Music Department Salespeople

I was just reading in the Stones thread about the incompentence of the general salesperson in stores such as Best Buys and Sam Goodys. On Tuesday I went into a Circuit City and asked if they had gotten in the Stone's Hot Rocks the idiot behind the terminal thought the name of the band was Hot Rocks. Made me want to sterilize the person on the spot with a pair of garden scissors. For the amount of knowledge that these people have its amazing that they can feed and dress themselves. How about a few basic questions when the store hires a salesperson.

Oh course then you have the other extreme. Those hip little Mom and Pop stores that exist in the more "adventurous neighborhood's" where unless you go in looking for some obscure CD the by Mutated ******'s or some such band, the salesperson who looks like a contraption from Junkyard Wars and is afraid to make eye contact, tells you that they don't carry that type of music.

God do I hate young people, old people and most inbetween.

Thanks I feel better now. Time to take my Prozac.

 

Boy, Tom, you really are a people person at heart,I just know it!

But seriously, you are right. And why should a store kid have to know anything about music; they pay barely enough over minimum wage. There is no financial renumeration for having musical knowledge. Why should a kid do his homework about the Stones when he's making $7 an hour?

There sure isn't something right about the Best Buys and Circuit Citys!

 

Save one for me, Tom.

I think if you're intellgent enough about music, like most of us here, you should NOT be asking clerks about "where's what at?"

Ok, ok, so the clerks are dumb. Time to use the old noodle and find things 100% on your own. If people start asking minumum-wage clerks over and over again, it's a waste of time. Let em rot. Pretty soon, if we keep going like this, we will never see them again. Hallalulliah!

Asking others in a store takes the fun out looking. If someone comes up to ask me if I need help, that's also fun when I say "No thanks!"

The mom & pop store knew, weeks and weeks before that the Stones Cds were coming. It's why the owner even said, "ooOoooh, waiting for the remastersss?" And there I was with the Singles Collection, LIB, Beggars and Between The Buttons.

But if Beast Buy has something, I'll go there. I'm not afraid of BB. I just won't ask anyone for anything.

True too, I think the people they hire there were created with poor-quality sperm or something. True also, I'm not crazy about old people, but a lot of them are becoming my friends as I get older. Ok, I won't take 1/2 a dose today!

I'll say one thing about BB that's good. They did a great job with my car stereo. I was in and out, no problem, not a huge expense. A day later, it wasn't working so I went back to the guy. He quickly went into my glove compartment and changed a fuse for nothing. Told me, "Many GM cars of later year didn't put the right fuse in for that area of the electrical system". Nice guy. He obviously KNEW what he was doing. Inside though, the clerks ARE a whole different story.

 

All the really old people don't work at BB or CC.

They work at "Welcome to Wal-Mart! Would you like a cart?"

I'm thinking about it.

Pass the Prozac.

Mud-

 

You are right Sckott, and before I ever ask where something is I will always check the bins however the BB and CC's in this city will never put Tuesday releases of back catalog out right away sometimes it takes them till Thursday. So I often have to ask if the system shows that it has arrived then ask them to go back and maybe get me one.

Most Mom and Pop stores here don't even bother to order something like the Stones because they can't compete with the chains. When I was in high school and college I worked for both a big department store chain in the Record department and Sam Goody's in Manhattan. Minimum pay does not need translate to minimum intelligence. I would often pick up an LP based on a Salesman's recommendation. IMO music has gone from an art form to a disposable commodity.

 

Gary, we gotta get you a few Best Buys in Canada so you can feel our pain!!!



Mud-

 

At one of HMV's NYC stores, they file John Fahey in the Male Vocals section. I told the clerk about it, but there it remains.

 

Two weeks ago I went to Borders in downtown Chicago and asked the person at the Information Desk when the new remastered Stones’ SACD’s would arrive. The person was in his late 40’s. He told me that I could find them in the Rolling Stones bin. I went to the bin and sure enough, the old ABKCO “Remastered” discs were there. I went back to the Infro Desk and asked if the Stones remastered discs were the new SACD discs? Of course he asked, “What is SACD?” I explained what they were and that they were due out in late August 20. He looked in his computer and sure enough, the new releases were there. To which he said, “I guess that you learn something new everyday.”

The confusion at the retail level concerning the new Stones discs is out of control.

 

They are coming. They've bought Future Shop - The Canadian equivalent of Best Buy and are also opening stores under the Best Buy name starting this fall.

 

Joseph, in that case may I say, "Welcome to Best Buy. Would you like a shopping cart, sir?"



Mud-

 

At least you're not in Australia. Ring up Sanity, the main chain here, and ask for Waylon Jennings CDs........

"Waylon who?"

Same goes for Lynyrd Skynyrd, probably the Allman Bros., Hank Williams Jr., and once I even got a weird response with BUDDY HOLLY. I mean, GEEZE, get a book on the history of music -- they'll all be in there.

I don't bother with Sanity anymore. Their selection is a joke. Usually one Waylon CD, if any. I go to Borders, where there are imports aplenty, or other stores that are more specialised. I'm 15 myself, but I know a LOT more about music than the people they've got working in these stores.

We may not have Best Buy here, but I sure know frustration

 

I always come self prepared and expect nothing from the youth of today.

 

I don't mind the occasional trip to Best Buy, especially if the price is good ($20 this past Tuesday for The Who's My Generation 2 disc set!). I've been buying records for the better part of 30 years now, I'm an old pro at locating stuff, so I have yet to ask anybody there where to find something.

My problem is, those clerks just won't leave me alone to do my browsing! Yes, it's courteous of them to ask if I need help...once! But at the local Best Buy, I get a parade of blue shirts, one after the other, every couple of minutes, even though I'm standing there with merchandise in my hands, ready to check out. I swear, a few weeks ago, I got asked FIVE TIMES WITHIN 7 MINUTES, to the point where when the fifth guy asked, I finally blurted out "No, and if you people don't stop bothering me, I'm putting this stuff back and leaving!"

So, do they really care about whether or not I can find what I'm looking for, or are they really, as I suspect, checking to see if I'm trying to shoplift?

 

Sometimes I think they are just lonely.

Mud-

 

Wow!!! I thought I was a cynical impatient person, but some of you guys make me look like a saint.
It still amazes though. You constantly complain about Best Buy yet there you are week after week bringing them business. Is it just that you're too cheap to shop elsewhere, or do you just need to feel superior to someone?

 

Works for me!






Mud-

 

Hehe.... Well, I don't mind going to Best Buy, I just won't ask for help.


I think... reechie... Didn't you say in a post that you look suspicious in general? Maybe that's why they think you're stealing all those Eminem discs??

 

Somebody has to!

Middle aged, overweight and looking pretty grumpy...suspicious enough for you?

 

So Best Buy is coming to Canada ?? Good, CD stores up here have been slowly disappearing in recent years. I wonder if the existing stores will convert (?)
Future Shop sucks for selection (prices OK).
Is there any guarantee BB will be any better ?
Have any other Canadians out there ever been to a Best Buy ?
I've been to a Circuit City...just the like "The Shop"

 

I'm middle-aged and have yet to see a person that looks my age in the Music area in Best Buy. EVER !


Mud-

 

Most don't stick around that long!

 

Do you work at Best Buy, by any chance?

 

All the more reason for them to be suspicious of us...we're dangerous!

 

Yeah, we're armed with knowledge!



Mud-