSA.
I walked into it the other week as I was looking for power adapter for an old G4 laptop (yeah I know) and was completely shocked at the customer experience versus the Apple stores (which didn't stock this vintage adapter). It just seemed like stepping into the past. Ugly cold bland interior. You have to stalk a "sales associate". You find one and he's chatting with a friend and you have to wait. Or you have to fight for his attention from other circling customers.
THey have a small in-store store for Apple products but it looks like 1995, basically just accessories and shit. Wander out into the main store and its rows of CD spindles, shitty PC games, and just seemingly random shit. The sales guys seem like TV salesmen who don't know their ass from their elbow.
I could have probably tracked down the power adapter on ebay or somewhere but I needed it ASAP. Turns out the adapter wasn't the issue so I just returned it after opening it as allowed by their return policy. How these places stay in business is beyond me.
Not when I discovered that the same HDMI cable they wanted $40 could be had online for $5. Last time I tried to check their website for cheap stuff I could pick up today (specifically, a wireless dongle), the only stuff they had in price range was not kept in stores, and could not even be delivered to the stores - you had to pay $5 for shipping for a one ounce part, even though for the more expensive items they offered "ship to store" pickup for no charge at all. After a frustrating fifteen minutes I said screw it and ordered a similar from Amazon, who got it to me in two days for 99 cents.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Microcenter is aparrently bucking the trend, that place is awesome, fairly knowledgable staff, good selection (sparkfun even!) and prices that rival newegg/amazon
its a shame there are so few of them , luckily one is here in Denver.
go go microcenter!
As a former employee at Best Buy, I can tell you exactly why they make it difficult to buy that stuff. The three big times in the year are Chirstmas, tax time, and back to school. The seasons around each of these events takes up around 70% of the year. In that part of the year, there is only a finite number of an item available at the store you are at any given time. Best Buy will sell out of the hot laptop that everyone wants. Frankly they don't want you buying it if you don't buy the additional warranty or accessories or whatever. If you don't buy it, someone else will. I'm convinced that corporate would just rather have you shop somewhere else. They get shipments twice a week, but there is a million different variations that the public demands so it's hard to keep all of the stock flowing to the exact right places, so it's easier to make it a difficult experience for the grab and go customer who just want to buy four of the laptop with a $5 markup and leave none for customers who might potentially want to buy other items to go with it. Contrast this with Amazon, where they can ship your item from anywhere and it makes little difference to the customer. Best Buy has a pretty decent store transfer and warehouse ordering system, but customers often refuse to wait as they have waited until the last second to buy a gift and only budgeted for the laptop that has been on sale the last six days.
Okay, I just read most of the posts. There is much truth therein.
Out of my own ignorance and un-brightness I post a few thoughts.
Apart from general overhead (rent/lease/taxes, wages, utilities, whathaveyou) the single largest hassle as I see it is in inventory. This has always been a large factor in, for instance, hardware stores. With electronics all the problems of inventory are magnified - everything stocked is automatically obsolete before it even reaches the shelves, for starters. Don't even bring up things such as support, drivers, etc.
That's bad enough for old-fashioned business models. Complicating factors such as lack of awareness and understanding on the part of customers and staff only exacerbate the situation. Emphasizing 'bottom-line Friday' and 'get the sale' as distinct from establishing customer relations and developing accounts helps clinch the fail.
The owners and smart stockholders will always make out like bandits, especially if they've paid the slightest attention to the standard CYA aspects of law and tax law no matter what happens to the brick and mortar realities. The CEOs and such will do quite fine even if they technically "lose" some money due to bankruptcy/failure of the businesses they're 'in charge of.'
The only people hurt will be everyone else. [paragraph unwritten because it's obvious/transparent/redundant]
In the meantime, everyone who shows up to work has bills to pay - they all have need of income: their livelihood, and lives, depend upon it. Yet, as I've been saying for thirty years and more: if you show up for work and do not understand, janitor to CEO, that the only reason you have a job and the only reason there is a business is because you have customers. and act accordingly, you might as well turn around and go find something useful to do or kill yourself and remove a burden from the species.
One way or another, whether it be pumping septic tanks or working out of my real estate office, I spent half my working life in sales. While I was happy to have happy customers, to this day I prefer, and strove for, _satisfied_ customers; that is, people who knew I stood behind what I did or that the company for whom I worked did so. Everything else, IMHFO, is dross. YMMV.
