Best Buy purchases its products from a ton of manufacturers and developers, and only has a few brands and products that it really makes money on (Dynex, Insignia, Rocketfish, and obviously Geek Squad) because those are all “in-house” products made and serviced by Best Buy. So, if Best Buy began selling those four brands and only those four brands, they could afford paying their employees more and give customers a more “Apple” experience, but until then, your claim is totally invalid.

As stated above, I went to BB with $3k cash in pocket, and tried my darndest to spend it, to literally hand it over to BB.  But their employees (I counted at least 6 blue shirts in the TV area) could not be bothered to tear themselves from their cell phones.

Here, Best Buy was to blame, no one else.

As stated above, I went to BB with $3k cash in pocket, and tried my darndest to spend it, to literally hand it over to BB.  But their employees (I counted at least 6 blue shirts in the TV area) could not be bothered to tear themselves from their cell phones.

Here, Best Buy was to blame, no one else.

You want them to compete? Then you are asking for less jobs in the united states and you are asking for a company that will just sell you a box with no display, just like new egg. 

The only way a store like best buy would work with the price you think you should pay is to mimic what new egg does…and that is just shipping a box. 

I cant believe how fucking ignorant people like you are in the world.  

You are the person abusing the system, you should not get shit for service.  

I was in high end audio video sales for 15 years and eager as hell to help people in the early days. Not for profit, I am not a greedy person by any stretch of the imagination. I would qualify the customer by asking questions to determine what would be the best item based on their needs and budget. Problem is most people just want to stand there and play 20 questions with no intent of ever buying from you. If the industry is failing it is because people hold ZERO value in the information they get from a clerk or a consultant. Everyone thinks information is free. 

I was taken advantage of by more customers abusing my knowledge and buying else where cause they could save .05% then I had honest people. 

As far as why CD’s are gone…lol it is amazing that Mr Berne cant answer this question himself. 
His coveted “Apple” and steve jobs are the reason CD’s dont exist and why music overall is in the shitty state it is. MP’3s were nothing till the ipod came out. When the ipod hit the market with itunes, the nails hammered into the CD coffin overnight.

 The only way brick and mortar stores will survive against the internet is if they just sell boxes with no support (to match prices and lower overhead by eliminating jobs), charge for questions and are more consultants then salesmen and dont deal with the overhead of goods. Or someone comes out with some amazing way to teach all you morons out there that price is not the bottom line.

I was told once. There are three things any company can offer. 
Price
Performance (quality)
Service. 

Now pick two…the issue is most people pick price and performance. This is why CC folded, why best buy is hurting and why amazon and online are doing well. 

The bottom line is this. Until you cheap fucks learn to let go of your almighty dollar, then and only then will the brick and mortar survive. 

You, the consumer are to blame, no one else. 

It’s like this:  you see a McDonald’s commercial on TV, some hot blonde young girl at the counter, “Hi! Welcome to McDonald’s, how can I help you!?”  And they show a beautiful burger before panning back to the cute employee who is brimming to help you.  So you get the hankering for some fast food’n'fries, and you head over to McDs.

You walk in, but the person at the counter is rather annoyed that they actually have to pay you attention.  He is unkempt, super baggy jeans barely clinging to his thighs, ass hanging out, and it goes like this, almost EVERY time – regardless of location:

McD guy:  ”whattaya want?”

Me:  ”A  #5, no cheese, large, with Coke, to go.”

McD guy: (presses register key) BOOP, “uhhhm, regular or large?”

Me: “large”

McD guy: BOOP, “uh, what do you want to drink?”

Me: “Coke.”

McD guy:  BOOP, “to stay or to go?”

Me:  ”to go.”

McD guy:  BOOP, “um, uh, ok that’ll be $8.50.

Me:  I give McD guy a $10 bill and two quarters.

McD guy: has to look at cash register to know what change to give back ($2).

I finally get the half warmed-over meal, get in my car, drive off, only to find that of course, there is CHEESE on the burger which I specifically asked not to get.

McDs and BB are companies (and there are others) that are hiring the people that  they can pay the least, employees that could not care less about customers (are often annoyed by us), and have no/little training or abilities.  It’s a sad state.

I despise Chick-fil-A’s radical religious bent, but dang they know how to treat a paying customer.

It’s like this:  you see a McDonald’s commercial on TV, some hot blonde young girl at the counter, “Hi! Welcome to McDonald’s, how can I help you!?”  And they show a beautiful burger before panning back to the cute employee who is brimming to help you.  So you get the hankering for some fast food’n'fries, and you head over to McDs.

You walk in, but the person at the counter is rather annoyed that they actually have to pay you attention.  He is unkempt, super baggy jeans barely clinging to his thighs, ass hanging out, and it goes like this, almost EVERY time – regardless of location:

McD guy:  ”whattaya want?”

Me:  ”A  #5, no cheese, large, with Coke, to go.”

McD guy: (presses register key) BOOP, “uhhhm, regular or large?”

Me: “large”

McD guy: BOOP, “uh, what do you want to drink?”

Me: “Coke.”

McD guy:  BOOP, “to stay or to go?”

Me:  ”to go.”

McD guy:  BOOP, “um, uh, ok that’ll be $8.50.

Me:  I give McD guy a $10 bill and two quarters.

McD guy: has to look at cash register to know what change to give back ($2).

I finally get the half warmed-over meal, get in my car, drive off, only to find that of course, there is CHEESE on the burger which I specifically asked not to get.

