Best Buy's secrets for thriving in the Amazon age

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by BradOlson, Sep 19, 2017.

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  1. BradOlson

    BradOlson Country/Christian Music Maven Thread Starter

  2. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    They're thriving?
     
  3. Surprising Best But just had one of their best quarters ever. Could have fooled me.
     
    eric777 likes this.
  4. black sheriff

    black sheriff Magic City

    I drive by a Best Buy near me almost every day and the parking lot is almost always about half full. :shrug:
     
    SandAndGlass, AcidPunk15 and eric777 like this.
  5. DaleClark

    DaleClark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    I must be an idiot. When I go in...30 employees walking around clueless, Few customers.
     
  6. William Bryant

    William Bryant Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nampa, Idaho
    The Best Buy near me used to have a special room dedicated to audio. Speakers, amps, CD players, streamer/servers, etc. A place to sit down and listen to the store's best stuff in a quiet place before making a decision. Now, when I peek through the window of the locked door, the room is full of boxes and what looks like remnants of out of style merchandising shelves.
     
    Time Is On My Side likes this.
  7. Standingstones

    Standingstones Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Central PA
    Those people must be returning items.
     
  8. black sheriff

    black sheriff Magic City

    :laugh:
     
  9. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana
    I can't complain about Best Buy. Who else will sell you a fridge, deliver it in under 24 hrs and finance it for 18 Months at 0%?

    I don't know how they make their money, because it certainly isn't from my purchases.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2017
  10. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    The store near me doesn't have the foot traffic that it used to, but a higher percentage of people are purchasing something. They'll never get the foot traffic of an Apple Store, they're making more of an effort than some others did, so I wish them well.
     
  11. jon9091

    jon9091 Master Of Reality

    Location:
    Midwest
    Those are the employee's cars.
     
  12. contium

    contium Forum Resident

    Amazon's prices aren't as great as they use to be. I just bought a TV from my local Best Buy since Amazon was basically the same price.
     
  13. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Me too!

    Phones, etc?
     
  14. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The Best Buy store closest to me has a Magnolia Audio section with two separate and closed off listening rooms full of good audio gear. They've got B&W and Martin Logan speakers, Marantz and Onkyo apms/receivers. Home theater oriented rather than two channel. But at least it's better than what you'd expect in a big box store. They have the ability to order the good stuff from the brands they carry even if they don't normally stock it.

    I got a $100 gift card for Amazon for Christmas. I still haven't managed to spend it all. I've spent more than $100 in that time at Best Buy. Amazon was happy to sell me eclipse viewing glasses that they couldn't guarantee as being not a counterfeit that would destroy my vision. They told me so and refunded my money 5 days before the eclipse. Thanks for the early warning so I have enough time to buy some eclipse glasses that won't make me go blind. A local big box store had plenty of eclipse glasses that were official and they were able to trust the supplier and the supply chain. Local big box store is awesome (in this case Fred Meyers). Amazon, not so awesome. It's telling that I haven't managed to spend all of a $100 Amazon gift certificate yet while I've spent several times more than that at my local Best Buy. There is no sales tax in Oregon so no penalty for shopping locally at Best Buy or other local retailer.
     
  15. F1nut

    F1nut Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Mars Hotel
    I wish them continued success and if you're smart, you should too.
     
  16. Leggs91203

    Leggs91203 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    if Best Buy is doing good, likely it is because they have a very flashy store. Whatever is "in" they tend to really glorify it. The cell phones, laptops, TVs etc tend to show some really beautiful scenery and amazing graphics. making them look more amazing than what they really are.
    I remember when car and home stereo was all the rage, they had listening rooms that were pretty amazing set-ups, of course the car stereos were in demo mode to make them look cooler.
    Heh, nowadays that equipment is just kind of shoved off to the side. You have to look for it instead of having a huge sign saying "Home theater systems" or whatever.

    In other words, they are very good at marketing stuff.

    Is it because if Best buy goes under, the online retailers will just jack up their prices even more?
     
  17. black sheriff

    black sheriff Magic City

    Maybe it's overflow from the clinic next door. :) I have no idea. I ask myself the same question every time I drive by "who the **** is in there?". :laugh:
     
    stay crunchy likes this.
  18. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    I would love to know what they consider as "thriving" because whenever I go in to a Bestbuy the word that comes to my mind is "dying".
     
  19. Funky54

    Funky54 Coat Hangers do not sound good

    Where I work we are a Sony dealer. Often instead of being a warehouse we can go to Best Buy and buy TV's within 5% of our cost. They sell us approx. 5-10 TV's a month and we buy approx 20 (25 or so total). We make money installing and integrating, I am clueless how BB makes their money.

    Ours is just a base BB no flashy magnolia or high end.
     
  20. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    Trying to add things up quickly in my mind, I've probably spent 5 figures there in the last 5 years. I buy all of my appliances, televisions and apple products there. I even bought a pair of Vienna Acoustics speakers there years ago (walked in expecting to spend a small gift card, walked out with speakers which I still have).
     
  21. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Believe me, my wife could've spent that $100 Amazon card in about 15 seconds.

    Our Best Buy is like one of the earlier posts - 30 or so employees aimlessly walking around, not many customers. I used to enjoy looking at CD's there. Now the selection is minimal so I don't even waste my time anymore. Next time I need a TV I will probably go there and look around but lately Sam's has some good deals on TV's and a decent selection. For bigger purchases I prefer to SEE phyical product than to look at it online. Which is why I would never buy a TV from Amazon or anywhere online. CD's, audio cables, etc are fine online.
     
    PhantomStranger and Manimal like this.
  22. GoldprintAudio

    GoldprintAudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lexington, NC
    Same with me..... I'm primarily a 2 channel store, but dabble just a tiny bit in video if any customers want/need it. I stopped even attempting to sell TV's a while back b/c my customers could walk right in to Best Buy (or even Circuit City back then) and buy a TV for essentially the same price as I could from my distributors. So instead, I'll just search for the best price for them and send them that way to purchase it.
     
    AmericanHIFI likes this.
  23. GoldprintAudio

    GoldprintAudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lexington, NC
    Our two local Best Buys (both about 40 minutes away from me), are just about always busy the last few times I've been in.
     
  24. cwitt1980

    cwitt1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    Carbondale, IL USA
    The key to their success is turning on every radio and television in the store and be certain someone in a blue vest tries to sell you a phone.
     
  25. Brian Barker

    Brian Barker "No matter where you go, there you are"

    I used to frequent them years ago, but not any longer. They used to have awesome selections on DVD/Blu-ray, a great CD section ( the ones near me had great deep catalog and imports, even some vinyl). Not anymore. A couple of years ago I tried to order a vinyl LP off their website, but they sent me a CD, twice! ( Heck in the title it even said vinyl LP ). I kept getting these response calls asking what they could do better, to which I kept telling them to get a better selection of media, just to be told that movies and music don't sell any longer.

    I recently moved, there is one really close but I haven't gone in. I intend to, I do want to see if they have a Magnolia showroom, I want to purchase some new speakers within the next year to year and a half and they're the only real close place to me to audition anything. I'm just scared that I already know what I'll find if I do.

    As to how they're making money these days, I assume there's a lot of suckers for those extended warranties they sell.
     
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