That Best Buy is going down the tubes is simply a matter of time. Whether owners, management, and staff change their world view or no, perhaps it's just a matter of watching another species of dinosaur die. I'm young enough to be sad and old enough to simply try to make it through the next day. When the local hardware store and bookstore close, then, apart from the congenial tavern, should I be able to afford them, it'll be all she wrote apart from what's available to me on the 'Net.
Brave new world, indeed. Cheers.
There used to be two types of "tech stores":
1. Radio Shack type stores that catered to electronics hobbyists. These are all but dead. They tried to go mass market, which killed their unique value. They lost their core market, and didn't get the market they were going after.
2. Places like Best Buy, etc. These places can easily survive if they want to, but they don't seem to want to. First of all, selection! They tend to carry huge stock of a few items. What I want is to see lots and lots of items, that's why I go to a giant huge store. When I go to a best buy that'S the size of a football stadium and say "Hey where are the Sharp laptops?" and they say "Sorry, only HP, IBM, Dell, and Sony. No Sharp, Panasonic, Hitachi, etc." So... they are only interested in selling to a very un-imaginative Joe sixpack crowd. Well that's fine, but those people are the ones who will just buy the lowest end piece of junk that seems to work for their purpose.
The accessories are also .. uninspired. 10 types of mice and keyboards from the same 2-3 makers. Logitech, Microsoft, and some generic brand maybe. Usually no touch-pads, no laser keyboard, no USB toys (except maaaybe a fan), no input tablet. Again, the same crappy web-cams from 1 or 2 makers. It's not exciting, even for someone who loves technology. They typically lack anything even remotely non-consumer (i.e. SCSI cards, etc.), and the sales people don't typically really know the difference between a laptop and a microwave oven - at least they try to sell them the same way.
I mean if you go into an Apple store, they have more freaking variety, and people who at least know their products. They usually have more accessories too (including 200 types of cases for the same damned phone), and a more attractive store - no wonder Apple retail stores are packed.
To top it all off, the stores are not only a place to go to see a good variety or get good advice - but they are also not a good place for getting the best price either! If you buy online, you usually get variety automatically, you get reviews, and you get a reasonable price. Considering the shipping is done on a per-person basis, online shopping should be more expensive, but often it's cheaper *and* better.
Although my comments above are about my experiences visiting computer stores in the US, (including "advanced" ones like MicroCenter)...
The thing is, it doesn't have to be that way. Here in Japan, the stores do have a huge variety, and it's fun to go walk around. You can usually find something you've never seen before. Unique products, special sales, bundles, Interesting features, used stuff, basement clearance sales, etc. I saw a Sharp Mebius laptop last month with a mini LCD display built into the touchpad. Most of the newer Sony laptops have a reader for the trainpass cards used here (Suica), Panasonic sells ToughBook laptops made to handle abuse, etc. Every store has super small super thin laptops, all the way up to beastly huge desktop replacements, and TV/Computer combo units. As for accessories, you will find a variety of USB Toys, high-end webcams, raid enclosures, DVD-RAM drives, stylus tablets, and just cute stuff in general. You can find all of these at your neighborhood shop, which means you might actually enjoy shopping, and end up buying more.
Yet, the above isn't just true with computers, I find it to be true in general. Stores like K-Mart or Target, I only go in, buy what I have to, and go out. Stores like Tokyu Hands, I tend to wander around and check out all the cool stuff.
Reducing stocks by 40% means 40% less to sell. When I go to a tech store it's to get what I need today not in a week or two. Reduce stocks and I have less reason to go to the store in the first place. If I know it's unlikely I can get what I need in a store then I go straight to the web. Hearing that move of desperation to me means Best Buy will be gone within five years. Now how do we get Fries Electronics nation wide?
Managers worried about numbers and goals over customer service....
I work as a mobile consultant for an office supply store that recently started in wireless sales. They sell electronics stuff including computers and tablets. Anyways, when im not selling phones i'll help customers with electronics and other things that i know about.
Just last week a customer comes in with a sales ad, and shows me the exact laptop they want. They dont need a sales spiel they just wanna buy. I go to a keyholder/manager to get the laptop and i get a "stern talking to" about how their tech associates have to reach goals on computer sales and warranty sales. The manager told me to send the customer to a tech associate(who has a queue of 5 or so customers because he cant multitask.)
I sure as hell dont care about their numbers and i know that the customer wasnt really willing to wait for a tech associate when i'm available to help right now. I went to someone else to get the laptop and ended up selling the customer on a 3 year warranty. Some managers can be so thick-headed
I get to checkout and 80% of the items I was remotely interested in can't ship. In store pickup only.
