Is Best Buy the single worst-run company in the history of the world?
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Still all around marketing though. I'd argue that marketing can only be so bad because it always requires the willingness of the consumers to be duped by it. Which in turn makes Best Buy only so bad as well.
Hershey's on the other hand used American political corruption to bar their competition from the market in a move that made chocolate in America a nationalized, rather than capitalistic, product. Hershey's literally owns the market.
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@scottalanmiller One day I will win a debate with you, but today is not that day. I can't argue that that is not worse.
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@s.hackleman said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@s.hackleman said:
It is a toss up between them marketing formula as better than breast milk in underdeveloped countries....
That was 40 years ago!!
Fair, but the fight to change clean water from a need to a right, claiming "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world.", and the pumping out and shipping off of public water supplies is still happening today. So I would argue not much has changed. I'm just saying it is worse than under educated employees selling me a consumer electronics.
But that has nothing to do with the customers' experience, which was the point of the OP. You're talking about a company that is evil, not one that is poorly run. Lots of companies are evil (at least they were when I stopped paying attention over a decade ago..)
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@RojoLoco said:
@s.hackleman said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@s.hackleman said:
It is a toss up between them marketing formula as better than breast milk in underdeveloped countries....
That was 40 years ago!!
Fair, but the fight to change clean water from a need to a right, claiming "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world.", and the pumping out and shipping off of public water supplies is still happening today. So I would argue not much has changed. I'm just saying it is worse than under educated employees selling me a consumer electronics.
But that has nothing to do with the customers' experience, which was the point of the OP. You're talking about a company that is evil, not one that is poorly run. Lots of companies are evil (at least they were when I stopped paying attention over a decade ago..)
Best Buy isn't poorly run. The average BB customer doesn't want good advice, they want what BB offers - the social excuses of a bad store. People keep going back because they like what BB offers.
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BB? Oh you mean my Internet store front touch & test drive location of choice.
I worked for FutureShop as a highly paid commission sales guy for TV's and Computers back when that paid decent money. That was nearly a decade ago and I still only make a little more than that today.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Best Buy isn't poorly run. The average BB customer doesn't want good advice, they want what BB offers - the social excuses of a bad store. People keep going back because they like what BB offers.
I assure you it's extremely poorly run.
People don't like what they offer, it's just the only game in town for a lot of things. Where I live you can maybe find an absolutely bargain basement shitty laptop at Walmart or Target, but other than that there are pretty much no other options than Best Buy, unless you know you want a mac and are nearer to an Apple Store.
It's why it'll be completely dead in less than 3 years, going the way of Circuit City. Everything from their actual selection of what electronics to carry on a model level down to how they advertise and handle returns and membership incentives, to how they price match, to the lack of training of their employees to answer simple questions ( though, this has definitely degraded in the past 5 years as they've been bleeding money to Amazon, they used to have some pretty knowledgeable people when I was first getting into programming ) to their web site, which is riddled w/ errors, misinformation, and an inability to correctly convey local inventory information, arguably its most-important function ( I've gone to local Best Buys 3 times that said items were in-stock in the store even when I was there asking reps to check the back, and ended up going home without them. I now call ahead choosing not to trust their web site, ever, and beg an employee to physically find the product and verify that it's there ).
But, in the end, I can't argue w/ $600 off
![😕](https://mangolassi.it/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f615.png?v=3hrg7a1ige4 ":\")
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@creayt said:
I assure you it's extremely poorly run.
People don't like what they offer, it's just the only game in town for a lot of things.
I can't agree. There is always an alternative and if business people believed that there wasn't an alternative and that customers didn't actually like it they would offer an alternative and steal that revenue. They don't because people are voting with their wallets and just like in other facets of life, the average consumer loves being mislead, treated like an idiot and sold things that they don't need.
People saying they are unhappy means nothing. People shopping elsewhere would mean they were unhappy.
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@creayt said:
People don't like what they offer, it's just the only game in town for a lot of things. Where I live you can maybe find an absolutely bargain basement shitty laptop at Walmart or Target, but other than that there are pretty much no other options than Best Buy,
NewEgg, Amazon, direct from the vendor... I would never consider BB, Walmart or Target for buying electronics at all. Where are you that those are the places you would go?
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Tiger Direct is a popular brick and mortar electronics store up here that went from online to first person retail. They usually don't suck. Ditto NCIX, a darling of the Vancouver tech sales scene.
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@creayt said:
It's why it'll be completely dead in less than 3 years, going the way of Circuit City.
That seems unlikely. CC was very poor and never had the BB crowds and was clearly on its way out long before it died. BB does appear that way at all.
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@MattSpeller said:
Tiger Direct is a popular brick and mortar electronics store up here that went from online to first person retail. They usually don't suck. Ditto NCIX, a darling of the Vancouver tech sales scene.
