Best Buy Closing 50 Stores

An anonymous reader tips news that electronics retailer Best Buy will be closing 50 of its big-box stores across the U.S. this year, and laying off hundreds of corporate workers besides. The company plans to start testing new types of outlets as it tries to adapt to the changing face of retail sales. From the article: "Best Buy shares were off 7.7% at $24.56 on Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. Also Thursday, Best Buy reported a $1.7 billion loss for its fourth quarter ended March 3. ... Consumers armed with mobile phones are increasingly using stores as showrooms to check out merchandise they later purchase for less online, a trend greatly benefiting Internet retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. that aren't encumbered by the costs of running physical locations and in many cases don't have to collect sales tax. Meanwhile Apple Inc.'s phones and tablets, showcased in its own namesake stores, have eroded the status of specialty chains as the one-stop shop for the latest in gadgetry. In response, Best Buy said it will launch large-scale tests of what it calls new 'connected store' formats in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., as well as San Antonio. The stores, which will emphasize services such as technology support and wireless connections, will feature large new hubs at their center to assist shoppers, as well as reconfigured checkout lanes and new areas to accelerate the pickup of items purchased earlier online."

Good

[wisnoskij]

If any retail chain deserves to fail it is Best Buy.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

How about matching online prices

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe then I'd buy in the store instead of at Amazon where I save 33% and get free shipping.

So long Best Buy

[Lithdren]

I went into a Best Buy just last week. My wireless mouse was acting up and tired of replacing batteries, I wanted a good old fashioned wired mouse. After searching for an employee to show me where they were (because I couldn't seem to locate them myself) I was shown to a small corner of the showroom behind the Ipad 2 displays.

23 mice. Thats it. Every last one of them was Wireless. When I asked about this I was shown some package deals they had of Keyboard and Mouse (which I didn't need) that had a wired mouse. Aside from being horribly cheap looking, I didn't need the keyboard.

When I got home, I went on Amazon.com, read a few reviews, and ordered excatly what I wanted. Its on its way as I type this, sure I didn't have it same day...but when you can no longer even FIND what you're looking for in a big box store, what the hell is the point?

Let them die like they deserve.

[Roachgod]

They always claim its because consumers 'test drive' stuff there. You know why we don't buy? Because outside of the ability to 'test drive' the retail experience SUCKS. The staff have no clue. Or worse, they try and push crap because they've been told to. Which means you get a worse shopping result than just choosing at random. They push RANDOM assorted products on you. They try and get you to buy overpriced warranties on $10 items. Half the time they don't have what you want. When they DO have what you want, especially the things you want quick (like a cable) they only have the $40 version of a $4 cable. Fuck it, I'll order online and save both the test drive and the $36 extra you wanted for no reason. The checkout process is borderline hostile with all the checkers, security people, etc. Customer service seems to be codeword for "fuck you, we got yo money bitches". Die Best Buy. Preferably in a violent spectacle that I can watch for my personal amusement.

Forbes covered this really well

[onyxruby]

Forbes had a really good article explaining why this was inevitable a few months ago. The author was absolutely dead right about his central point contrasting best buy and amazon.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2012/01/02/why-best-buy-is-going-out-of-business-gradually/ [forbes.com]

He makes the point that it isn't about money, it's about the customer experience and he is absolutely right. Amazon goes to extremes to make the customer have a better experience. Best Buy goes to extremes to make the customer more profitable. Best Buy needs to drop their customer as the enemy mentality and learned to embrace the customer instead of alienating them on a routine basis.

Re:Good

[Wain13001]

No no, CompUSA deserved it too. As a former CompUSA employee, I guarantee you, they were the devil just as much as the others. When we started selling 6-10' USB cables for $39.99 so we could more easily convince people to buy our Printer warranty kit for $49.99 that *came with a free cable* I quit.

Ya that's always been my problem

[Sycraft-fu]

Sales tax doesn't bother me. I don't even notice it on anything that isn't a really large purchase particularly since from most places you pay shipping anyhow so it is kinda a wash. Also I'm willing to pay more for local convenience. It is nice to just go and get something, and not have to wait, and also be able to take it back, should that be needed. However there's a limit to what I'll pay, it has to be in the same ballpark.

So one time I'm looking at cheap(ish) speakers. I find some JBL E series that looks good. J&R had them for like $300, shipping included (who is a retail store I might add, they aren't mail order only). Ok that's good, and shipping is non-trivial because they are big towers. However let's check local. Nice to not have to wait a week (things that big come by train) and if there's a problem I'd rather take them back to the store than fuck around with shipping something that big for RMA. Best Buy is listed as the only local dealer by JBL.

So I head over there. They do have them in stock... For $600. Are you fucking kidding me? Double? You want twice the price of J&R? Hell no. So J&R got the order.

Best Buy wants to price themselves like they are some kind of premium shop. However their employees don't know shit. They try to pretend they do, which is more annoying than if they just said "I'm not a subject matter expert, I'm just here to help you with basic retail support." So if you don't get the premium service, why the premium price?

Hence I never shop there. I've bought things form Wilson Audio, which is a local premiums shop and ya, it is expensive but they really do have some experts there. I also shop at Target, no premium service there but the prices are good and I can get what I want right now (and physically look at things before buying).

Best Buy is being killed by their own stupidity, not by Amazon.

Re:Good

[asylumx]

...they tried to sell me a discount video card for $120, and then I went home and got it online, with overnight shipping for about $30. Similar story for hard drives or any kind of cable (they tried to sell me a SATA cable for $30 -- they're literally $1 online).

