The biggest fault I see in every single big box electronics stores is the waste of idle time. Go into these stores during the slowest possible times and you'd hope to see the staff poring over AVS forum, manuals, etc. Learning about the products AND the customers. You'd think they'd be hooking up one of their better TVs to XBox live, the internet, VOIP, webcam, etc. If I worked at one of those places I'd be like a kid in a candy store doing all kinds of crazy setups. Just to show the customer, "Say hi to this 60" display of this hot Norwegian chick that is my partner in this interactive live action internet video game."
Or hook up a Viiv machine and show photo slideshows or surf Pandora Internet Radio. Find trippy visualizations that are better than the standard freebies with any media player. Have a split screen with a browser window on one half and a sporting event on the other half. Vista Aero with multiple windows showing work, email, a pvr show and live tv.
Video podcasts, ntdtv,
live webcam image of the Blessed Sacrament, some slammin' widgets, etc. Hook up a TV to a video iPod or portable hard drive with some mpegs. Have a pip image streamed live from a nearby video cam and tell him he can monitor his kid napping in the crib down the hall.
I walk in and out of these stores, my mind reeling with all the possibilities and I ask myself, would these sorry bastards actually have us believe that they're trying to sell us anything? Go when no one else is in the store and see these mopes lounging around, maybe pecking away at their myspace site on a laptop. Ok probably not but they sure don't look busy. And its a miracle if there's one set displaying true Bluray in all its glory.
I watched the BB in-house loop on a Sony XBR. A grinny employee stood in front of a bright yellow background, promising that Best Buy would hold you by the hand, taking you through the paces to get fully set up with everything you need to make the most of true HD image and content. A window opens up with an TV image, as he explains, "Here's the traditional television picture quality we're all accustomed to...." then on the other side, another window with the same image opens up, "And
this," he smoothly asserts, "is
high definition!"
I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the two images were identical. The best picture I saw was on a 50" Wega. Nothing against the Wega, but I'm sure that any of the plasmas in the store shoulda/coulda looked better.
Look guys, sorry about the rant. I'm a techno noob, practically a luddite. But I'm middle aged, been around and I know a bit about business and life. I can go into any electronics big box fully prepared to spend a few grand and these guys aren't willing to lift a finger to convince me that I should. I work nights and shop during the slowest periods of the day. The sales staff may sometimes look mildly busy. But more often than not they just lounge around and talk about their girlfriends.
Once I went in intending to spend $150-$200 on an mp3 player and waited for 10 minutes to be waited on while two idiots had a fake slap fight that turned into a real wrestling match. No joke. Two red polo shirts acting like it was down time in gym class.
CC can say whatever they want about razor thin margins or internet competition. A few years ago I bought a CRT rear projection behemoth, on the word of the sales guy that it would work as a computer display. I parked it at a friend's house (he had custom built a mighty fine computer for me) but he couldn't get the text to look right. After a few calls and visits to CC they were making all kinds of recommendations on what settings I should do on both the set and on the computer. After a week I returned it. The manager was visibly upset yet polite. The original salesman was convinced he could make it work, and launched into a mission to get 'er done.
Long story short, 2-3 hours later, nearly every employee from every department had gotten into one of the multiple huddles around the store trying to make it happen. Originally they were focused on the model I had just returned, but pretty soon it involved multiple pc's and laptops on several different TVs. Nobody could get it to work, the text was always blurry.
Finally, the one guy who had been busy with all the customers abandoned by the others who were Tom Sawyered into the CRT-TV-pc-display exercise in futility, he came over to see what all the fuss was about. He thought for a few seconds, then went to one of the public-access internet stations. Literally 3 mins later he handed me a print out of a CC FAQ about CRT TVs that explained that due to the low refresh rate of the television it won't be able to display text from a pc. I walked over to the manager who had grudgingly processed my return, handed him the paper and walked out.
That was 4-5 years ago and not much has changed. Their problems run deep. The sales reps are not supplying a service to the corporation that is worth very much. Maybe more training and higher expectations would be better. No way can they mimic Home Depot, though. Big box electronics stores don't have a hiring pool of people that start the job virtually fully trained and there's little controversy or dispute about the best grout to use or how to install vinyl flooring.
Home Depot customers are 90% knowledgable already and just need that little boost of tips and confidence to get over the hump. The crafts they deal with don't change very quickly over time, terminology, standards, practices and tools don't completely go obsolete in a few months time. There's only a small expertise gap between sales rep and customer. There's an expectation that there's one (or two) clearly objective right way to do something. Its easy to get a Home Depot customer to walk out with a warm fuzzy feeling that he made the right purchase.
Honest-to-god true story, overheard at a BB. A pair of parents were extremely reluctant to spend $400 on an iPod for their kid, but the sales guy was getting them there. Through the conversation the parents learned that the thing wouldn't work without first purchasing a computer... yeah, over there, the low to mid range ones will run at least $500-$600...
Aw geez well screw that. $200 is too high for a glorified walkman, let alone $400, but definitely not a f*ing grand! I kid you not, the comment as they walked away: "He's getting a $20 cd walkman." BB just paid the employee 30 mins of labor to basically piss off a customer.
The problems for the big box electronics stores are deep and plentiful. It would be too expensive and not likely to work, for CC to try to adopt the Home Depot formula. They may as well go the opposite way, and take their cues from a different store who's model has been successful with their electronics strategy: Wal-Mart. You don't see any employee time spent on selling electronics at Wal-Mart. None. The employees there are more helpful picking out hair gel and plastic storage bins. I once saw a pallet of large boxes stacked about 3-wide and 6-7 high, parked in the center of an aisle, not really near the electronics department. Fully complete Compaq computer system complete with 17" flat panel monitor. The specs were fair if unimpressive for the $550 price tag. You just know better than to ask a sales rep anything except maybe how much the box weighs.
So CC can be bold and try it the way I suggested or go with what has worked for their competition. The Home Depot idea is a bad plan.