Sure, I'll get some games. Except that for any given store, I could have 2 non-overlapping weeks for a pickup window. That means I have to drive there 2-3 times to get all my purchased items. The other thing that happened was that the items weren't even available for in-store pickup AT THE SAME STORE. If you're going to take a week to make it available in store, can't you combine all my items and let me pick it up in 1 handy location?
I know this is beside the point, but since when was Borders a 'tech store'?
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80 grand per year works out to about $38.46 per hour (assuming a 40 hour week)
I only make $12 per hour. Of course I only subscribe to one of the above magazines (and I haven't told them how much I make)
That seems to be a common thread among failing businesses: They all have well-reasoned excuses to intentionally inconvenience their customers.
This all makes me wonder what would happen if Best Buy were to outsource their sales division to Accenture in addition to their IT. Best Buy is suppose to specialize in technical sales. If their customer service is as bad as everyone says, (I tend to not shop their and when I do I don't ask questions) then I wonder what they consider themselves experts at? Maybe they should outsource their sales and customer service instead of their IT?
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
Imagine how awesome Radio Shack could be if they started supporting local efforts of Makers to build things. Why is Radio Shack not offering modern electronics courses, along with rentals of some gear too hard to afford yourself?
They could really transform themselves into something powerful with a small twist.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The main Problem is that analog electronic, discrete, and logic components get replaced by MCUs. Where you would have used a Threshold comparator, and analog trigger, a voltage regulator, and a flipflop before to make a simple resettable alarm, no you buy an ATtiny (and you can even skip the voltage regulator, if you buy the right one). The margin for sellign it is probably the same, and there is a certain minimum size of a shop to make in reasonable to have a full range of the MCU variants in stock. So Electronics shops started to put in low cost tech articles in their shops, which is something you can only compete if you are big enough, which most of them are not. I am not sure if a path of spezialization would have saved more of the shops, but i guess not. when buying electronic components for my work i am obviously using the internet.
Please tell me Geek Squad goes down with it.
"Why is Radio Shack not offering modern electronics courses, along with rentals of some gear too hard to afford yourself?" - because the profit margin is too low? Maybe the expensive stuff takes too long to repay if it's hired out, breakage rate, etc.?
management too concerned with store sales instead of margins and blatant disregard for quality customer service."
every time I see one of these stories about a business that might be struggling someone writes something similar to the above. Margin and same store sales are pretty important to retail. If management just ignored what has worked for decades because some guy on the web thinks they ougt to, do really think they'd be more successful? I don't what the secret to retailing in the new econiony is but ignoring margin is not it, remember the .comedy? They ignored margin, how did that work out?
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Whereas you tend to get overwhelmed with stuff just on the subject you're looking for, therefore you'll find the bit you want out of a list of 1000 similar objects, then leave the website.
But IRL, you get to see fewer options on what you want, but a lot more things that may grab your attention.
The problem IMO they have is that for you to WANT to browse and stay there, they have to treat you like a guest. If it looks like you're wandering about, ask ONCE "Can I help you?". Don't pester. Get the sale when it's ready done as soon as possible. It'll be mainly blokes. When we have what we want, we want to get OUT. Make that easy and we'll go back there just to browse, knowing that if we do decide to get something on impulse, we don't have to fight our way out of the store with it. And don't bother upselling. Mention other products, but your intent is the same as an advert in a newspaper: let them know it exists. Pushing it won't get you remembered for anything other than being pushy.
Websites can't manage customer service: you never see anyone.
Brick-and-mortar stores manage customer service. They just manage to give BAD customer service.
From what I've seen over the past decade, ALL specialty stores are in trouble. The ones who are succeeding are stores that offer products to a variety of consumer interests.
Book stores? Shutting down
Electronics? Shutting down
Stereos and TV? Shutting down
Computers? Shutting down
Diversity in business is the key to survival. Use your brand recognition to bring in the customers, but expand beyond your initial purview or you reach a market cap and die.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Maybe I'm off track here.
But maybe part of the flaw is using "boutique like locationing". Upscale mall branches, etc.
Most hobbyists wanting parts are men, right? Aren't we supposed to just want our parts and not overly care about the pretty cell phones?