McDs and BB are companies (and there are others) that are hiring the people that  they can pay the least, employees that could not care less about customers (are often annoyed by us), and have no/little training or abilities.  It’s a sad state.

I despise Chick-fil-A’s radical religious bent, but dang they know how to treat a paying customer.

Best Buy servers as an awesome showroom for Newegg.  Newegg offers better customer service, better pricing, better advice.

Best Buy servers as an awesome showroom for Newegg.  Newegg offers better customer service, better pricing, better advice.

I’m always greeted by the employees and I’m always asked if I need help with anything and most of the BB employees at my local store are fairly knowledgeable in their respective departments.

At the end of the day though, I really don’t care if Best Buy is circling the drain just like Circuit City was not long ago.  They’ve long since turned me off with their corporate culture (mainly, “ram every high margin item you can down customers throats”), and I won’t miss them one bit.  If there really is a need for a brick & mortar store to sell the things they have, another chain will take their place.

Last I checked they are the single largest electronics chain in the US, with about 20% of the market.  I’d have thought they already had glory.  They pretty much drove a lot of their competitors (ahem… circuit city I’m looking at you) under.  At least on the eastern seaboard, they are both the largest brick and mortar store AND the largest online store.   They are also the biggest retailer of mobile phones and we all know how that market has grown.  (Thanks Wikipedia… didn’t know that one)   Sure Amazon.com is competition, they do pretty well in just the areas you’ve called weak spots.  While profits (and stock price) have slid this year, there’s still a healthy profit even during the bad times.   I dunno… maybe you had a bad store… certainly I don’t know of many with a floor layout of washer and dryers up front with music behind.   I don’t think I’ve ever been to one that didn’t have a big front aisle, with music middle left, DVD’s/Blueray far Left, Mobile phones on the right.   Washers and dryers were way over in the left corner.  They’ve had a pretty standard floor layout imo… with the exception of TV’s either being center back, or front right.

While your personal customer service may have been poor, you gotta admit… a real face to face person is kinda better than either zero customer support or at best a text chat box which may or may not have a person behind it.   There’s also one big issue… the US market is strongly in favor of instant gratification.   They want to walk out of a store with a TV/Software/etc.   That’s something that Amazon.com isn’t going to be able to match with current business models.

Pretty much whenever I have the hankering to look at retail electronics, I go to best buy to wander.   If I want parts, I head to Frys.   DVDs/Music I go either way.

The truth is while there are better deals on-line at times, there is a hassle involved with the waiting game (which includes, but isn’t limited to: wrong address, shoddy delivery, waiting at your house/office on a day of a package, wrong or fraudulent item(s), etc.)

Best Buy, I agree, needs to increase it’s quality of customer service (to include knowledge of product, less hounding the customers, etc.)  At the same time, Best Buy ITSELF needs to improve on the warranty packages and their gimmicky “buy back” program (which really is a crock of shit, when you realize that you can make much more selling it on eBay.)

While I think part of the problem is the way store management and associates deal with the daily operations, I have no doubt that the corporate side is also partially to blame for the shrinking sizes of the stores.  Either way, both sides of the house need work.

But I’d encourage them to do so.  After all, I can’t “test drive” a product if I only see pictures and a video.  At the same time, I am not nearly as gullible as the naive who thinks that seeing it online without actually trying a device first is the best way to buy a product.

I’m 18 years old and have shopped online since I was 15. I’ve saved so much money you will not believe. Surprisingly, just like me and you, we’re not part of the “average consumer” statistics, as we are the new generation of avid-save-money-online shoppers. This new era will push a new trend, and we may see stores like Best Buy lower their prices due to strict competition. We’re in the middle of that phase. Walmart has already transitioned and is very competitive.

If you don’t believe me, there is no way Best Buy can compete with the same markups in 20 to 40 years. Nu-huh, no way Jose. Forget it. This new era will push consumers to new shopping habits as technology is getting to be a must-to-know topic. New consumers will arise from Generation Y and X, and stores will have to get smarter on prices. They just will have to. The forthcoming changes will be really interesting to see.

Just my two cents.

my buddies hard drive failed a while back.. luckily he still had all of his CD’s tucked away..

the only tragic thing is that he put a few on to listen to while ripping.. and was reminded that lossless is only a technical term.. CD fidelity is a reminder to your ears that digital downloads are harsh, hollow shells of the original track.. The dynamic range… the shimmer of the cymbals…lost.. Vinyl is even better, but it’s extremely difficult for
the average person to achieve with vinyl..

makes you cry a little but it’s sure hard to go back…

A) it is price controlled by the manufacturer and it is the same price as anywhere else. My best buy is local and quick to pick something up.

B) if I really am thinking about getting something I search all of the online retailers while in the store and see what the prices are. If they are very close or better, I buy it. Admittedly this is pretty rare.

Try as I might, I will always be a tactile shopper … and the hotties aren’t bad either. They are to be seen, but not heard.

The salespeople at our local best buy are idiots, what makes it worse is that they think they are so much smarter than the average consumer. I went in last week to see if they had the new Asus transformer, the salesperson told me I must be mistaken and that I HAD to be thinking of the Acer Iconia tab… “It’s on your website… you should check it out”…

Sorry Wal-Mart sells most of the crap that best buy would try to sell you… and while I don’t care too much for Wal-Mart it beats having to deal with arrogant morons trying to sell me overpriced garbage.

And I totally agree with the comment below, no way in hell would I let them try to install something in my vehicle… Thats just asking for trouble.

The horror stories about what places like this do to your car are too numerous to count…