An Insiders Look at Best Buy

[Mikado463]

It'd still be nice if their staff had more knowledge.

I find that to be store dependent. In general though I cringe when I walk into one with a Magnolia, very few know how to demo an electrostatic speaker

 

[panteragstk]

I find that to be store dependent. In general though I cringe when I walk into one with a Magnolia, very few know how to demo an electrostatic speaker

My local non Magnolia BB is great.Totally honest and knew the answers to all of my questions. I honestly can't think of another time that has happened that wasn't a mom and pop HI-FI shop or an ID speaker company I visited.

I'll refer people to them all day.

 

[lovinthehd]

My local non Magnolia BB is great.Totally honest and knew the answers to all of my questions. I honestly can't think of another time that has happened that wasn't a mom and pop HI-FI shop or an ID speaker company I visited.

I'll refer people to them all day.

I went into our "local" BB (45 mile drive) a while back and talked to the audio manager for a bit about the lousy setups for demos they had, he lamented he had such crappy surroundings and very limited inventory....so at least some honesty.

 

[2channel lover]

The most interesting part of the linked article...answering the question...Who is BestBuy? Unless you are Walmart, big box retailing in general is proving to be a tough model to sustain in this new internet driven marketplace.

The range of customer BB is trying to serve is pretty wide...you can buy a $500 range or one for $8,000...a pair of speakers from $200 to $20,000...not sure how they are able to execute that.

I've grown accustomed to buying online now, but there are things I'm more willing to buy from a store, where I can touch, see, feel the item.

One thing I would suggest...not every location needs a Magnolia center...I would expand the offerings in that section and cutback on the locations that have one....if you're interested in hearing a pair $10k speakers, you don't mind driving an hour, but want a little different atmosphere to listen than what a typical Magnolia center has.

 

[panteragstk]

The most interesting part of the linked article...answering the question...Who is BestBuy? Unless you are Walmart, big box retailing in general is proving to be a tough model to sustain in this new internet driven marketplace.

The range of customer BB is trying to serve is pretty wide...you can buy a $500 range or one for $8,000...a pair of speakers from $200 to $20,000...not sure how they are able to execute that.

I've grown accustomed to buying online now, but there are things I'm more willing to buy from a store, where I can touch, see, feel the item.

One thing I would suggest...not every location needs a Magnolia center...I would expand the offerings in that section and cutback on the locations that have one....if you're interested in hearing a pair $10k speakers, you don't mind driving an hour, but want a little different atmosphere to listen than what a typical Magnolia center has.

It depends on the area as to whether or not they have Magnolia centers. Mine doesn't. You have to drive at least 25 miles to see one that does and I live in a HEAVILY metro area.

In smaller towns you'll never see a magnolia. Heck, the town I went to college in may get a magnolia and there are 300k people there.

 

[pewternhrata]

Good point.

I will say I'm somewhat surprised that BB changed their ways enough to remain relevant. Price matching anything online went a long way I'm sure.

It'd still be nice if their staff had more knowledge.

More knowledge and less attitude and I would go back. I used to like bb but anymore they are just pushing nonsense for sales. Purchased a head unit for a base model cavalier, kid told me unless they install it the headlights won't work, the proceeded to try sell me on a $150 module so the door chimes would still work and that it was illegal for them not to.
I will say that I've never had any issues with any managers, all have seemed very educated on products, just the young kids pushing nonsense pushed me away.
I get it, in business to make money, to but to tell someone that they need to spend over $500 on a cd player install is just as bad as audioquest.

 

[Bucknekked]

I wonder how Frys is faring. They have not over-saturated the market. Their sales people have not impressed me in the audio department, though I know a couple of people who know their stuff in the computer section.

I think Fry's is in a little better shape. I have always had a little more confidence in their employees, but again, more in the computer department.

Also, Fry's has the market for the hobbyist that used to belong to Radio Shack. Computer components, electronics, and project stuff too, a different ballgame, a leap ahead of BB in catering to what the customers want.

Fry's Electronics has always been a weird place to me. I think slippery is correct, its like a giant Radio Shack with current technology components. These guys will sell anything they can get on a shelf. We have two in the Phoenix metro area. The last two times I was there it was like being in an empty stadium. You can feel how enormous the place is when its dead empty of people.