Why not do the BJ's / Sam's Club approach to parts? Make it a little out of the way, and stock all the basics. Then if a real expert comes and stumps you, get really good at being a location for ordering parts.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Best Buy should buy the extended warranty against business failure. Sure it will take a couple of months after they fail to get reimbursed but they will be back in business again as long as they don't lose the warranty and they dress well when filing their claim.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
All of those stores were way overpriced, and filled with clueless employees. Microcenter, pricing the same or better than Newegg, carrying equal or better stock, and having employees who know about their products, does more business than the large regional mall's Apple store.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
It's sad- even "Buy More" got sold to Subway! :(
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Free Cash Flow ... Best Buy has it. Maybe they are well postiioned brand wise? Maybe they are the lowest cost brick and mortar competitor. maybe their GeekSquad division makes them an ass load of money. Actually, that GeekSquad thing is accurate.
Waht they need to do is get rid of Monster cable and have store branded cables. Sell them for less. Still have a big mark up. But stop driving people like me to the ttnernet/Wal-Mart for cables.
CompUSA is back, at least in name only. They were purchased by Tiger Direct, an "etaile" computer store with brick and mortar outlets. Tiger Direct knew how to work both sides of the street and wanted the CompUSA name for their brick and mortar outlets. Today they still have the Tiger Direct web address, but are mostly using CompUSA on line.
Circuit City is also back as an "etaile" outlet on the web. I don't know if there is any connection other than the name to the original.
why should some underpaid Cust Serv rep be responsible for the well being of practically every fortune 500 company? When a company succeeds, it's because of brilliant leadership (Apple), but when they fail, it's always the customer service reps responsibility / fault. WTF?
Maybe Barnes & Noble's leadership should have done something about declining reading rates in America, huh? The trend had been going on for decades. Maybe they should have lobbied for better education & schools to create the kind of people who WANT books. Look at Japan. Well educated populace that values reading (hell, good authors are celebrities over there, instead of just the ones that strike it rich like in the US). But nope, you're right. It's all the fault of the minimum wage gal/guy behind the counter with no stock options, no career options, and no raises. Not the multi-millionaire leadership.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I don't know about the experiences of others, but it seems to me that the solution to many of Best Buy's problems is inside their own company. They own a smaller division of Canadian stores called "Future Shop". My experience with Future Shop, in store and online, has been fairly good -- online orders are delivered quickly, the site is nicely organized, and when it indicates that stock is in at the local store, it has always been there (I have noticed that when stock is low, it tells you that they can't guarantee that merchandise will be in the store when you get there).
Unfortunately, Best Buy seems intent on destroying Future Shop. They keep opening inferior Best Buy stores within blocks of Future Shop locations. I just don't get it.
I think eventually companies like Amazon may spell the doom of most ( not all ) brick and mortar stores, tech or not. It is much more convenient to order exactly what you want while sitting in your chair and have it delivered to your door. Probably a lot more eco-friendly too as your goods will be "car pooling" with the delivery man. Picking something up in person either means taking a chunk of your time on a weeknight or a weekend, assuming the store has what you want. The only motivator, if you are not into shopping for its own sake, is the price of gas versus the price of shipping. As gas prices change, something like an "odometer by money" could tip the balance in favor of just buying what you want online. Even supermarkets like Giant have delivery services, so they aren't immune unless someone is a gourmand who wants to inspect their food before s/he buys it.
I feel fortunate to have a really good Microcenter on my way home from work. The trip is always worth the hassle as they always have what I need and have people who can help me find it fast.
Not so with the other tech stores and the service is so uncaring that I feel like I am in a fast food restaurant.
Never go to Best Buy on Black Friday. They're well-known to be full of bait and switch offers. In fact, there's really no reason to go out on Black Friday at all. Just wake up at / stay up until 4 AM and do all your shopping online. No lines, no up-selling, and the products get shipped directly to your door, at the same crazy Black Friday prices. I prefer Walmart.com for this sort of thing; there's remarkably little BS with which to deal. So far have bought a ~$400 42" TV and a ~$130 surround sound / Blu-Ray system, both of which were surprisingly quality.
By the way, the reps argue with you about buying the "advertised" items in Best Buys primarily because they don't get commission / do get yelled at if those items are what are sold, rather than the designated, higher-priced snake oil switched items. And God help them if they sell something without a warranty...
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Brick-and-morter stores only sell cheap crap. I would be willing to pay a premium to buy at a local store, buy now, and have the reassurance that I could return my defective products to a store right near me, but they simply don't offer anything I want because they only offer crap.
