Best Buy Adopts Circuit City Success Plan

[Likecoiledsteel]

They never seem to learn.
Steel

 

[jliedeka]

Just like business ethics, business intelligence is an oxymoron.

 

[bigred7078]

I hate to say it, but you guys don't quite have it correct. Yes, best buy is changing some things, but they are not just lowering pay on their best employees. They are changing their business model. Right now you have a manager for every department, a supervisor or two, then you have your regular staff. They are just trying to trim some of the fat and not have so many managers. Yes, some people will take a pay cut, but soon there will be more people on the sales floor actually helping people. I have sold part time in home theater for four years now and my job is not in danger. I know that most of you here know much more about audio and video than the average big box salesperson, but you have to understand that you are a VERY small minority. 95% of all customers I talk to don't know their butt from a hole in the ground when it comes to audio and video, and most don't want to pay much for it either. I am not claiming Best Buy to be perfect, we all know it is not, but where else can you go to see and touch the product and have an opportunity to ask questions. If there is a national chain where you can get home theater, appliances, computers and electronics please let me know because I cant think of any other.

actually they are only consolidating two managers positions, and changing a few others titles. The majority of the positions being taken away are supervisor positions for the smaller stores. Small stores will only have 2 salesfloor supervisors and larger ones will have 4. Also there will no longer be ANY senior roles on the salesfloor.

 

[bandphan]

 

[mudrummer99]

actually they are only consolidating two managers positions, and changing a few others titles. The majority of the positions being taken away are supervisor positions for the smaller stores. Small stores will only have 2 salesfloor supervisors and larger ones will have 4. Also there will no longer be ANY senior roles on the salesfloor.

Small stores? My store is NOT small and we are going to 2 sup setup (used to be called D band) Only about 10% of the stores in the company are larger than mine. This effects all stores, but the largest ones the least.

Now, on to the original topic. MHT has been just about a break even prospect at best for BB. Basically they are restructuring that whole end for a more efficient set up. MHT will probably lose some great sales people due to this, but you have to look at a big picture, MHT accounts for a very small portion of the overall BB business, so small in fact that if it disappeared, no one would really notice.

I also saw someone comment about Walmart having better prices, you fall for the advertising as well. Across the board, BB has better pricing on about 80% of the products we carry in common, those other 20% are what is used to get you in the door and make you think that Walmart's pricing is better. This is not unique to electronics, as just about any who has done any reading about Walmart business practices can tell you. Groceries, clothing, health care, auto, all about the same situation, they get you in the door with the cheap crap and make you think you are getting a great deal on everything, where you can actually pay upwards of 10% above a competitor for most of your items.

BB is changing a lot of stuff. I've worked for them for a while. I have confidence that they do know what they are doing. I'm not 100% in agreement with this move, but it seems that it is the direction that the place needs to go. The worst thing that could happen is that it fails miserably and they undo what they did like what happened about 7 years ago with a change called "Trumpet" Time will tell and we'll see how all this works out. Thanks for reading.

Mike

 

[dougg]

Don't really care!

Most here already have the Info. for a Purchase, just find best Price. Shady Practice of the Salesperson to the Uninformed is what sets a good Store apart from Best Buy.
H.H. Gregg seems to give a better Price in My Area. I got a Yamaha RX V665 for 437.00 at H.H. Gregg two Weeks Ago

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/396/RipOff0396552.htm

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/252096_bestbuy15.html

 

[bigred7078]

Small stores? My store is NOT small and we are going to 2 sup setup (used to be called D band) Only about 10% of the stores in the company are larger than mine. This effects all stores, but the largest ones the least.


Mike

Thats what the corporate letter said, doesnt mean its set in stone (ex. your store).

 

[riversfan]

You really should be a little more educated on what's actually happening before writing an article like. Also, don't be to quick to agree with everything this article is saying. There is not one person at Best Buy that is losing their job. The company is extremely successful and still opening new stores, not closing them. One thing that nobody seems to be talking about is the fact that for anyone who's position changes, they will be compensated with current pay for the next 10 months. It is in no way what Circuit City did and you will see Best Buy do nothing but grow.

 

[Exterous]

You really should be a little more educated on what's actually happening before writing an article like. Also, don't be to quick to agree with everything this article is saying. There is not one person at Best Buy that is losing their job. The company is extremely successful and still opening new stores, not closing them. One thing that nobody seems to be talking about is the fact that for anyone who's position changes, they will be compensated with current pay for the next 10 months. It is in no way what Circuit City did and you will see Best Buy do nothing but grow.

Well, Circuit City was still opening new stores 12 months before bankruptcy so...

