Best Buy Going Out of Business..... Gradually.

  • Wanna Join? New users you can now register lightning fast using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Aug 13, 2009
626
277
0
#1
Pretty interesting read and about time in my opinion.
On top of their employees knowledge of electronics being
no better than my 12 year old sister, their customer service
makes me laugh when i get better service through another company online.

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

Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.

Consider a few key metrics. Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City, the company is losing market share. Its last earnings announcement disappointed investors. In 2011, the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value. Forward P/E is a mere 6.23 (industry average is 10.20). Its market cap down to less than $9 billion. Its average analyst rating, according to The Street.com, is a B-.

Those are just some of the numbers, and they don’t look good. They bear out a prediction in March from the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, which forecast “the worst is yet to come” for Best Buy investors. With the flop of 3D televisions and the expansion of Apple’s own retail locations, there was no killer product on the horizon that would lift it from the doldrums. Though the company accounts for almost a third of all U.S. consumer electronics purchases, analysts noted, the company remains a ripe target for more nimble competitors.


2012: Another Bad Year for Store Closings
Erika Morphy
Contributor

Apple, Amazon Lead '5 Most Admired' Tech Companies
David Coursey
Contributor
But the numbers only scratch the surface. To discover the real reasons behind the company’s decline, just take this simple test. Walk into one of the company’s retail locations or shop online. And try, really try, not to lose your temper.

I admit. I can’t do it. A few days ago, I visited a Best Buy store in Pinole, CA with a friend. He’s a devoted consumer electronics and media shopper, and wanted to buy the 3D blu ray of “How to Train Your Dragon,” which Best Buy sells exclusively. According to the company’s website, it’s backordered but available for pickup at the store we visited. The item wasn’t there, however, and the sales staff had no information.

But my friend decided to buy some other blu-ray discs. Or at least he tried to, until we were “assisted” by a young, poorly groomed sales clerk from the TV department, who wandered over to interrogate us. What kind of TV do you have? Do you have a cable service, or a satellite service? Do you have a triple play service plan?

He was clearly—and clumsily–trying to sell some alternative. (My guess is CinemaNow, Best Buy’s private label on-demand content service.) My friend politely but firmly told him he was not interested in switching his service from Comcast. I tried to change the subject by asking if there was a separate bin for 3D blu rays; he didn’t know.

The used car style questions continued. “I have just one last question for you,” he finally said to my friend. “How much do you pay Comcast every month?”

My friend is too polite. “How is that any of your business?” I asked him. “All right then,” he said, the fake smile unaffected, “You folks have a nice day.” He slinked back to his pit.

As a sometime business school professor, I could just imagine the conversation with the TV department manager the day before. “Corporate says we have to work on what’s called up-selling and cross-selling,” the clerk was informed in lieu of actual training on either the products or effective sales. “Whenever you aren’t with a customer, you need to be roaming the floor pushing our deal with CinemaNow. At the end of the day, I want to know how many people you’ve approached.”
 
Mar 30, 2011
482
30
0
44
#2
i hear it all the time best buy is weak sauce. i'm glad we got a fry's just down the road from ours. it's a hassle to get there cause of traffic but if you really need the customer service theirs is much better.

i get all my electronics from the military base anyway. no tax, 20 percent off at all times plus weekly deals. plus no lines, cheaper warranty and re-warranty before it expires. good shit too not some half ass.

anyway cause of that i haven't been to best buy in ages.
 
Aug 18, 2002
1,718
11
0
55
www.chalkbodyoutline.com
#4
Fuck Best Buy I havent shopped there in over 12 years. I had received a cd burner and mp3 player as a gift and tried to return them for store credit at like 3 or 4 different locations. I felt like each place treated me horribly cuz I was kinda dressed like a scrub that day. They all talked shit and made condesending remarks to me. I even called their corporate to explain and the guy on the line was a fucking douche. So I had my gf at the time return the same shit to the same fucking guy that wouldnt even consider returning it for me and he did it for her no questions asked. Fuck them im glad they failed. Ive always wanted to just go into one of their stores and drop a shit right on the floor and walk out.
 
Jan 18, 2006
14,366
6,556
113
42
#7
I buy most electronics online these days. Fuck Best Buy and Frys. All these retailers overprice shit.
 
Jun 23, 2008
5,090
14,497
113
32
Gold Coast, Australia
#8
i think pretty much all big electrical retailers are going down hill. they are all losing customers to the internet. the ceo of a major retailer of here was on tv a couple of months back saying we should be paying more at his store because if you buy on the internet people lose jobs. fuck that your company made billions in profit, lower your prices.
 
Sep 12, 2005
2,201
17
38
37
#10
online and fry's on mine. I know when I go to fry's that no one that works there speaks english/knows where anything is, so I have my expectations in order. And at least they have most things and different price ranges/variety of product.Best Buy has every single item marked up at least 30% over the competition and deserves to die.