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. Partyslammer

    Partyslammer Lord Of The New Church

    One of the reasons BB is still around is they've expanded their merch to include more home appliances like washers, refrigerators, AC units, etc - stuff that people are more leery of buying online due to shipping and hassle of returns. They also devote more space then ever to phone sales and support which is again, something most customers want to do face-to-face versus an online retailer. They still waste shelf space on junk that doesn't move like crap toys which I believe they'll pare down eventually but I think the key to their continued survival is carefully serving and filling mainstream customer needs that places like Amazon still can't quite get a lock on.

    I'll never go into a Best Buy expecting to find the latest Criterion Blu-ray releases, The Sex Pistols box set, Krell speakers or anything else even near the fringes of middle of the road mainstream electronics hardware and media. But if I want to pick up the latest Hollywood blockbuster Blu-ray on release date, some crap earbuds or a big ol' AC unit for a room, it serves it purpose.

    Black Fridays are still insane at these stores.
     
  2. SamS

    SamS Forum Legend

    Location:
    Texas
    Five years ago, I thought BB would be dead. I certainly stopped going into the store when the eliminated SACDs and physical media.

    But something changed, and they finally got aggressive with prices around laptops, accessories, and new Blu-rays, etc. Which got me interested again. So, I still like to shop there (mostly online) because they finally got their pricing strategy figured out.
     
    The Revealer likes this.
  3. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    It's as if some of you can't wait for Best Buy to fail. Why!?

    I don't love everything about Best Buy, but what I don't like are the same things I don't like about retail in general.

    It's great to hit Best Buy (on the short commute home) for a newly released blu-ray, price match the lowest if necessary, get 5% points, and then head home to screen it! Further, where else can you find quality washers/dryers/fridges/etc. on discount or marked down for dings (or else price match) and then finance at 0% for 18-36 months!?
     
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  4. In this way it's what Sears used to be. More compact and easier to maneuver But without the tools and clothes.
     
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  5. gd0

    gd0 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies

    Location:
    Golden Gate
    Yah, there's no (good) reason to pile on them; they're trying. On several levels. The store near me is moderately busy when I visit for ink or desktop accessories. Bought a bulletproof 50" plasma there for $400 delivered.

    Now if you're a Proper Audiophile and you march into a BB looking for Proper Audiophile Attention, you're in the wrong store. You need a Proper Audiophile Boutique.

    Oh wait, there aren't any anymore.
     
  6. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Best Buy took out a lot of far more worthwhile retailers in their rise to prominence. If they go under, I’d have no sympathy. However, they appear to be safe for now and that’s fine too.

    Retail has always been “survival of the fittest”. For now, Best Buy is fit enough to survive.

    Ed
     
  7. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    If Best Buy violated the law, then let's discuss. The notion that unworthy retailers "take out" superior competitors is ridiculous. I'm no 'fanboy' of Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, or Barnes & Noble or any other similar retailer, but we should all want competition.



    Prosperity. Better than the alternative.
     
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  8. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Nothing illegal. They just swarmed and did battle based on size, not on content. Won’t miss them if they go. They had everything but zero product knowledge and no customer service of any kind, really. I haven’t experienced any improvement myself. They chose quantity over quality. It’s worked but it can’t last forever.

    Ed
     
  9. krlpuretone

    krlpuretone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grantham, NH
    **** Best Buy forever for sucking the last bits of fat off the music business, new releases...

    I wonder how they manage to sell anything between the candy displays and the clueless employees.
     
  10. The Revealer

    The Revealer Forum Status: Paused Indefinitely

    Location:
    On The Road Again
    Best Buy is a turnaround for the ages. The reasons are in this article:

    Best Buy's Successful Turnaround Lessons - Best Buy Co. (NYSE:BBY) | Seeking Alpha

    Mostly, it has to do with price matching and the truth that people can find out online if their nearby store carries it. They can go in, get it, and get out. I do this a lot. It's worth plenty to be able to know that I'll get what I want when I get there and have it same day. Plus, returns are easy peasy. As a previous poster stated, five years ago, the death knell was ringing a la Circuit City. But Best Buy turned it around and those wandering sales people can at least access a constantly updating database of product availability. People like brick and mortar if they're older and not tech savvy. It's a time extension. May not last forever, but they are on the board and strong for the present.
     
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  11. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The people who have been banned for life from Amazon still need places to shop. If you've been banned from Amazon then Best Buy becomes very attractive for buying electronics and things. It's good for Amazon to have some competition so they don't get too cocky (some would say they're already too cocky). Buy a lot of LPs from Amazon and return a bunch due to legitimate pressing defects. Bam. Banned for life. Return too many things because once you got it you find that it isn't what you expected. Bam. Banned for life. Would suck to be banned for life from Amazon. That's a significant punishment in this modern age. And Amazon will ban people with no warning. Bam. You're banned. No warning. With Amazon buying stores like Whole Foods that would mean you can't even shop at Whole Foods any more. You won't be able to buy any Amazon exclusives. As Amazon continues to expand into new markets that means even more places you are banned for life from shopping. Wow. All due to an arbitrary no warning decision to ban you. It's not good for one company to end up with that much power over consumers. If you risk being banned for life from Amazon will you be willing to complain to Amazon even if the complaints are legitimate? Too many complaints might get you banned. That's one reason I continue to shop at places like Best Buy instead of Amazon. And a reason why I haven't managed to spend all of my $100 Amazon gift certificate yet.

    I've never returned anything to Amazon and never made a complaint. I'm not going to get banned for life from Amazon (unless they read this post and can somehow connect my anonymous user name here with my real life identity, and given their wide online tracking and online services there is a possibility that they already can trace Ham Sandwich back to the real me). It's not good for one online empire to have that much reach and power.
     