Some things I have bought recently include:
- A Sharp LCD TV. I bought it because of its low input lag. If you read the reviews online, many people discuss input lag, but the only expertise Best Buy has is "YOU SHOULD BUY THIS SAMSUNG BECAUSE IT'S THE NFL'S TV AND SAMMY PAID US TO GIVE IT PREFERENTIAL STORE SPACE." To their credit, most managers let me bring in my laptop and a digital camera to test input lag on various TVs, but I was halted by one TV department manager that said I was going to "hurt the brains" of the TV by plugging a composite video cable from my laptop to the TV. In the end, Best Buy had the TV for a full $500 more than Amazon, and Amazon had a better warranty, free shipping on delivery and returns, and for TVs larger than 42" they'd bring them into my home, turn it on, and let me check for dead pixels! So I got it from Amazon, and I'm very satisfied.
- Seki Edge fingernail clippers and tweezers. I found some awesome (albeit expensive) Made in Japan beauty products online, and, having grown up with the crappiest fingernail clippers imaginable all my life, I considered it a good invest to get an exceptional pair. I read that Seki Edge is very well known among beauty professionals, and I am extremely satisfied with my purchase. Good luck finding this brand at a brick-and-morter store, though--they only sell the same crappy $2 dull clippers and tweezers that don't quite align that I grew up with.
- An ASUS gaming laptop. I spent $1600 on an ASUS gaming laptop. That's a big sale for retailers! But if I bought on Newegg, I had a 2 year ASUS global warranty, 30 day dead pixel guarantee, and 1 year of shock/drop/liquid damage insurance. For the same price at Best Buy I could get the same model computer, except that Best Buy's model had 1TB less HDD space, 1 year of Best Buy warranty, no dead pixel guarantee, and the Best Buy model did not have ASUS's global warranty. Huh.
- A point-and-shoot camera. I want a point-and-shoot digital camera that's good in low-light conditions. They are few and far between, but I like FujiFilm's EXR series. I have yet to find a single FujiFilm EXR camera at a brick-and-morter store, despite their relative popularity online and good reviews. It seems that Best Buy, Wal-Mart, hhgregg, and the local malls are determined to sell me a 1" thick Nikon or Olympus with a puny sensor and an even punier lens. So once again, I go online.
- CABLES. This is insane. If I want to purchase an HDMI cable at Best Buy, I'm going to have to pony up about $80 for a 3 ft Acoustic Research cable. Really?! And I have a lot of things that I want to hook up to my TV, so I'd like a switcher box, as well... wouldn't you know that Best Buy, hhgregg, and Wal-Mart only carry a single model of switcher box that is inadequate and so cheap that the connections fall off? If I purchase online, I not only have more choice, but I can have a savings of up to 1000% on cables.
Other things I've tried (and failed) to purchase at brick-and-morter stores including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, hhgregg, Target, Lowes, and Home Depot include a rice cooker (unless I want a glass-top cheapo Aroma brand one that steams more than pressure cooks--I got a Made in Japan one from Amazon), a hot water dispenser or electric kettle (they don't carry them... so I got a Tatung one on Newegg), and green Christmas lights... By the way, when did stores stop carrying green Christmas lights? They carry red, blue, white, multi-color, 6 varieties of LED, but no green....
You've just described several incidents where items ordered online arrived broken, incomplete, or not-at-all. How is that hassle-free?
You have to wait for the item, then go through the RMA process, return the item, and wait for refund/replacement.
Meanwhile, the merchant has your money, and you have no product.
This assumes the merchant is reliable too. Amazon may not be bad for returns, but ebay/paypal can be pretty awful for both buyers and sellers.
For pricing, I've noticed that a lot of online merchants have gotten into the habit of "sales" that are more than the regular price elsewhere. Amazon seems to be pretty bad for this with books, and Newegg was selling REFURBISHED iPad 2's around Xmas as something like $200-300 off... at a reduced price of $699, except that $699 was the REGULAR price of the things elsewhere new...
I call'em "Worst Buy" in part because they lied to me about a rebate on a washer and dryer I purchased from them. If memory serves, they got in trouble with the FTC over this practice.
I will never set foot in one of their stores, much less buy anything from them.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
Two reasons I've found
a) Looking at stuff that I plan to buy, probably elsewhere (but at least I get to see what it looks like first)
b) Immediacy: Buy it and use it, no waiting for the post
c) Floor models: I've bought a few floor-models of things, and those actually tend to come out well as one can see their condition/functionality before taking them home, and the price is reduced.
