Many of you have obviously never worked in retail before... and it shows.
Here is what you WANT: to be able to go to a local store, view and play with the products, have an unlimited selection of quality to choose from, have knowledgeable sales people that know everything about the product and can help guide you, have a pleasant returns/exchange experience, and pricing that rivals or beats online vendors that do not have any of these costs.
Are you insane?
In order to have more knowledgeable staff, you have to pay employees more. Margins in electronics is very slim and the reason Amazon and Newegg is successful at their pricing is low overhead and they make it up in volume. If you don't have it coming in, you can't have it going out in employees' pay. Therefore, you get young adults with little experience/knowledge and on-the-fly training.
In recent years Best Buy has: 1. eliminated the 15% restocking fee, 2. given all products a 30-day return policy, and 3. close unprofitable stores in weak markets. They also continue to match BestBuy.com pricing, which every day changes pricing to compete with online vendors on popular products (note: not ALL products).
The last point I will make is this. Many of you on this site are tech savvy. However, you are a small % of people out there. You cannot argue that charging $69.99 for having a certified technician come to your home and set up a wireless network securely, connect up to 4 devices, and provide 6-months of ongoing phone or onsite support after the fact is NOT GOOD VALUE. Again, you are INSANE.
They charge $129.99 for virus removal. I do this for a living, and a typical system takes 8-10 hours for a complete thorough cleaning without reinstalling the OS. That's $12-$15 per hour for them to do it, that is a quarter of what I make. How is that not good value?
$29 for a software install, which includes all updates. If you need it, this is fair.
I'm a certified technician and network professional and I've bought their Black Tie protection on stuff. Why? Because the free battery I got for my laptop cost more than the plan and was guaranteed (I read the fine print, too, it's built into the plan). And if something does happen to it, even though I can do the labor I still have to buy parts and some of these manufacturers charge a whopper for one single part. So, again, how is this not value?
I think Best Buy does a lot right, but they are battling a lot of challenges on all fronts. Their Mobile unit is amazing and provides a ton of value. Their Magnolia dept. is setup nicely and has very high quality equipment. And I've even bought a few appliances there as well. Their no-interest programs are running all the time and I don't think I've ever paid any interest on any purchase I've made there in the last 5 years.
But they have a TON of work to do, both in customer service, training, and generating enough revenue to staff the floor properly and with well-trained individuals. They also have to be more competitive on accessory pricing with online vendors and make it easier to shop. With many manufacturers adopting a Unified Pricing Model, I think prices will eventually be identical between online and in-store, and then you'll be able to shop wherever you see fit. For this, Best Buy could be suited well if they can keep pumping $ into improving Geek Squad and Mobile.
I hope they stick around... I loved Circuit City, it was my favorite store and I miss them, especially when they used to be commission based. Thought they went downhill after they got rid of commission and let go all their best people.
Facebook
Twitter