I find it funny that people blame Amazon's success and brick-and-mortar's failure on lack of sales taxes, when examples like these are rampant.

Re:Good

[milbournosphere]

Somebody did try this. Gateway opened quite a few stores with this idea in the 90s. There was one local to where I lived. The store was shiny and all, but they didn't keep any product in stock and IIRC, they preferred that you picked up their merch from the store, rather than shipping direct to your home. Needless to say, the idea failed miserably. Perhaps a modern day attempt would work for larger tech products like TVs and the like. I'm curious to see how this pans out.

Re:Good

[Bill_the_Engineer]

Gateway computers did this and it sucked.

Not only was it frustrating that you still had to call an 800 number to place an order and wait for it to be shipped to you, but you now had to pay retail sales tax since the company now had a presence in your state.

Re:Good

[StikyPad]

I believe their mascot is or was a cow.

Treating Customers Like Criminals

[FreshlyShornBalls]

No one seems to have brought it up so I will. I don't mind paying a premium for getting an item today. Or for being able to hold the thing in my hands while I'm making a decision. But they're so worried about getting ripped off, they treat everyone like a criminal. Their security at the front of the store and their policy of requiring GOVERMNMENT-ISSUED PHOTO ID to return an item, even if purchased with a credit card, is absurd. Next up: a full-fledged TSA groping on the way out the door. No thanks. Good riddance.

Re:Good

[houstonbofh]

Seems it takes a Manager to authorize sale of a PC without the Geek Squad activating Windows (and doing G*D knows what else).

I have run into that too. I said, "No, I want a new computer, not a used computer." I ended up leaving as well.

Re:Good

[Ihmhi]

Quick question... for all the trouble you went through, why not buy the parts separately and assemble it yourself? It's easy and satisfying. If I can teach a 70-year-old woman how to install new RAM I'm sure someone with your level of technical skill would have no problem putting together a custom rig from scratch.

I dunno, I just really like the customization ability. Bonus is that if I *do* want Windows, I get a clean OEM disk. Just Windows and no additional garbage on it. You can save yourself the trouble of jumping through the hoops of trying to get a refund by not buying Windows in the first place.

Re:Good

[mcgrew]

Well, well... maybe I am a prophet? Even if it took longer than I predicted. [slashdot.org]

I'll say something nice about Best Buy too- it's not crowded any more.
                My wife Becky decided (after we got a big tax refund this year) that she needed a laptop PC for school. Actually, I suspect that now that she needs a computer she doesn't want to go down to the cold basement to use it like I and the kids do. But any way, we went shoppping for a laptop. I hit a few web sites (not eBay), and we decided to look locally ( JDR seems to only carry Toshiba and I don't like Japanese design). First stop was Best Buy. It had been a while since i had been in there. Well, actually we went in for some compressed air but since we were shopping for a laptop... she fell in love with a Hewlett Packard model, really nice one with a big hard drive, nice big clear screen, lots of memory, DVD CD burner, modem, network card... and most importantly to her, pretty blue lights above the keyboard.
                Best Buy staff were puttering around doing... actually I'm clueless, they didn't look to me like they were doing more than trying to look busy and avoid customers. We grabbed a salesman, who told us he'd be right back... this happened three times. We finally got some pimple faced kid who informed us that he had a Gateway and it was crap. "Just a minute and I'll get this ready"... this a half hour after deciding on what to buy.
                They were offering free internet access through MSN. Now, if I didn't already have an ISP (and likely DSL) would I be buying a computer with a LAN card and modem? They were also offering zero percent financing, which I also didn't want; I had cash in the bank.
                Never mind that I didn't want it, it "will take about five minutes to set up the computer, he can do it while we're filling out paperwork." WTF, was I buying a house, or an antiaircraft missle? Paperwork???
                We stood there in line a full half hour before the girl was ready to check us out. As we waited, Becky whipped out her phone and called the bank to make sure we had enough cash to pay for all the crap, over $2000.00 worth. The computer sat there, unopened and un-checked out.
                Best Buy wouldn't take our check. After a two and a half hour ordeal of mostly waiting, we walked away from over two thousand dollars in merchandise and won't be back. The sales girl tried to blame some other company!
                H&R Block tried to blame a different company, too. I guess business are all taking lessons from Microsoft. Here's a clue for all of them- you can't stay in business like that without a monopoly.
                My guess is Best Buy treats everybody like this. If so, I'll give them two more years, maybe with Enron accounting they can survive three or four. I'll give H&R Block five to ten (and they should be glad I'm not a judge!)
                Becky bought her HP laptop the next day at Circut City, where they had pleasant salespeople (unlike Best Buy), it took fifteen minutes to buy, and they gratefully took her check without any bullshit.
                Do you have stock in H&R Block, Best Buy, or the companies that own them? If so and if I were you, I'd sell it before they go the way of Kmart/Enron.

2/6/2002 Springfield Fragfest

Re:Gateway

[Grishnakh]

Seeing a product first hand is of limited value. Holding a Netgear gigabit switch in my hand isn't going to tell me that it's made with shitty capacitors that fail within a year, but a dozen different reviewers complaining of the same problem on Newegg will tell me that, and help me avoid a bad purchase, and let me instead purchase an HP gigabit switch that has consistently excellent reviews, and furthermore isn't available at my local retailer since it only carries crappy consumer-grade junk and not business-class networking equipment.

Re:Good

[Dahamma]

That's funny, because I remember Circuit City really started pushing their extended warranty before they went out of business. And I swear these days Best Buy will try to offer you a warranty on their snack food if you let them.

I think we may have discovered a new Chapter 11 leading indicator...