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?
What's bad for Best Buy is good for local stores? (Score:5, Interesting)
I dunno, could we see a renaissance in local computer shops as a result?
Local stores (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't go to Fry's often due to their return poli (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't go to Fry's often due to their return policy.
I've had far too many instances of them blaming a defective product on me and wanting to charge me the restocking fee.
The item will have the security/warranty tape on it as an indicator of tampering but they will say I took it off and broke it, then put a new piece on. BB is no questions asked pretty much.
Also BB is MUCH better for browsing for newer movies. Fry's has a bigger selection, but with them so cramped you can't just browse.
Re:I don't go to Fry's often due to their return p (Score:5, Interesting)
Best Buy and their mis-steps (IMHO) (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree with the previous poster about GeekSquad really hurting the company.... but at the same time? I have at least 4 Best Buy stores in my area and still found them convenient on occasion, even completely ignoring the GeekSquad aspects of the business.
What I think really contributed to their decline was an overall floundering.... a loss of sense of who their customer really was and what he/she really wanted.
For example, one of our stores here (Crestwood, Missouri location) slowly cut back their selection of products over the last couple years. First it was their computer section shrinking, eliminating multiple aisles of software titles. (Somewhat understandable with so much going to online download purchases, but still premature, IMO, when there were so many Windows PC users who still wanted a one-stop place to view all the latest game, educational or application titles and grab one to go, with no hassles.) Then they started eliminating all the desktop PCs, trying to only sell portables. Next, the home audio section shrunk, and even the little corner of the store for car audio got to the point where every time you asked about an installation accessory, it was something they "could order for you" but never had in stock. It's abundantly clear that they selected their inventory completely by some sort of computer generates sales metrics. If X number of units didn't move in Y amount of time, they stopped carrying it. Eventually, it turned them into a giant Blockbuster-like store, full of console game titles, movies and music, a bunch of cellphones, and an appliance section along one edge of the store. It still has a fair bit of TV stuff in the back corner opposite the car audio too, but let's face it. Flat panel TVs just aren't a hugely profitable item anymore. The market is pretty much saturated so people only buy to do the occasional upgrade or to replace a broken one, and the biggest innovation they're pushing is 3D; an option of questionable real value. It's no wonder this is one of the stores on their slate of locations to close!
At other, larger locations? They've tried everything from selling Segway scooters in-store, to having mini music stores within their stores, a la Guitar Center franchises. (And I'm sorry, but Best Buy has NO chance of competing with Guitar Center! Not only do they lack staff with music knowledge, but they'll never have anywhere near as good a product selection, and likely not as good of pricing either. Why even try?) And that pathetic attempt at selling boutique high-end AV gear under the "Magnolia" name? No .... just, no.
What originally made Best Buy stores memorable for me were the early days, when everything that was returned would be put back up for sale as an open box special with a 20% discount or so, and clearance tables were constantly full of managers' "red tag" sales of various items. You never quite knew what they'd have to sell you on a given trip, because they just seemed to randomly get ahold of any cool electronics gadget they could -- but they still managed to keep each section of the store well stocked with items that fit the category. If you walked in with a gift card, you walked out buying something cool, whether you had any idea what you wanted first or not.
These days, they're so bad at being a computer shop (GeekSquad service is obviously a joke, but on the retail side, you can't get anything remotely "hard to find" --- so basically just the same staple items like keyboards/mice and 1TB SATA drives that WalMart sells), they may as well bail out completely, or start doing it right again. Prices are far from being a "best buy" too. Their very name is just a reminder of their former self.
Re:Best Buy and their mis-steps (IMHO) (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:He escaped (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't need salespeople. I know what I'm after when I arrive.
Think about it, the goal of having these salespeople is to get you to buy more than you intended to buy. Otherwise, why would they pay them? They are there to pimp the more expensive model, the extraneous features, the Monster cables, the extended warranties you could never actually redeem.
My goal is to avoid all salespeople.