Unfortunately, I have to also say "try operating an iPhone with gloves on"
While the Windows mobile device is cumbersome (even without gloves on... you pretty much NEED a stylus) the iPhone won't even respond to gloves. I'm not sure how the touchscreen works but being that it's not pressure based it pretty much requires a living finger to work.
My guess (and I thought it was commonly believed) that the reason Square did that was because they were already making their own remake for the DS and they didn't want sales cannibalized.
Whether that's the real reason or not, I'd say that's a bad example of properties that are just being sat on, since well... it wasn't.
If they're halfway competent they'll just come back with "all break a lot, your model included" as most people won't say "oh if computers break I guess I don't want one".
As a Best Buy employee I'll say that was not a company wide initiative. It's more likely by "upper management" they meant the GM of their store or at best District staff.
While I agree that it's technically possible, I'd say not realistically. The wait staff you cite works on a commission where you're guaranteed to buy so it's really just a matter of how much you enjoy them for what they make. In commission big box retail it's the opposite. There's a reason car salesman are known for being extremely aggressive.
Congratulations, you're a dick. Most people reading the fine print are doing that because they don't know the details on what they're buying. I know that salespeople are mindless drones but SOMETIMES they're actually informed and up to date on the products they sell and SOMETIMES they can actually answer the question you're trying to find the answer to in the fine print.
Seriously, I know the Slashdot crowd may know the difference between SATA, DDR2, and why getting a hard drive will not make your computer faster but you're in a store catering to the unwashed masses. Some people are reading the fine print intently to see if the hard drive is Windows XP compatible (well it says in big letters Vista compatible but does it work with XP?!?), some people are reading to see if the hard drive is compatible with a Dell!
In the end there's much more money to be had from the unwashed masses, and thus it's better to make sure there's a salesperson helping every customer (to avoid a lost sale due to confusion or a return due to buying the wrong product) than to leave every tech that for some reason isn't using Newegg alone.
I absolutely 100% agree. I was computer sales back when CompUSA closed down and I was amazed at how many times I found myself saying "sorry we don't carry X, and I would normally have suggested Comp across the street, but now... there's really no one in town with that"
The problem is that honestly, Best Buy caters to the mainstream. The kind of people that purchase CPUs and motherboards are also the kind of people that would use Newegg whether we carried them or not. Best Buy's prices will never beat Newegg's except on certain sale items. Sure there is the convenience factor but it's not very common for someone to have the thought "well, I think I'll go pick up a new CPU today..."
That being said, I don't know what the hell they were thinking the music store thing. I know it's only a test as right now in my district there's only 1 store doing it. Biggest thing I've heard is employees being excited about getting instruments on discount.
I must say that at least in my experience, Best Buy is not the place to look for a deal. To many a salesperson as soon as someone says "well I could get this cheaper somewhere else" the typical response is "then why didn't you get it cheaper there?" You obviously came to Best Buy for a reason which means either your deal doesn't exist or you know the deal is on an inferior product so why should we match that price? If, on the off chance you're one of the few people with a loyalty to the yellow tag then you likely wouldn't drop a line like that anyway.
To be fair, we have service plans on stupidly cheap items as well, but most of the time the cashier won't bother asking you (as we think it's as ridiculous as everyone else)
I've been there two and a half years, so no, I can't speak to how the company once was but I can say that the company I work for today is nothing like the one you describe. I can see that obviously things will be different from location to location on both the employee end of things and the customer end of things but if my store is anywhere near the average, I'd say that overall Best Buy is a pretty sweet place to work for your average college student that would like a discount on electronics.
Perhaps that's why I get so frustrated when I see articles/comments about Best Buy trying to screw you whenever possible. I genuinely feel like, at my location at least, we're as helpful/understanding as possible from the salesperson level all the way up to our General Manager.
I'm not sure on the details (if it's the 3rd or 4th offense or whatever) but that's exactly how it works.
Also, if you're in general a decently likable human being that does his job most of the time you're likely not going to ever be written up for a consistent "bad" behavior, such as not offering the service plan. Again, it's really not a bad place to work for the average college student.
It's a lose-lose that no one who has never worked retail will understand. If a customer is greeted, they may complain. If they're not greeted, they may complain. It happens both ways and my money is that the execs have determined the chance of annoyance by having every customer contacted whenever possible is lower than the opposite.
As far as being greeted once in every department, what do you expect? "Oh, I see that Mike in computers is talking to that guy so if he comes over here I better make sure to leave him alone as to not double-greet him"
Seriously, what do people want? If the sales associates just hang out and wait for you to approach them, people will bitch that they're lazy and reluctant to help. If they come ask if you need help people complain that they're nagging you even if each person only asks you once. These are salesmen, not mind readers. There's no way to discern someone that's browsing from someone that needs help without asking.