I am not saying that BB will go the route of CC but it would appear that they stepped on the slippery slope. I used to work at circuit for a number of years and saw a similar thing happen. When I started as a regular sales employee the starting wage was $10.00. That was over 5 years ago. When I left slightly before their last days it was $7.50. With the exception of the 3500 employees cut in the sweeping layoffs (and of course the final layoffs) no one ever lost their job due to a lowering of the wage. What we saw instead was a steady decline in the quality and knowledge of employees. Back when it was a $10.00 an hour job we could all change out the ram, upgrade the hard drive etc but by the time it was down to $7.50 few employees even knew where the Ram was. We also had more problems with attitude stealing and call ins. $7.50 an hour does not attract the same type of talent that $10 an hour does.

Now I am talking about the entry sales position but CC did the same across pretty much all positions. They did it to supervisors and to my firedog techs later on. Sure there were some exceptions but by and large this was the case

I am not saying this will happen to BB, all I am saying is that if the company is not careful the seductive call of lower employee overhead will obscure the growing dissatisfaction and issues with the employees that the lower wages attract until too late

 

[DD66000]

It more than just the lack of knowledge of store employees that cost CC. Its having to compete with the internet, ID only companies and traditional B&M brands going toward ID.

Just look at what is probably the largest CE brand, Harman International. Harman has its own internet factory store, its ebay store, that sells Infinity, JBL, Harman/Kardon speakers, receivers, amps etc.
At the same time, the only JBL series BB sold was the lowest priced, bottom of the barrel lines and if you wanted the better, more expensive series you had to look elsewhere. Infinty was never sold there, as best as I can remember.

Just no way BB or CC can compete with the internet pricing. And although you won't get any real customer service via the internet, pretty much didn't get any at BB or CC, from the ones I ever went into, much less anyone who knew what they were talking about.

Of coarse, if you want the other higher end HI brands, you still have to go to a quality B&M store, or Synthesis dealers, be they far and few between.

And although we all love the net, that's what has killed the B&M retail as far as CE.

 

[mudrummer99]

For the most part, and by that I mean everyone except Magnolia employees and a few supervisor positions, pay scales will not change. They are not lowering hiring wages nor regular associate wages. Those whose pay is changing will not see any effect of this until next year. One of the biggest differences between BB and CC is the training programs set in place. While many of you would argue that BB doesn't train their employees well, they are, in general, far better trained than most CC employees. CC relied on the employees already having the knowledge while BB will take anyone and train them. The downside to this is it takes a long time to learn to the level that is necessary for Magnolia products and the like. Add that to a reasonably high turnover rate, mainly due to the average age of the employees (college mostly) and that is why you get spotty service from person to person let alone store to store.

The idea behind this reorg is for 1 thing, to try to get more customer facing labor for the stores. Our store estimates this will create about 10-12 new sales floor positions. This is where customer service is noticed the most. The more salesmen you have to help people, the better the service will be since you don't have to rush through a sale to get to the next person. This doesn't take into account individual people and their skills, but simply put, not everyone is made to sell or even help people with problems or questions.

Like is said earlier, I'm not 100% confident in this move, but I think it will work out fine. Something BB has been very good at, and why they are still being profitable as a company in a crappy economy is because when something fails, they aren't too proud to say "well that didn't work, let's move on and try something else". That's why I enjoy working for them, the worst thing that can happen when I do something that doesn't work (but isn't illegal) is they say "well, let's not do that again".

Mike

 

[Birdman84]

I think that people are better off at Fry's or buying ID anyway. The store I hang out in now is Lowe's not Best Buy. There is nothing in Best Buy to interest me. The world is changing and wasted resources will be shifted to something else if we are wise.

I have to agree if you just want to look around and talk with people that know less then a 10 year old Best buy is a great place. OK a little harsh but you all know what I mean. It is hard to beat a ID store that has bee in the same spot for 20+ years the owners are the sales people and while the know they have to compete some with the big stores YOU also know that by buying from them you are not only getting great service from people that will be there in another 20 years. Now I don,t always but from my local store ,if is is only a matter of 50-100 $ I will but from them and they have always worked with me on the price. Never a problem with service ,even a loner on some stuff. The big stores seem to cycle on a 10-15 year basis so where will best buy be in another 10 years.

 

[Exterous]

While many of you would argue that BB doesn't train their employees well, they are, in general, far better trained than most CC employees. CC relied on the employees already having the knowledge while BB will take anyone and train them.

I can only speak for the stores in the area where I worked and I feel compelled to disagree - kinda. I would argue that several years ago our training program was better than BB's. Again I can only base that off of the region in which I worked and seeing the employees that we hired away from BB.