Also
d) A place to send relatives when I don't want to be their personal computer consultant/repair-person
I find the shift away from brick & mortar stores to be really frustrating. Yes, I like online shopping, and I have an Amazon Prime account that I use for a lot of purchases. But I also like being able to go browse for stuff (especially books and CDs, two of the hardest-hit B&M retail types), and sometimes I want or need to pick something up immediately.
But I feel like I have an abusive relationship with Best Buy, and particularly with the one nearest my house. All the horror stories in the original article sound really familiar to me. Sometimes I WANT to give Best Buy my money (even preferentially over other nearby options, because of my Reward Zone card), and they make it damned hard to do so. They don't have new CDs or games on the floor by the evening of the release day, if they have them at all. You have to set yourself on fire to get the attention of a salesdroid, who takes 20 minutes to go "find it in the back," and tell you that he can't find it. You try to order online and pick it up in the store, and that experience is even WORSE than the alternative. (One time I waited through a 30 minute customer service line to pick up a DVD I'd ordered online, got to my car and realized they'd sold me the wrong one, waited through the same line again to exchange it, and then couldn't get them to understand that I still wanted to make a purchase, and they'd just given me the wrong version of the DVD. They refunded my money because they couldn't understand what I was telling them, and I went home and bought the thing on Amazon.)
So I'll miss Best Buy when they go, but their death will be purely self-inflicted.
Could roll in and buy a motherboard no problem.
Not the greatest place, but awesome for those "need it now" situations.
CompUSA never did close. The company was purchased by some other company and the stores (at least the one around here) remain open to this day under the CompUSA monicker. What did happen is they lowered their prices, started selling OEM/Grey box stuff so they now compete price wise with online shops like newegg.
http://www.compusa.com/retailstores/compusaStores/index.asp
I pointed out that their new, higher price was about thirty or forty dollars higher than Fry's, just two blocks away,
There was a Fry's two blocks away and you still went to Best Buy? I hope you've learned your lesson.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Depends on the store I guess. We had a local Circuit City and I was consistently amazed that they had a few folks in there that knew what they were selling. A couple of them even survived the purge of the high priced employees. It was heartbreaking to see them during the closing down sale - still trying to do a decent job and apologising that there wouldn't be any returns on anything.
A statistical outlier of course - I could travel 20 miles and experience the standard CC crapfest which made it stand out even more.
I would agree that BB are to be avoided at all costs. Even Frys have better customer service.
I remember their horrible store layout with a diamond-shaped center section in the middle blocking the view of half the store from the entrance. It felt like I was doing a dungeon crawl just to get to the back where they had their CDs, videos, and video games. They were opening new stores with a proper big-box layout a few years before they crashed, but at the end there were still stores with that original layout.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I sometimes shop at a place in Sunnyvale called Weird Stuff Warehouse. They have great bins full of surplus and second-hand cards, connectors, keyboards, mice, power adapters, and components. Standard operating procedure is to buy at least two, preferably three, of everything and hope one of them works. But it's cheap enough you can afford to do that.
I realize my anecdote is fast food, but...
Our local Burger King decided to remove their kids play area and replace it with a couple video game machines to cut insurance costs and make a little coin in its place. The result was all the stay at home moms found somewhere else to take their kids for lunch. Business drops and they remove the games leaving a totally empty play room taking up retail space. To cut costs, management hides the condiments under the order counter, followed by the napkins. Now you have to beg for ketchup. That's when I quit eating there.
Contrast that to the Chick-Fil-A across the street. They have a playground and all the moms that used to go to Burger King are now there. At lunch they have three people working outside helping the drive-thru. The line usually wraps all the way around the building, but I have never waited more than 4 or 5 minutes. On rainy days, they have an employee walking out to cars handing customers umbrellas to get in and out of the doors. The place is ALWAYS packed, but I never have trouble finding a seat and never wait more than a couple minutes to order. When someone leaves, their table is cleaned within a minute. The employees are friendly, helpful and polite. I costs me about 20% more than Burger King.
Guess where I take my kids...
For me, it's not the price difference per se, often the price can be reasonably competitive.
It's the social aspect of shopping online that seals the deal. I don't feel comfortable buying anything these days without seeing a rich set of reviews on the item, seeing where it falls within a bestseller list (i.e. Amazon), when it was released to the market, and comparison prices so that I know I'm not getting taken on price.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
That's a big trend right now. Fire your customer if they represent too small of a revenue / margin stream for you. It is even used as a business strategy to get competitors to lose margin and profitability. Lucky for Best Buy's customers, Amazon, NewEgg, and Wal*Mart don't mind.