Okay, so I know I'm sticking my neck out here by admitting this on/., but I work at Best Buy. I can also say that no one in a Best Buy store below a supervisor position has any fear of losing their job any time soon unless their store is SEVERELY under performing. Maybe it's not the whole company, but I'll tell you at my store if a supervisor wants to fire someone and goes to a manager (since a sup can't fire an employee) the first thing the manager will ask is what the sup has enacted to correct the behavioral issue with the employee. We're not graded on magazine subscriptions and haven't been for a year+ and even then it was only cashiers that ever were (not salespeople) and I doubt anyone actually got fired for it. As far as selling the service plans, we have periodic corporate memos going to all employees that care to read them saying that the service plan is not for everyone and that our job is to let the customer know they have the option, not that they have to have it. Sure management would like you to try to sell it and show the value in the plan, but no one CAN get fired for not selling a service plan, let alone actually does.
Say what you will about the customer experience but don't claim the employee experience is something it's not.
It's not exactly obscure... the first time you go to play a song that's not been authorized on your computer it pops a prompt asking you if you want to authorize that computer.
But hey, who needs accuracy on the internet when you've got flamebait, right?
I'm pretty sure it was the other way around. Came out on PC first and PS2 about 6 months down the line (as I recall when the PS2 launch happened everyone was talking about the amazing influx of newbies without keyboards). That being said, I don't know if I'd consider it a port or if it was developed simultaneously.
I'm not sure on the details, but I know the Asus U6S was sold with a 160gb hybrid hard drive that was supposedly half SSD and half magnetic platter. I can't find any details confirming or denying if that's what they meant or not.
This is essentially what's been proposed by NVidia and ATI as Hybrid SLI and I believe Hybrid Crossfire. You essentially have an integrated Geforce 6150 (or other power-efficient chipset graphics) and a then a discrete 8800 (or other high end watt sucker). When you launch a game, the video switches over to the 8800 giving you high performance, but then when you quit and go back to your desktop the 8800 is powered off and the 6150 takes over.
Just so you know, there's an option in Azureus to not load the whole Vuze gui. I was ecstatic when I found this as I had been sticking with Azureus 2 just to avoid Vuze.
I think a good compromise for this would be if they limited installs within a given period of time. Like three within a month. That would massively curb a cd key being shared online in a large pirate ring but would effect very few customers.
He never implied they did. He was saying though that NVidia doesn't care about everyday productivity users, they care about gamers since gamers are the ones spending $500 for the top video cards. Since games are typically Windows exclusive (aside from less-than-perfect emulation) gamers tend to be Windows users. Thus, Linux is not their market and they don't care.
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Did you even read the parent's post? He pretty much said the exact same thing you just said.
Unfortunately, I have to also say "try operating an iPhone with gloves on"
While the Windows mobile device is cumbersome (even without gloves on... you pretty much NEED a stylus) the iPhone won't even respond to gloves. I'm not sure how the touchscreen works but being that it's not pressure based it pretty much requires a living finger to work.
That's why my car flashes the hazards when I lock it. Visual confirmation without annoying everyone around.
My guess (and I thought it was commonly believed) that the reason Square did that was because they were already making their own remake for the DS and they didn't want sales cannibalized.
Whether that's the real reason or not, I'd say that's a bad example of properties that are just being sat on, since well... it wasn't.
If they're halfway competent they'll just come back with "all break a lot, your model included" as most people won't say "oh if computers break I guess I don't want one".
As a Best Buy employee I'll say that was not a company wide initiative. It's more likely by "upper management" they meant the GM of their store or at best District staff.
While I agree that it's technically possible, I'd say not realistically. The wait staff you cite works on a commission where you're guaranteed to buy so it's really just a matter of how much you enjoy them for what they make. In commission big box retail it's the opposite. There's a reason car salesman are known for being extremely aggressive.
Congratulations, you're a dick. Most people reading the fine print are doing that because they don't know the details on what they're buying. I know that salespeople are mindless drones but SOMETIMES they're actually informed and up to date on the products they sell and SOMETIMES they can actually answer the question you're trying to find the answer to in the fine print.
Seriously, I know the Slashdot crowd may know the difference between SATA, DDR2, and why getting a hard drive will not make your computer faster but you're in a store catering to the unwashed masses. Some people are reading the fine print intently to see if the hard drive is Windows XP compatible (well it says in big letters Vista compatible but does it work with XP?!?), some people are reading to see if the hard drive is compatible with a Dell!
In the end there's much more money to be had from the unwashed masses, and thus it's better to make sure there's a salesperson helping every customer (to avoid a lost sale due to confusion or a return due to buying the wrong product) than to leave every tech that for some reason isn't using Newegg alone.
I absolutely 100% agree. I was computer sales back when CompUSA closed down and I was amazed at how many times I found myself saying "sorry we don't carry X, and I would normally have suggested Comp across the street, but now... there's really no one in town with that"
The problem is that honestly, Best Buy caters to the mainstream. The kind of people that purchase CPUs and motherboards are also the kind of people that would use Newegg whether we carried them or not. Best Buy's prices will never beat Newegg's except on certain sale items. Sure there is the convenience factor but it's not very common for someone to have the thought "well, I think I'll go pick up a new CPU today..."
That being said, I don't know what the hell they were thinking the music store thing. I know it's only a test as right now in my district there's only 1 store doing it. Biggest thing I've heard is employees being excited about getting instruments on discount.
