Best Buy Chairman and Founder Resigns Ahead of Schedule 322
lightbox32 writes with the news as carried by MSNBC that "Best Buy's chairman and founder Richard Schulze has announced his resignation from the board of directors Thursday a year ahead of the planned transition at the helm of the struggling retailer. The resignation of Dunn and Schulze come after Best Buy reported a quarterly loss of $1.7 billion after same-store sales dropped 5 percent." This sounds like a bad omen for people who get their electronic fix there. For all its imperfections and limited range, when I'm looking for computer stuff new, at retail, and in person — meaning it's not at the Goodwill and I need it right now — I'm usually glad to be near a Fry's location. What brick-and-mortar stores make sense where you live?
Geeksquad protection + credit cards (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe if they did not obsess over metrics written by some MBA by hounded customers on geeksquad protection plans and credit card sales there would not be any drop. I went to a job fair yesterday to get some extra part time work under my belt and all the retailers are doing this. At JCPenny you can not be a cashier unless you have experience selling credit cards at 25% to poor people and that is the only metric that follows.
With 1 trillion in debt people are no longer consuming because of shady deals like this are strangling their customer base for those who are dumb enough to use them. Geeksquad is a ripoff and it is so annoying when all you want is a job.
The upper management are really clueless and they make sure all mice and keyboards are wireless only because they can then bundle geeksquad protection plans. IT is just an insane customer experience when you want a wired gaming mouse and they can not even carry it.
Re:What's bad for Best Buy is good for local store (Score:1, Insightful)
I can hardly wait to be gouged by local owners rather than corporate owners
OR I'll just buy stuff online (which, from my understanding, is what killed BestBuy in the first place)
Re:Local stores (Score:3, Insightful)
I used to work for them. THey are now pushy as they make all their money with their high interest rip off credit cards. At least it is not as bad as BB where you will be hassled 3x about the latest credit cards and geeksquad protection plans.
Sadly all retailers are doing this and it pisses customers off, yet the beancounters do not see this way.
Re:What's bad for Best Buy is good for local store (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably not because they have to compete with the Internet too. If the highly-efficient Circuit City or Best Buy could not do it, it's doubtful some mom/pop store could do it.
Small stores might fill the same roll as 7/11 does (quick gratification for purchases needed immediately), but will also have the same higher prices on goods that 7/11 has.
An interesting comment near the end of the article (Score:5, Insightful)
"I continue to believe in Best Buy and its future..." Schulze said in a statement.
followed immediately by "Schulze also said he was exploring options for his 20.1 percent stake in the company." and an accompanying article from here [forbes.com]
Looks like he's getting out as much as possible now.
Hurray for Microcenter?
The Internet doesn't have a tactile showroom (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably not because they have to compete with the Internet too.
The Internet doesn't have a showroom that lets me touch the keyboard of a laptop or smartphone before I buy it.
Re:What's bad for Best Buy is good for local store (Score:5, Insightful)
Best Buy wasn't always so bad.
Circuit City was poorly managed and loaded with debt. It is not the internet per say, but rather management losing their focus. BB had its doom when it acquired GeekSquad. Since it was a ripoff and such a high margin they strong armed their managers into making sure it was bundled with every computer since customers would have to use it anyway etc.
Then the warranties could only be serviced at geeksquad. Then components were geeksquad insured. Then the cashiers were required to meet quotas, now BB wont even sell gaming keyboard and mice because they are not wireless which means no geek squad protection. Even their car audio and home entertainment installers are called geeksquad and are pushed. These are not real computer geeks
Now they sell things people do not want because they can bundle geeksquad, customers get hassled as employees need to piss people off just to keep their jobs, their greed makes them sell expensive things so you are more likely to buy a geeksquad protection. Their credit cards are a terrible deal too and they are hitting on those.
They lost what they are known for and that is great products at a reasonable price. Metrics can ruin many companies and CEOs who chose other lucrative markets devalue their assets. They are a retailer and not a computer shop.
Re:Geeksquad protection + credit cards (Score:3, Insightful)
I received a $25 gift card for Best Buy, I needed a wireless mouse keyboard combo.
The cheapest one was @ $45 and was an absolute piece of shit. I would have spent the same and got better quality if I had tossed that gift card and just bought a cheap keyboard+mouse from Fry's.
Blame all around (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like when Circuit City went down, they're going to blame everyone but themselves. Circuit City's differential for years was that it had commissioned salespeople who were actually knowledgeable and gave a shit. Then they pulled their commissions, and when the economy started to falter, they died. They then turned around and blamed it on the recession, when everyone knew that their stores just sucked. So is it with Best Buy. In smaller markets, Best Buy is the only electronics store in town. You can count on walking the store and seeing many of the shelves empty because the merchandise is not in stock. They pay the salespeople diddly squat with no commissions, so you can count on having to browse the store yourself with little to no help from anyone. The only time you do get help is when you checkout the cashier will try to sell you an extended warranty that you don't need. Everything is overpriced, and most of the items they stock are of inferior quality.
I don't think anyone will ever try it, but here's an idea for how to run a store:
1) Hire people who know technology, and pay them adequately/treat them well to work the floor. Keep track of how much time your average customer walks the store without anyone offering to help, and work towards reducing that time.
2) Don't insult your customers with insane markups on things like cables, or with bullshit warranties, credit card offers, etc.
3) Instead of offering a wide range of choices with many of them shit, offer choices that someone has actually vetted as working properly, and keep them in stock. Don't waste the consumer's time and money with having to buy crap. In turn, you can expect your loss from returned merchandise to go down.
4) Make it a pleasure to shop your store and I might actually go there. Right now, it's a better experience to shop online. I can get reviews of products, narrow down my selection to the best possible one, and have a pretty good idea of what I'm buying. Much better than wasting time browsing some store. This is before considering that shopping online is actually cheaper. If when I went to your store I saw the same salespeople who had offered me good advice on other purchases I had made there before, guess what? I'd keep coming back because I'd value their input. The prices should be fair, meaning only a slight markup over what I could get online + shipping,
Re:The Internet doesn't have a tactile showroom (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Best Buy is garbage. (Score:2, Insightful)
the Apple store
I stopped reading there.
Why? THe Apple Store is how to do it if you sell expensive items. Walmart is how you do it for low margin items. The Apple Store pays its employees well, wont push you, gives you an excellent experience for the price.
Re:Geeksquad protection + credit cards (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep, and I will go elsewhere for my business. Then the MBAs and CEOs can all be dumbfounded on why sales are down and customer surveys say they prefer competitors instead.
They are a retailer and not a bank so if they want to devalue their retail operations go right ahead. idiots