Sounds to me like it isn't working out too well for Best Buy. They just want to bitch about Amazon taking the customers which they don't apparently want.
What if this was the decline/death of impersonal giant chain stores, and nothing to do with brick-and-mortar business models?
Hopefully chain restaurants will follow...
On the surface it appears to be the case but I think it could swing back the other way. Bricks and mortar shopping is an experience which people enjoy. What are we to look forward to? Living in isolation where everything simply arrives at our door is not a very appealing thought. The "village" atmosphere has appeal even if they are now shopping centres.
Reminds me of the old Best Buy joke:
What's the difference between a Best Buy sales rep and a used car salesman?
The used car salesman at least knows what he is telling you is untrue.
see... the 'average reader' is going to do the 'average thing', which is think that they have some insight because they read Forbes, and get in on some bandwagon trend thing. they pour their money into some account like Schwab or Scottrade. i think the gambling analogy fits here too.
now, the hedge funder watches the pumping and dumping action going on in the pages of forbes (and WSJ and etc), and tries to tell which way the 'market pscyhology' is headed. by predicting this they can get in on the various pump and dump deals. take the Dot Com bubble. the 'buzz' around it sends the masses to put their money into it, in hopes they too can get rich by riding the up and down of the market.
a good example of how hedge funds interact with the media to get rich off of bad investors is probably that screaming guy on the financial network. Jim Cramer. there is a great book about him - "Trading with the Enemy" by some kid who managed to get a job inside Cramer's fund because his dad knew a guy who knew a guy who... anyways. The 'news' is not to give out information, its also to help manipulate public opinion for the purpose of improving predictability for certain deals that certain people are working on.
So many comments here talking about Best Buy failing and why Best Buy is failing blah blah blah.
Let's rewind a few years. there were numerous discount electronics stores in the market competing against each other like, CompUSA, Sound Advice, Circuit City, etc. Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a new company opened up. They sold much of the same stuff as the established competitors, but with two distinct differences. The new store, Best Buy, offered a vast selection of in-stock goods for the lowest price. They were indeed, the best buy.
The established players wouldn't or couldn't compete with Best Buy's prices and they slowly died off. As the competition died, Best Buy's prices started increasing, in some cases, quite substantially.
Fast forward to today. Best Buy, doesn't have the best prices. Stores, online or brick and mortar (e,g Walmart) are eating their lunch. Retailers and analysts whine that the internet is ruining business. The real issue is Best Buy's price. The only possible real reasons why Best Buy can't sell for less than the onliners is sales tax and staffing overhead. Best Buy has buying power that will afford them better prices than anyone else, save possibly Amazon. They have to pay shipping, warehousing, and more, but the online stores face the same expenses. Does anyone really believe that Amazon doesn't have huge costs for storage, real estate, staffing shipping...
If Best Buy wants to survive and even excel, they simply have to live up to their name. Best Buy needs to return to being The best buy.
Best Buy's version:
“Due to overwhelming demand of hot product offerings on BestBuy.com during the November and December time period, we have encountered a situation that has affected redemption of some of our customers’ online orders. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and we have notified the affected customers."
The accurate version:
"Due to poor inventory management and sales forecasting of the most popular products during our key sales season, we can’t fill orders we promised to fill weeks ago in time for Christmas. Three days before Christmas, too late for the customers to make alternative arrangements, we are just now letting our would-be customers know. We have no excuse for such amateur behavior."
This is SO true. This is why retail electronics stores problems are 100% self-inflict and these ass-clowns DESERVE to go out of business!!
a great many people, except for those with no credit or bank accounts.
It is far more efficient for the goods ordered by dozens or even 100's of people to be delivered by truck route to peoples door, than to physically visit a store.
Example, my small town is 25 miles from the nearest excuse for a city, and 60 miles from a major metropolitan area. If it coast me $1/mile round-trip, before I've purchased anything, I've spent 25+ dollars and 1 hour of my time. Then you have to visit several stores, compare items (which will only consist of a subset of what's on the market (like Sam;s club, you can have this model--or not,) If I can't find what I need/want, I go home, $$$ less in my pocket and hours out of my life. If I do find it, it will probably cost more than ordering it, (B&M stores have higher overhead) and will have the additional costs of travel.
This applies to most urban areas too, as even convenient stores may be 20 minutes or more away--p;us traffic and the danger and frustration of driving in traffic.
