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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

#81

Post by JustSomeNobody »

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 bought my last Macbook Pro from Best Buy. I had just moved and still had a coupon. No crapware to be found.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#83

Post by MichaelApproved »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #69

I actually think it's Amazon that has the poor business model, and I'm puzzled how it's working for them. They are usually not competitive on price compared to other sites, and sometimes it's the same price off the shelf at Best Buy. Big ticket items from Amazon usually have free shipping, but it's a 3-4 day wait unless you pay for "free" shipping by joining Prime. But I quit Prime a few years ago after 10 out of my…

For big ticket items, I'm usually shopping around for the best price. For little items I try to price shop but the convenience of having it delivered, saving time by not having to go to the store, simple returns (UPS will often pick up package for free), saving 5% on many items with the Amazon card, and their amazing customer service makes me forgive some higher prices.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#84

Post by josefresco »

nwsm wrote: post #71
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?

Good point. The difference being that "last mile", where I feel the transport has many more variables than a massive Best Buy truck moving merchandise from warehouse to store. It's also in Best Buy's interest to not damage the shit they're going to sell, whereas once the package is bought, and handed off to UPS/USPS/FedEx responsibility gets murky and easier to shirk.

The other major difference is my "return anxiety". If I get home and my TV doesn't work, I hop back in the car and swap it for a new one (round trip maybe 2 hours).

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#85

Post by gnicholas »

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…

One reason Best Buy is still alive is that they effectively price discriminate between online buyers and in-store buyers.

I saw a deal for a 48” Vizio TV on bestbuy.com for $206 (in 2016, this was a screaming deal). I ordered for in-store pickup. When I went to the store, I saw the TV was listed for sale at $400 or so, with no indication of a better price online.

So Best Buy makes tons of money off folks who wander in, while doing good volume on online sales with lower margins.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#86

Post by gameswithgo »

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.

A while back we had a refrigerator die, and I was like "no problem, I'll run to home depot and get one".

they could NOT handle it. Everyone seemed annoyed that I wanted to do this. They have refrigerators on the floor but only a few are for sale, and they can do delivery in theory but they didn't seem to know if their delivery guys were available or not.

I went over to Lowes next door and it was the same deal. I was astonished. Couldn't give them my money.

So yeah I got it online, which was a very smooth experience but was without a refrigerator for a few days which is not good.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#87

Post by ahi »

paulgb wrote: post #64
duxup wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a lot of "two day" Amazon shipping turn into 3 or 4... the arrival date even on Amazon will show in the past for a few days. What used to be a sure thing from Amazon, I now just think of as "maybe". Having said that the crazy mess (tiny isles and disorganized) and $20 USB cables were Best Buy stores made me give up on them a long time ago. I've visited a few times recently to hopefully get a look at some lap…

I almost bought a calendar on Prime today only to see that it "usually ships in 1-2 months(!)" Increasingly it feels like as a Prime subscriber I pay for shipping twice: once with my prime subscription, and a second time with the shipping cost built in to the price compared to other retailers. I ended up getting an equivalent item from Target, which ended up being cheaper even without "free" shipping.

This is true even on Amazon. Very often the Prime price is exactly the same as their third-party price + shipping. This will be my last year of Prime.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#89

Post by fhood »

Dayshine wrote: post #76
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.

Wait really? What's to stop me from setting up a side business selling mbp hard drives then?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#90

Post by mimimihaha »

jurassic wrote: post #42
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…

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…

Honestly i’ve bought and returned plenty of stuff from Amazon. I never deal with their shit when something comes to me less than par. When I pay for prime, I expect to be paying for any mishandling of my items as well. Nearly every item i’ve wanted to return i’ve been told to just keep and i’ve never had any trouble with them. I always tell them i’m more than happy to send it back but they always refuse and just tell me to keep it anyways. I’ve been refunded several items in the $60-$70 range and told to keep it. It takes a lot to actually get flagged in their system. Especially if you’ve been a prime member for several years. (I think we’ve been members since 2008 or so). Don’t ever be scared to ask for it when it’s necessary and get your hard earned cash back.
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