That being said, over the next several years CC toned down its training and, towards the end, they wanted to make the sales process as mechanical as possible so they could provide as little training as possible (and belive me the training was bad by then). CC realized its mistake eventually but it was too late.

Hopefully BB can learn from CC's mistakes and strike a balance between lower overhead and turning into a Walmart style store

 

[mudrummer99]

I do agree, CC used to have great training. I had a couple friends that worked there during the commission years and were trained very thoroughly. CC saw this as a waste of money (an assumption, but IMO a valid one) and started spending that money elsewhere, or not at all. BB seems, from my position as a supervisor, to be stepping up the amount of training and the knowledge level required of employees after X amount of time. I hope that is truly where they are headed since I really do enjoy my job and hope that BB doesn't go the way of CC, but time will tell what is really happening I guess.

Mike

 

[wiyosaya]

If there is a trend here, this might mean that Best Buy is in trouble, too. Perhaps it will only be a few more years before they, too, declare bankruptcy?

IMHO, I have no overwhelming reason to shop there. Their prices on many things are very high compared to some places on the internet.

And for "big ticket" AV items, I shop at one of the local AV dealers because they have people who actually know what they are talking about and don't have a line of sales bull. Not to mention, that same shop will, when they can, match the prices at Best Buy.

Other previous "chain" stores like Best Buy (think YES) have failed. I see no reason that Best Buy would prove any different. OTOH, the local store that I shop at for all things AV has been in business for over 100 years. IMHO, that says something.

 

[MRI Guy]

BB lost me as a customer years ago...

I used to be a BB groupie that probably spent 10 hrs/week at whatever BB store I was near until I caught the store in a flagrant bait-an-switch sale on a hot new video card. When I pointed this out to the Store Manager at the Memphis location he blew me off in the rudest manner possible. When I followed up on reporting this managers behavior and the offending sale to the corporate offices, I was treated like dirt and would be more descriptive here but it was over 5 years ago and I put the whole situation out of my mind as well as BB as a source for my AV purchases. I've since have made probably 20k in purchases that probably 90% or more would have gone to BB but they lost me as a customer forever. Prior to this episode, I had contacted the corporate offices 3 or 4 times previously with nothing but praise for their CS.

 

[sndadvice]

Sound Advice/Tweeter

I was a Sound Advice employee for it's last 6 years. In the last 2 years before the closings the sales floor was trimmed down, not because of layoffs, but due to the fact that the economy was getting worse and the newer employees weren't making enough money so they started leaving. On the same token the more experienced employees stayed mainly due to the fact that they loved High End Equipment. Sound Advice went out of bussiness in Florida due to the fact that Tweeter Went out. Most people outside the bussiness don't realize that Sound Advice and Showcase(Arizona) were still generating profits and had a steady loyal customer base. They didn't advertise, but could match any competitors price. I made a lot of money by earning the customers trust and selling them what they needed. It's sad that consumers don't realize that service is more important than prices, but for those who don't believe me there's always an HH Gregg or Pc Richard or Fry's that advertise these lower prices with no model numbers in the Ad. What was C.C.'s mistake? Trying to be Best Buy. And it's sad to say but Sound Advice's mistake was trying to focus on customer service rather than targeting the idiotic internet customer that focuses on price.

 

[joshinmo]

I'll miss a good BM store but there haven't been any that I've seen in quite a while. The two BB's around never have anyone that knows anything, if I go in there to buy something it's after I do my research and know exactly what I want. Now most of the time I buy online though. I think my next TV is going to come from Amazon.

just so you know i would at a call center and know alot about products from all over and just so you know... witch im shour you dont.. most of the things that come from Amazon. ( tv's, speaks, home theaters exc.) come from fliped, recked, trucks that there is no garintie that ir will even work ... so good luck with that

 

[bandphan]

just so you know i would at a call center and know alot about products from all over and just so you know... witch im shour you dont.. most of the things that come from Amazon. ( tv's, speaks, home theaters exc.) come from fliped, recked, trucks that there is no garintie that ir will even work ... so good luck with that

LMAO have another drink

 

[joshinmo]

and yes the call center i work at Is for bestbuy.com and if you ask me it just the time that is makeing thing go the way they are i have been working here for almost a year not and i do not see it ending anytime soon, i make way mor the min. wage $11+ and we are now over time from 8-8 as much as we was, yes that is time 1/2 and there is a $5ph spif (exter pay), so i thank you all need to just chill. and as far as the installation goes YES we do have it, on prity much ANYTHING you can thank of rfom appliances, to tvs, car amps, decks, speakes, car vedio, home theaters, network home set up, anything almost, so i thank you need to do more reshearch on what we offer befor you open your mouth