  12. I can't even imagine returning enough product to get banned from Amazon . I've returned maybe 2 LPs out of a hundred or more. .
     
  13. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I'm presuming that BB's prices are identical on line and in store. Contrast this with Barnes & Noble (ignoring the significantly different product lines), whose in store prices are often higher. Moreover, if you select in store pickup from the B&N web site, they charge you the in store price.
     
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  14. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA

    Amazon doesn't ban people -- bam! -- who are being reasonable and playing by the rules.

    They DO ban people for life. And one banned, you are truly banned. They track your address, your credit cards, your relatives, etc.

    BestBuy does it also. And they are almost as good as Amazon at making sure you don't get back in the system.

    But to get banned, you typically have to be unreasonable and/or unscrupulous. For example, if you the person who only buys vinyl, and you return 75% of what you buy as "defective" over a period of time...yes, you might get banned. If you return 5% of your vinyl LP purchases...no, they aren't going to ban you.

    Before Amazon got smarter, there were scumbags who every Xmas season would buy big quantity of whatever they thought would be a sold out toy/item...if they guessed wrong, they'd return wholesale quantities in January.

    Not any more. First off, Amazon limits quantities. But if you somehow manage to get around that, and you try that game---bam, banned for life. And the ones who get banned are the loudest crybabies on the planet.

    You can also get banned for life if you use your Amazon Prime account to dropship things you sell. A lot of people do this for a while. But if Amazon eventually takes notice...Bam, goodbye. And the people it happens to cry the biggest crocodile tears you've ever seen.
     
  15. Leggs91203

    Leggs91203 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    So basically the way to not get banned from Amazon and BB is easy -
    Don't be one of those people who has a habit of buying and then returning stuff. Meaning, if you do not want or need something, do not buy it to begin with.
    Like for me, I have no use for, ohhh, a grandfather clock. would there be ANY benefit of me going out and buying one just to return it? How much time would I have to return? Get it? "time"? HAAAAR HAR HAR har....

    I never quite got it. What is the point of buying something just to want to return later? yeah sometimes there IS a genuine problem but not even close to 10% of what people buy is defective. 10% happens to be about the amount of stuff sold that gets returned for any given retailer.

    I know sometimes people buy stuff, use it once, don't even bother to try to clean it, and return it while claiming it is bad. Some people have a habit of it. Those are the customers that cost the company money. It is basically a legal form of stealing since trying to prove the customer had bad intent is near impossible and certainly not practical. What else are companies suppose to do when they have a customer who always happens to get "bad" products?
    Even if some customers buy lots of stuff, do not use it at all, and later return it, this whole process is still costing the company. Gotta hire people to handle that BS not to mention lost revenues.

    I think all numbers aside - people pretty much know if they are returnaholics. I know a few such people. It is a lifestyle. I know one who used to buy a lot of stuff from a now defunct clothing store. When they were getting ready to go bankrupt, they no longer took any returns. She said, "that sucks cause i had a bunch of stuff i wanted to return!" Just.... why?

    AS an aside - how come it has taken retailers so long to finally wise up about people abusing the return system? Surely this isn't something new.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2017
  16. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    It's not something new. It happens in bricks & mortor shops as well. Eventualy, they wll ban you too.
     
  17. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    B&N is attractive to blu-ray consumers when there are sales and coupons which can be stacked. Otherwise, they are dead to me. A shame. I want brick & mortar to compete.

    I would be neat if there was a "Music Direct" within Best Buy- LPs, SACDs, select gear. I'm just not so sure that enough additional foot traffic would move the needle.
     
  18. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    Their Music Direct is called Magnolia, hardware only. The BB stores who have remodeled for Magnolia are actually selling some neat gear, as others have mentioned.
     
  19. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    Yeah, mine has one. Guess I was thinking more about LPs and SACDs.

    They just tore up the Magnolia section and the wall separating the secondary warehouse. Maybe 25% more retail space. Not sure what the final renovation will look like yet.
     
  20. I remember a while back that Best Buy's online prices were lower than in-store but if you used one of their 'online' kiosks it would show the higher in-store price. There was quite a hubbub about this when it was discovered.
     
  21. The Revealer

    The Revealer Forum Status: Paused Indefinitely

    Location:
    On The Road Again
    In the past three years, I have paid exactly the price in-store that was listed online.
     
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  22. Magnolia used to be s decent high end audio chain until Best Buy bought them and closed the stand alone stores and put them as mini higher end stores within some of their regular stores in “ nicer “ areas.
     
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  23. Kevin j

    Kevin j The 5th 99

    Location:
    Seattle Area
    ...that they bought on bestbuy.com
     
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  24. Leggs91203

    Leggs91203 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    With B&M stores though, if one has proof of payment like the receipt or the card they used to buy, returns are not as big a deal. The real problem comes when they make a lot of returns without any sort of receipt. At some point, the customer is cut off from returning stuff. I guess each company has their own policies but at least one company that tracks returns and the nature of them is called The Retail Equation.

    I have heard some people buy stuff just for the rush of getting something new but have every intention of returning it (used or not). If someone is not planning on using it, wouldn't that make as much sense as drinking non-alcoholic brew?

    Oh here is one - I was at walmart the other day and two of the workers were talking about how they had this one customer who tried to return 1/2 a box of donuts saying "We just didn't eat them all". Not sure if they got their money back. Tacky redefined.
     
  25. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    So I've heard, but they never had an east coast presence so I have no knowledge of what they had been previously. Considering the demise of other mid- leaning towards hifi chains such as Tweeter and Tech Hifi, half a loaf is better than none I suppose.
     
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