When you said you have more confidence in their employees, mostly because of computer stuff, I would agree. I built my own home computers for years and years and almost exclusively from parts at Frys. They knew their stuff well enough to keep me from buying the wrong stuff most of the time.

I suppose my chief feeling about BB is that I just lost the connection somewhere with them. I never sat down and decided I wasn't shopping there anymore. It just happened over time that I hardly ever go there anymore. The store contents have changed so much from when I used to shop there it really isn't a BB to me anymore. Its just a store with the same logo and name.

I wouldn't want to be in consumer electronics/retail as a business anymore. The market forces are all with the big hitters and standards.

 

[eljr]

You obviously need to do some research.... Microsoft is a bunch of junk.

The world's business runs on Microsoft, Mac is more about playtime.

Apples and offices if you will.

(I love these brand loyal skirmishes, lol)

 

[highfigh]

The problem with Best Buy is that they lost their original focus and went nuts selling anything and everything to include cokes, candy etc.... and then hired kids that knew nothing about their products or their inventory. Too big to fast, no direction, no focus which is a perfect example of cooperate greed and a failed operating plan.

The Coke and candy is at checkout for the same reason grocery stores put soda and candy in the checkout lanes- people need to stand around and when they're stuck somewhere, their resistance to impulse buying drops. Stare at something yummy long enough and you'll want it. They make a lot of money on that stuff, too.

 

[Kev Greenhalgh]

"Apple and Office, if you will."

(I love these brand loyal skirmishes, lol)

Word, Brother!


Sorry I couldn't help myself. ^^)

 

[highfigh]

Fry's Electronics has always been a weird place to me. I think slippery is correct, its like a giant Radio Shack with current technology components. These guys will sell anything they can get on a shelf. We have two in the Phoenix metro area. The last two times I was there it was like being in an empty stadium. You can feel how enormous the place is when its dead empty of people.

When you said you have more confidence in their employees, mostly because of computer stuff, I would agree. I built my own home computers for years and years and almost exclusively from parts at Frys. They knew their stuff well enough to keep me from buying the wrong stuff most of the time.

I suppose my chief feeling about BB is that I just lost the connection somewhere with them. I never sat down and decided I wasn't shopping there anymore. It just happened over time that I hardly ever go there anymore. The store contents have changed so much from when I used to shop there it really isn't a BB to me anymore. Its just a store with the same logo and name.

I wouldn't want to be in consumer electronics/retail as a business anymore. The market forces are all with the big hitters and standards.

I buy TVs for people when I can't make more than a few dollars on it when I source it through my suppliers. That way, I don't need to do a return trip if it has a problem and as soon as that would happen, I have lost money. BB will replace it if it fails soon enough and they might be able to fix it, too. I could set up a service call with a regional service shop (I know of one that services all of SE Wisconsin) but I can't afford to lose money.

Then, my supplier for Denon didn't bother to tell me the price would be dropping on the AVR I sold in the beginning of July, I'm gonna get drilled as soon as my customer finds out he could have waited a few weeks and saved hundreds of dollars.

Sick of this crap, sick of paying more than BB when I buy "at dealer cost" from suppliers and sick of dealing with manufacturers that treat the independents like crap.

WRT Best Buy, most of my questions are answered with "I don't know", so I have to explain why I need to know.

 

[Pogre]

Reading this article reminds me of my old job as a butcher shop manager. The lack of good people seeking a job has gotten worse in the last decade or so. In the 20 years I was there, employee retention was worse than I'd ever seen right before I quit.

Nobody wants to work for their money any more. All of those kids who got participation trophies, spoiled and told that the world is nerfed and all you need is a safe space with pink walls, rainbows and videos of puppies playing in the background where you can curl into the fetal position and suck your thumb in the corner in between sobs of injustice and "he was mean to me!". There's an overwhelming sense of entitlement that exists in a lot of the younger workers nowadays and it disgusts me.

Low pay, not enough training and a "you owe me just for showing up" attitude convinced me I'll be a lot happier working for myself. Working in retail has become a nightmare. Especially if you're in any kind of management.

 

[2channel lover]

Fry's Electronics has always been a weird place to me.

