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Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn Resigns After $1.7 Billion Loss
An anonymous reader writes "Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn has resigned amid the big-box retailer's major financial problems. The announcement comes two weeks after Best Buy announced a $1.7 billion loss for its fiscal fourth quarter. Best Buy is trying to avoid the same fate as Circuit City, which went out of business in 2009, but the future looks grim." The article provides a reason not to trust middle-management: the company claims it had "no disagreements with Dunn about operations, financial controls, policies or procedures." Best Buy may not be Shangri La, but in many rural and semi-rural parts of the U.S., it's the nearest and best place to actually find a wide selection of electronics.
How much of a bonus does he get for leaving?
Just curious.
If it weren't for online retailers, Best Buy would be my only choice for computer hardware other than a few small vendors (which cost even more than Best Buy). Thank the silicon gods for NewEgg and Tiger Direct.
I'm not sure I'm spoken to a Best Buy employee once without them lying to me. My most recent purchase was a new 3D TV. I made the purchase at Best Buy because they had the lowest price, despite how much I normally despise that store. The employee was insisting that I needed to buy high-end HDMI cables as well (despite the fact that digital cables don't have signal degradation in the way that analog cables can) and he insisted I needed a new 3D BluRay player. I told him I had a PS3 and he was adamant that PS3's couldn't play 3D BluRays, so I had to buy a new one. I pointed to his demo unit which was using a PS3 to play 3D BluRays.
I also know people who have worked at Best Buy in the past who admitted it is official company policy to lie to customers. They are trained to claim to own whatever item a customer is looking at, so they can recommend it.
Given Best Buy's business practices, frankly I expect them to fail over time.
Small electronics sales will likely move to Amazon, and people will just buy TVs and large items elsewhere (department stores, Walmart, Target, etc).
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
The clerks aren't just pushy - they actively lie to customers. Telling a lie to get money out of someone is fraud. I, for one, don't appreciate it.
And yet Fry's Electronics is still going strong, has a great selection, and is really the only big box electronics store I'll go into.
Yes, they have a small army working the floor, just like BB, but unlike BB they aren't obnoxious or constantly harassing you*.
Here's what BB should do: Look at what Fry's is doing, and DO THAT!
*I understand from previous /. stories that this behavior is mostly the fault of the management, so apologies to the conscientious BB employees.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
1. Your employees are jerks. I hate talking to them, they are not people friendly. Every time I go to BestBuy, I cannot count the number of times where an employee follows me all around the store and asks what I think about whatever it is that I'm currently looking at. I wouldn't mind that so much but then when I finally find whatever it is that I came for, no one is within a 100 mile radius of me?! WTF?!
2. My ears hurt after leaving your store. I think it might be the employee that is trying to sell dude over there a new 346" HDTV that has said HDTV set to where the volume has to rival any 747 that might also want to take off in your store. Literally I travel to BestBuy with earplugs.
3. Your prices suck. That is all there is to that.
4. I feel bad for coming to your store. I hate to keep beating on the employee gong, but when I go to the local BestBuy, employees look so soulless and that in turn makes me feel bad for coming to your store in the first place. No one is happy to be in a BestBuy. I can't put my finger on it exactly but it just seems so, loud, dull, and annoying at BestBuy.
5. I miss CompuUSA and for some reason or another, I always go into BestBuy looking for computer parts first, until I realize, oh yeah the selection is pathetic at best. Of course, people say that I could just jump on the Internet and ask them to ship whatever to the store, but if I get on the Internet, I'm not surfing over to BestBuy.
6. Yeah that whole Amazon.com and them not collecting sales tax, yeah that's a big problem for BestBuy. I have no idea how they get away with it but I've seen lot of friends head to BestBuy to look at the product, yank out phone, and order the exact same thing from Amazon. They like it because it is usually free shipping and by paying no sales tax, they usually save about $5.00 to $20.00. (Local sales tax being 10%)
I've got no idea how BestBuy can turn the tide, but it sucks to walk into a BestBuy. It's not a very happy experience.