I avoid them because they were always worse than BestBuy for misleading people
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@scottalanmiller TD? Don't get me wrong they're not staffed with geniuses but if you're in this forum chances are you don't need much help from the staff at one of these stores beyond "stuff is that way"
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller TD? Don't get me wrong they're not staffed with geniuses but if you're in this forum chances are you don't need much help from the staff at one of these stores beyond "stuff is that way"
That's all that I know them for. They've been around for a long time and their reputation is a horrible one. But like most consumer stores, give them some time and everyone forgets what they used to be like and shops there again.
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@scottalanmiller ¯\(ツ)/¯
First I've heard that but it wouldn't surprise me
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@scottalanmiller said:
@creayt said:
People don't like what they offer, it's just the only game in town for a lot of things. Where I live you can maybe find an absolutely bargain basement shitty laptop at Walmart or Target, but other than that there are pretty much no other options than Best Buy,
NewEgg, Amazon, direct from the vendor... I would never consider BB, Walmart or Target for buying electronics at all. Where are you that those are the places you would go?
I may not have followed the question. Seemed like you listed online options and then asked why someone would buy in-person if there are online options? Usually you wouldn't unless
- You're an instant gratification-er and want to pick something up today instead of wait a few days
or - Somehow one of these in-person retailers offers compounding discounts and incentives to make its price substantially lower than online-only options ( like the laptop that started this discussion ).
- You're an instant gratification-er and want to pick something up today instead of wait a few days
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@MattSpeller said:
Tiger Direct is a popular brick and mortar electronics store up here that went from online to first person retail. They usually don't suck. Ditto NCIX, a darling of the Vancouver tech sales scene.
That's funny. I had no idea they had in-person stores. I actually bought my first electronics device ever from them, it was a Toshiba pocket PC. All I remember about Tiger Direct is that they require rebates on most items I've ever shopped for to even get close on competitive prices and that their return policy was scary. It's interesting that they branched out to in-person. Where are you again?
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@creayt said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@creayt said:
People don't like what they offer, it's just the only game in town for a lot of things. Where I live you can maybe find an absolutely bargain basement shitty laptop at Walmart or Target, but other than that there are pretty much no other options than Best Buy,
NewEgg, Amazon, direct from the vendor... I would never consider BB, Walmart or Target for buying electronics at all. Where are you that those are the places you would go?
I may not have followed the question. Seemed like you listed online options and then asked why someone would buy in-person if there are online options? Usually you wouldn't unless
- You're an instant gratification-er and want to pick something up today instead of wait a few days
or - Somehow one of these in-person retailers offers compounding discounts and incentives to make its price substantially lower than online-only options ( like the laptop that started this discussion ).
Wouldn't both of those things constitute really liking the store, though? At want point does it beat out lots of alternatives and you still hate it?
- You're an instant gratification-er and want to pick something up today instead of wait a few days
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@creayt said:
@MattSpeller said:
Tiger Direct is a popular brick and mortar electronics store up here that went from online to first person retail. They usually don't suck. Ditto NCIX, a darling of the Vancouver tech sales scene.
That's funny. I had no idea they had in-person stores. I actually bought my first electronics device ever from them, it was a Toshiba pocket PC. All I remember about Tiger Direct is that they require rebates on most items I've ever shopped for to even get close on competitive prices and that their return policy was scary. It's interesting that they branched out to in-person. Where are you again?
Oh yeah, all kinds of rebate scams there.
They have a physical branch in Dallas.
I remember them as a magazine add company.
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@creayt Just north of Seattle, but they are popular in Eastern Canada
LOL they toned down the rebate scams after they had a physical store that people came to complain at
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@scottalanmiller said:
Wouldn't both of those things constitute really liking the store, though? At want point does it beat out lots of alternatives and you still hate it?
I'm not sure what you mean. It doesn't beat out anything. I'm saying someone like me would make an occasional exception to their normal buying habits ( Amazon ) and purchase through, say Best Buy, for those specific reasons. You can still have a terrible experience trying to do so ( which I have, so regularly it's ridiculous with Best Buy ), and can still hate the company ( Best Buy's online-to-in-person back end is so pathetic that one time I ordered an item they had in store online and did in-store pick up, and doing so had locked the inventory such that when I got to the store they said they could'nt complete the order yet because it was locked in processing, and weren't able to cancel the order, and because they only had one in-store they couldn't release the locked one so I could just buy it in person and I had to wait 45 minutes while they made various phone calls to try to get the "order released", I mean it's just incredibly poorly run if you ask me. ).
Which I think a lot of people do. Do you know anyone that actually loves Best Buy nowadays?