I wouldn't want to be in consumer electronics/retail as a business anymore. The market forces are all with the big hitters and standards.

Frys is like an electronics catch all type store that doesn't do very much well outside of computers, DIY computers, DIY security, etc.

CE biz...I was a distribution manager in brown goods (Electronics, AV) for a short while back in the CRT days... Sony, Hitachi, and Pana were the main margin players...it was a difficult, cut throat biz...back in the northeast there were guys like Crazy Eddie in metro NY/NJ...they would advertise a loss leader at a great price, but still move a healthy number of Sonys and Panas...their sales guys were good at upselling, but their buyer was smart.

We would beat up Sanyo for their entry level screen size match to get the price down to match Crazy Eddie...The problem was our sales guys were selling too many of the promo TV and not enough of the margin TVs.

Buyer would complain our sales guys were not well trained, etc. I wanted to listen to the guys in the stores. They would say the buyer is giving us too good of a loss leader. Feature wise is hard to upsell from this TV.

That made sense to me...I went back to the buyer and said, you need to buy junk for a loss leader TV and the guys will upsell to Pana and Sony better.

He totally didn't get it...He says we don't sell junk like the other guys...once I coupled that with them hiring a VP of Marketing from Heinz pickles (no experience in consumer electronics)...I got my resume ready...this was a 133 store chain.

 

[2channel lover]

Reading this article reminds me of my old job as a butcher shop manager. The lack of good people seeking a job has gotten worse in the last decade or so. In the 20 years I was there, employee retention was worse than I'd ever seen right before I quit.

Nobody wants to work for their money any more. All of those kids who got participation trophies, spoiled and told that the world is nerfed and all you need is a safe space with pink walls, rainbows and videos of puppies playing in the background where you can curl into the fetal position and suck your thumb in the corner in between sobs of injustice and "he was mean to me!". There's an overwhelming sense of entitlement that exists in a lot of the younger workers nowadays and it disgusts me.

Low pay, not enough training and a "you owe me just for showing up" attitude convinced me I'll be a lot happier working for myself. Working in retail has become a nightmare. Especially if you're in any kind of management.

Millenials...I worked as a retail manager for a national athletic shoe/apparel company...fortunately it was 20 yrs ago. Back then it was challenging, but a lot easier to manage non-career oriented employees. The people who were going through the mgmt training program were not always great, at least there was an objective to achieve above and beyond where they were on the food chain at that time.

I will say though...which is worse? The kids? or The parenting? My two kids are young adults in the work force...I'm not sure if either of them are doing what they went to school for specifically, but they realize, fun and games are over.

 

[Bucknekked]

The consumer electronics universe certainly has changed over the course of my buying lifetime. I think I can draw a metaphor that describes the difference in attitudes for consumers. Its not perfect, but I think it attempts to show the mindset change out there with John Q and Jane Public.

We used to treat our home electronics like pets. We took great care with them, we pampered them. Some folks even favored pet names (like brand names McIntosh, Pioneer, Sansui). We took them to the vet (the repair shop) if they had an issue and sometimes just for a checkup. We loved our pets.

Today's consumer is looking for beef, or chicken, or lamb. A pork belly to put in the living room. No distinguishing marks or characteristics. A herd animal that gets no name and no love. Its just there for its assigned purpose and it only stays until the next sale on lamb or chicken happens. Consumers today want to enjoy the beef flavor, but don't care at all for the critter itself.

Pets verses herd animals for slaughter. I think that's why its so difficult to sell to today's consumer, no matter what the product. Consumers do want to buy the function. But planned obsolescence kills any attachment or need for individuality.

Ever look at the expression on friends faces when you tell them you have audio as a hobby for the first time? A lot of folks are perplexed. Audio is a thing? Why?

 

[2channel lover]

The consumer electronics universe certainly has changed over the course of my buying lifetime.

Ever look at the expression on friends faces when you tell them you have audio as a hobby for the first time? A lot of folks are perplexed. Audio is a thing? Why?

HiFi was always a niche imo...the reason you get those expressions, these days people rarely sit down and actually listen to music. They may be playing music for various reasons, but listening to music as the activity is kind of a lost past time.