I worked for Best Buy from 1999 to 2001. They were a pretty good company back then. The only thing they really pushed us to sell was the extended warranties... excuse me, protection plans. I really enjoyed working for the company. I stayed in touch with my former co-workers that stayed on with them for many years after I left. According to them, Best Buy's policies got worse and they became a pretty bad company to work for. They got super high pressure with everything. I actually interviewed with them again in 2009 but ended up turning down the job offer. I didn't like what the company had become.
Since people are already using brick and mortar stores as showrooms to try before buying online, maybe that's what BB needs to embrace in order to survive. Stop holding vast inventory, trade in big stores for smaller spaces that focus on social events centered around technology, and affiliate themselves with online merchants rather than fight them to their inevitable death. Imagine a place where you get to experience the future high tech house/bar/coffee shop/office. It's slicker than an Apple store, and everything you touch is a product you can buy. Snap a barcode with your phone and you're taken to a BB site where you can post your reaction/experience to facebook along with a link to buy (with BB taking commission). Couple hundred clicks/likes and you get a discount to any of their authorized affiliates.
*inb4 crappy 5 minute ideas get ripped apart :)
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
The problem isn't that they aren't commissioned, it's that you can't fire anyone. A buddy of mine was a "turn-around" guy for another retailer. He got hired by BB a couple years ago. Problem is you can't turn around the stores because you're not allowed to fire the weak and the lame from the store. If anything the number of poor sales people actually inflates because those who are good at sales eventually move on with their career. All management can do is move the chairs around on the titanic.
If you worked in the home theater department (I was in PC home/office), add high margin cabling to that.
And here is why I don't shop at Best Buy. It's not that the sales people were trying to sell me a high end cable. It is the fact that there is no HDMI cables in the entire store for less than $30. Sorry, but I will not spend $30 on any cable, for anything, ever! I don't need gold plated HDMI cables for my less than 40 inch TV.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Although I've never worked for Best Buy, I've known people that did, and you are correct - non-commissioned and trained to try to sell high margin products with the discount products, and that has been consistent for years.
But trouble has been brewing for a while - CD and DVD sales moving to streaming or download, games for PC and recently consoles moving to the same, a lack of high cost, high margin PC computers (nothing over about $800 except Apples) has to hurt (for instance, nothing like Alienware), extremely expensive computer components for PC customizers, etc. The stores that branched out into music gear probably moved in the right direction, but all of the ones I know of that did built their stores next door to a Guitar Center, which is a stick-the-pistol-in-your-mouth-and-pull-it kind of move because Guitar Center has a high customer loyalty. Best Buy still can compete - when I bought my TV, it was the same price at Best Buy as it was on New Egg, and if people need installation (which I didn't), it is a perfect place for a profit. Same with installing car stereos, starters and such, and appliances, phones, cameras (though they lack high cost, high margin), and music players still seem to be a core business, so I imagine they are very profitable.
Really, Best Buy needs to refocus, and maybe even go upscale - competing against Walmart and the Internet is a lose-lose prospect, but Alienware has ridiculous margins for Dell, and Best Buy could easily create a premium brand computer with similar specs and sell it for less by licensing from, say, ASUS. There is a reason I buy computers at Microcenter (or online, and by computer I mean laptops because I buy computers as boxes of parts) and not Best Buy - they actually sell high end graphics at reasonably close to other online retailer prices (and who doesn't want it that day?). The only premium thing I've ever seen at Best Buy was phones (and overpriced phone cases - they want $35 for something I can get online for $5 - and I'm not shitting you - 7x markup, same exact product manufacturer and component #).
The stores that branched out into music gear probably moved in the right direction, but all of the ones I know of that did built their stores next door to a Guitar Center, which is a stick-the-pistol-in-your-mouth-and-pull-it kind of move because Guitar Center has a high customer loyalty.
I have never heard anyone say they were loyal to Guitar Center.
Among all the guitar players I know (including me) they are a necessary evil. They hammered local shops and beat a lot of them out of business. Their prices are not great. Locally, they are partnered with an outfit for their repair services that does not have a good reputation.
On the plus side, their sales staff actually is relatively knowledgeable, and guitars and amps are things that you really want to try out in person first. Best Buy doesn't have either advantage.
In the music area of the local best buy, there's usually one employee and no customers, a pretty limited selection, and it's rare that any price breaks are available. I can't see myself buying anything there.