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Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

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Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#71

Post by nwsm »

josefresco wrote: post #15

Like most Americans I order a shitload from Amazon. However the last item I bought from Best Buy was a TV (my old LG just ... died). Ordered online, chose to pick up in store. Drive 35 min to store Pickup process takes 10-15 min Drive 35 min home. Left after dinner, was watching it that evening. The only condition that would have prevented me from using this model would be traffic, as it could extend the trip by 60-9…

Why is Best Buy's shipping from DC to store less worrysome than Amazon's from DC to your house?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#72

Post by kop316 »

ohitsdom wrote: post #59
jurassic wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately my items generally show up on time but badly packaged. I would say 9 of the last 10 books I bought on Amazon have had some kind of visible damage, from minor cover dings to folded covers and ripped pages. The worst is when they put a single book into a bubble envelope that is so oversized the book can slide around and rotate a full 360 degrees inside the packaging. This is essentially a trade paperback book in…

Fire customers? I've never heard of that. My household is a heavy Prime user, and we make returns pretty frequently (few times a month). We've never had any issue.

Here you go: http://fortune.com/2018/05/22/amazon-customer-ban-returns/

It is reporting based on: https://www.wsj.com/articles/banned-from-amazon-the-shoppers...

But that is behind a paywall.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#73

Post by justryry »

seiferteric wrote: post #2

Their prices are not too bad anymore. They usually are about the same as online prices and returns are easier in store, so I have got a few things from Best Buy. Most recently a Macbook for my wife was $50 cheaper in Best Buy vs in the Apple store.

Their prices on the big items have never been too bad, its the accessories where they get you. $25 for a store brand 6' USB 2.0 cable is absurd.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#74

Post by erikb »

In Germany we have Saturn and Mediamarkt, and these shops seem to work the same way they worked 15-20 years ago. In some regards the products available even went down, at least in the areas I care about. So really, every time I go into one I regret it. Not even USB cables are something I want to buy there because of the small amount of choice, because they are hard to find, and because they price cheat (i.e. put up a good price in front of product which actually costs too much; then claiming the way too small string on the price label says it's for another product), like many physical stores do these days here.

So I really want to support local, European companies, but there is no competition to Amazon here. I'd even consider Taobao before I purposefully would go to a store here.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#75

Post by phil_folrida »

jccalhoun wrote: post #43
mfer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That generation has nothing but problems with their devices, it's like a mini game for them. This isn't a generational thing. I know folks from all generations who have trouble with technology. Sometimes this is because things really are broken. It's not like a lot of things are high quality. Sometimes it's because stuff is hard to use. For those of us in tech we have a higher tolerance for learning pain and have e…

agreed. MOST people don't know much about technology. I'm 44 and teach at a community college. I have 17 year olds (taking dual credit classes for high school) and 60 year olds. Most of them don't know how to use computers well and I can't assume that someone will or won't because of age. The problems they have do tend to be generational - younger people tend to do most things on phones and don't know how to use a mo…

I'm 44 too and hate people that maximize their window, as they are so many things running at the same time, don't you tile your applications, ah interesting there is more than one way to do it I guess.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#76

Post by Dayshine »

gzu wrote: post #12

You really can't beat going into a physical store for a large ticket item purchase. No waiting for shipping, easy to return, viewing the product in store. Recently purchased a MBP from Bestbuy. The first one I received had noticeable back light bleeding near a screen corner. Walked back in the store the next day to return. The process from an online retailer would have taken weeks.

>Walked back in the store the next day to return

But they could have been difficult about this right?

In the EU at least, buying online means you can always return no questions asked within 14 days. Buying in store means you are bound to the shop's returns policy.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#77

Post by jamra »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #68
kop316 wrote: post #10

I can't speak for the Geek Squad (as I have never needed to use them), but they price match to Amazon (and several other online stores), and will generally have what I am looking for (at least for consumer electronics). I know that I will get it that day (vs. Amazon's "two day shipping" that regularly turned into three or four days) at an Amazon price, it will certainly NOT be a counterfeit, and I don't have to give…

"I don't have to give my information so I don't feel like I am being tracked." Uhhh, you for sure will. First - BB is very aggressive on getting this stuff from you cleanly, i.e. name, addy, phone number - so they can 'track you'. Second - VISA/MC transactions will absolutely be used for that and they'll try to match up their in-store with online experiences. FYI - Visa/MC/Amex will literally sell your transaction da…

Why are you putting ‘same day’ in quotes? Are you not getting products from Best Buy on the same day?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#78

Post by emodendroket »

scarface74 wrote: post #66
emodendroket wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also was recently in the market for a laptop and the listings for Amazon were so confusing and full of pitfalls it reminded me of the bad old days of eBay. Like three-line item titles making it hard to discern what model you were buying. I ended up buying from Best Buy.

I would never buy a laptop from Best Buy, Amazon, or any other third party retailer. Consumer PC laptops are like most Android phones -- full of third party crapware. I only buy either the business line of laptops from Dell or HP or I'll buy from the Microsoft Store - either online or physical store.

I just used my own license to install a fresh copy of Windows, so I didn't care. My laptop was a great deal so I am assuming I saved money over that route and I didn't really find it inconvenient.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#79

Post by avgDev »

danielhlockard wrote: post #4

Best Buy was great the day my GPU died and I needed a new one by the evening. Prices were pretty good.

Speaking of GPUs. I bought a ATI card for $600 during a mining craze. I had issues with blue screens, and they took it back 6 months after purchase and refunded me full price, even though it was selling for $370 at the time.

Pretty good customer service if you ask me. I mainly want to support local store because Amazon used to have much better pricing than all the physical stores, but now it is not the case. However, it is much convenient to find the item online instead of going to store and finding out the item is not there.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#80

Post by mikestew »

taeric wrote: post #9

Why should it be dead? Poor management and bad money practices of some other competitors does not mean the retail segment is dead. Just that over leveraged companies are risky. No?

Ignoring the pronouncements of "retail is dead", and what BB's competitors might do, I've always felt that it was obvious the CEO of BB had never put on a pair of jeans and gone shopping at his own stores on a Saturday morning.

Now, granted, it's been a number of years since I've stepped foot in a BB. But laptops all came with the $49 "antivirus and optimization package". You could get one without after you tracked down an employee and gave the secret handshake. They wouldn't honor their online prices in-store. They would try and beat you down with extended warranties and over-priced Monster cables that "it won't work without".

In summary, from the moment I walked in the door it constantly felt like they were trying to pull one over one me. Add to that poor selection, and horrifically bad service, and I would have rather done without than go to a BB.

Sounds like they might have improved recently, though.

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