There will always be some B&M stores for things you need NOW, and in large cities, for many other things as well (until we have a matter transporter...)
The day it takes me to drive to the city, shop and buy 'it', I can in a couple hours or so, compare many different versions of it, and buy it...even the extra cost for next-day service is less than the cost of driving around. It's cheaper to move around in cities that have good mass transit systems--but still takes more time, and puts you at greater risk,
Where it hurts is the decline in tax base as the B&M's close, but the B&M's also represent a high proportion of services from the city, police, fire, medical, water&sewer. They also produce a lot of pollution and waste to be disposed.
Many cities with manufacturing or agribusiness are ALREADY subsidizing these operations due to tax exemptions negotiated mostly by setting small towns against each other to get the best deal...often the new jobs promised either don't materialize, or are filled from neighboring towns. In many cases these towns would have been better off w/o these leeches (many such deals have tax exemption until the end of the life of the plant--where the city is again faced with letting them go, and losing tax revenue from employees, or giving in for the life of the plant.
Tax-free districts are just another way for private interest to profit from public resources, the 'clean' manufacturing plant on the edge of town dumps 300 tonnes of volatiles into the air every year. Of course they have to report it--everyone dumping is required to report it, but they are seldom required to stop it.
The root of the problem is that we've become too good at manufacturing and have surplus capacity, and increasingly the ongoing work is automated, leaving few jobs except in the building trades (which will decline as we finally get efficient about building, stop building balloon-frame houses in tornado areas when we could be building tornado-proof buildings with lifetimes of centuries rather than decades. It would help a lot if we didn't permit building in flood zones too...not only from the perspective of the humans, but the wildlife too.
All of this comes together and creates one of our larger social problems--in the US, people are valued based primarily upon their job--when only a fraction needs to work to support everyone, those w/o work decline mentally and emotionally as their self-worth drains away
One can create make-work, but it's a poor solution. a better solution is to pay people to do research, create art, explore, weave baskets, teach etc. It gives them a living, gives them work, of course there are lots of people who's activities won't return on the investment--but a few will, and we will have enough resources to use the free time on even wacky projects (which sometimes produce wealth far beyond the expense.
In order to do this most rapidly, we MUST gain access to the unimaginable wealth of energy and ma
..but it is nice to dream.
/.ers here fail to comprehend: Technological Illiteracy. Best Buy isn't interested in selling the top of the line products or having exclusive things. All they want is to take advantage of people that are upgrading their Pre-2000 computer for a new POS9001 with the extended warranty... Which will be needed because the POS9004 will be out next month and the 9001 model will break down a week into using it. So they do what they do in order to make a fast sale to people who have no idea what they are getting into as far as quality or don't realize that 90+% of computer problems can be solved with a Google search. (or no Windows on the PC to begin with for those Apple/Linux zealots here). This also holds true to Radio Shack and any other big box store like Wal Mart.
/.er, you may fall for their trap because of how they hype it up and make it sound like you will get better quality picture/sound. Another example, and why Circuit City failed, is how Circuit City tried to charge people ~$30 to get backwards compatibility on their new XBox 360. (Yes it is a YTMND, but the advertisement is 100% legit)
The problem with your guidelines is that companies like Best Buy prey on the one thing most
A great example is how Best Buy was hoping people would be dumb enough to spend over a thousand dollars for a HDMI cable. If you knew absolute shit about electronics or were not a
While what you are saying is true, it would be very difficult for Best Buy to do this. To them: It is more cost effective to have some kid in HS to work on a PC for $60/hr or an extra $30 at point of sale than to hire a professional who may want more than minimum wage to work on junk... To which, the pro may not in good conscience sell.
There is only a few reasons for big chain stores to go under. 1. Bad customer service. I work at a staples in the growing state of ND. We get a lot of customers who went to best buy or office max (only other 2 major electronic chains in the city, but got smaller stores like The Computer Store, and CompUtech) and then came to Staples. 2. Can't adapt to change. If Radio Shack did not change what they carried (whether you like it or not) is the reason they are still open. If a store can't do that, customers and those jobs move somewhere else and make money for other people.
>The thing about Best Buy is that the price their advertise online is always lower than the price at the store
In some places (specifically every state I've lived in) that's plainly illegal. Illegal, as in, sufficiently illegal to risk bankrupting fines and possible prison time for the people who made the decision type of illegal. A crime, not just a possible avenue for a consumer class-action suit.