I must say that at least in my experience, Best Buy is not the place to look for a deal. To many a salesperson as soon as someone says "well I could get this cheaper somewhere else" the typical response is "then why didn't you get it cheaper there?" You obviously came to Best Buy for a reason which means either your deal doesn't exist or you know the deal is on an inferior product so why should we match that price? If, on the off chance you're one of the few people with a loyalty to the yellow tag then you likely wouldn't drop a line like that anyway.
To be fair, we have service plans on stupidly cheap items as well, but most of the time the cashier won't bother asking you (as we think it's as ridiculous as everyone else)
I've been there two and a half years, so no, I can't speak to how the company once was but I can say that the company I work for today is nothing like the one you describe. I can see that obviously things will be different from location to location on both the employee end of things and the customer end of things but if my store is anywhere near the average, I'd say that overall Best Buy is a pretty sweet place to work for your average college student that would like a discount on electronics.
Perhaps that's why I get so frustrated when I see articles/comments about Best Buy trying to screw you whenever possible. I genuinely feel like, at my location at least, we're as helpful/understanding as possible from the salesperson level all the way up to our General Manager.
I'm not sure on the details (if it's the 3rd or 4th offense or whatever) but that's exactly how it works.
Also, if you're in general a decently likable human being that does his job most of the time you're likely not going to ever be written up for a consistent "bad" behavior, such as not offering the service plan. Again, it's really not a bad place to work for the average college student.
It's a lose-lose that no one who has never worked retail will understand. If a customer is greeted, they may complain. If they're not greeted, they may complain. It happens both ways and my money is that the execs have determined the chance of annoyance by having every customer contacted whenever possible is lower than the opposite.
As far as being greeted once in every department, what do you expect? "Oh, I see that Mike in computers is talking to that guy so if he comes over here I better make sure to leave him alone as to not double-greet him"
Seriously, what do people want? If the sales associates just hang out and wait for you to approach them, people will bitch that they're lazy and reluctant to help. If they come ask if you need help people complain that they're nagging you even if each person only asks you once. These are salesmen, not mind readers. There's no way to discern someone that's browsing from someone that needs help without asking.
Okay, so I know I'm sticking my neck out here by admitting this on /., but I work at Best Buy. I can also say that no one in a Best Buy store below a supervisor position has any fear of losing their job any time soon unless their store is SEVERELY under performing. Maybe it's not the whole company, but I'll tell you at my store if a supervisor wants to fire someone and goes to a manager (since a sup can't fire an employee) the first thing the manager will ask is what the sup has enacted to correct the behavioral issue with the employee. We're not graded on magazine subscriptions and haven't been for a year+ and even then it was only cashiers that ever were (not salespeople) and I doubt anyone actually got fired for it. As far as selling the service plans, we have periodic corporate memos going to all employees that care to read them saying that the service plan is not for everyone and that our job is to let the customer know they have the option, not that they have to have it. Sure management would like you to try to sell it and show the value in the plan, but no one CAN get fired for not selling a service plan, let alone actually does.
Say what you will about the customer experience but don't claim the employee experience is something it's not.
You can get a desktop with 8gb of RAM off the shelf at Best Buy... Hardly difficult to find.
It's not exactly obscure... the first time you go to play a song that's not been authorized on your computer it pops a prompt asking you if you want to authorize that computer.
But hey, who needs accuracy on the internet when you've got flamebait, right?
If only I had mod points.
I'm so sick of the "well hardware is faster now so should be faster than on the same hardware!"
I've heard of two of the four, while they're not exactly mainstream and played on the radio, they're not super indie either.
I'm pretty sure it was the other way around. Came out on PC first and PS2 about 6 months down the line (as I recall when the PS2 launch happened everyone was talking about the amazing influx of newbies without keyboards). That being said, I don't know if I'd consider it a port or if it was developed simultaneously.
Hahaha, being a Colorado Springs resident myself, I find this quite amusing. Thanks for the laugh.
I'm not sure on the details, but I know the Asus U6S was sold with a 160gb hybrid hard drive that was supposedly half SSD and half magnetic platter. I can't find any details confirming or denying if that's what they meant or not.
This is essentially what's been proposed by NVidia and ATI as Hybrid SLI and I believe Hybrid Crossfire. You essentially have an integrated Geforce 6150 (or other power-efficient chipset graphics) and a then a discrete 8800 (or other high end watt sucker). When you launch a game, the video switches over to the 8800 giving you high performance, but then when you quit and go back to your desktop the 8800 is powered off and the 6150 takes over.
Just so you know, there's an option in Azureus to not load the whole Vuze gui. I was ecstatic when I found this as I had been sticking with Azureus 2 just to avoid Vuze.
I think a good compromise for this would be if they limited installs within a given period of time. Like three within a month. That would massively curb a cd key being shared online in a large pirate ring but would effect very few customers.
He never implied they did. He was saying though that NVidia doesn't care about everyday productivity users, they care about gamers since gamers are the ones spending $500 for the top video cards. Since games are typically Windows exclusive (aside from less-than-perfect emulation) gamers tend to be Windows users. Thus, Linux is not their market and they don't care.