Exposure...we're talking about BB and Magnolia earlier...I think that's very much needed for the HiFI AV industry. My system is not all that great, but it's better than what the average person has invested into audio.

We're in construction...my co-worker that works in the field did some concrete projects at my house as side work...at some point when he was there working prepping for the slab, the topic turned to music. I told him when he comes back to strip the forms, bring a couple of CDs that he likes...he did, and he was amazed at the sound...he kept walking up to the center channel speaker thinking it was on...the imaging, sound stage and sound quality was something he had never experienced before.

Since then he's bought or tried to buy most of my old equipment...he wants the B&Ws bad, but I''m giving those to my son...he's 25 becoming an audiohead.

It's not a cheap hobby, but I think some people make it a lot more expensive than it needs to be.

 

[yepimonfire]

Millenials...I worked as a retail manager for a national athletic shoe/apparel company...fortunately it was 20 yrs ago. Back then it was challenging, but a lot easier to manage non-career oriented employees. The people who were going through the mgmt training program were not always great, at least there was an objective to achieve above and beyond where they were on the food chain at that time.

I will say though...which is worse? The kids? or The parenting? My two kids are young adults in the work force...I'm not sure if either of them are doing what they went to school for specifically, but they realize, fun and games are over.

As a millennial who has spent a lot of time working in retail, its 100% corporate structure of these places. No training, skeleton crews, and stupid top heavy "productivity" systems that are a waste of time and produce no results at the store level. Walmart was doing poorly for awhile, and they eventually realized they had to invest in better training, customer service, and pay. Most of these places can't hire decent people because they offer 20 or less hours a week, low pay, and will work you to death, expecting you to do the job of what should be done by three or four people. There is no time dedicated to actually working with customers and receiving training to be knowledgeable on the product. Employers in big chain retail have made it an environment where it's last resort job that people take as a stop gap, so people don't invest time in it and turnover is extreme. How many times have you been in a store and you can't even find an associate to help you? There might be a total of two people on the floor in a huge store.

It's simple economics. If you want to attract and retain the best workers, you have to make it worth their time to apply and stick around.

The brick and mortar retailers that are thriving are doing things differently. The ones that aren't did it to themselves.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

 

[yepimonfire]

The consumer electronics universe certainly has changed over the course of my buying lifetime. I think I can draw a metaphor that describes the difference in attitudes for consumers. Its not perfect, but I think it attempts to show the mindset change out there with John Q and Jane Public.

We used to treat our home electronics like pets. We took great care with them, we pampered them. Some folks even favored pet names (like brand names McIntosh, Pioneer, Sansui). We took them to the vet (the repair shop) if they had an issue and sometimes just for a checkup. We loved our pets.

Today's consumer is looking for beef, or chicken, or lamb. A pork belly to put in the living room. No distinguishing marks or characteristics. A herd animal that gets no name and no love. Its just there for its assigned purpose and it only stays until the next sale on lamb or chicken happens. Consumers today want to enjoy the beef flavor, but don't care at all for the critter itself.

Pets verses herd animals for slaughter. I think that's why its so difficult to sell to today's consumer, no matter what the product. Consumers do want to buy the function. But planned obsolescence kills any attachment or need for individuality.

Ever look at the expression on friends faces when you tell them you have audio as a hobby for the first time? A lot of folks are perplexed. Audio is a thing? Why?

Nowadays you can't even repair most of it. Gone are the days of simple electronics with parts that can be changed out if something goes bad.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

 

[Bucknekked]

Nowadays you can't even repair most of it. Gone are the days of simple electronics with parts that can be changed out if something goes bad.

Sent from my 5065N using Tapatalk

agree. I remember my grandfather repairing all manner of home appliances that "were made to last". If something breaks nowadays, it just get replaced. That keeps us from growing attached to our gadgets.

 

[panteragstk]

agree. I remember my grandfather repairing all manner of home appliances that "were made to last". If something breaks nowadays, it just get replaced. That keeps us from growing attached to our gadgets.

I really think that depends on the brand. I have my first receiver I got when I was 16 and it still works. In fact, I plan to use if for the two atmos speakers in my theater that my x4300h isn't able to power because 11 channels in one box is silly, but I buy good brands and have had good luck doing so. My stuff seems to last a very long time even with the punishment I dole out.