Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#261

Post by lovehashbrowns » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

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.

That's super annoying. Amazon needs to be clear when an item is going to take a damn month to arrive. A giant huge warning at the top of the page telling me that I should be okay with waiting 1990's amount of time to get the package. And I should be able to filter it out of the search results, too.

I bought hangers, HANGERS, from Amazon, shipped and made by AmazonBasics, and they're "Arriving Aug 15 - Sep 21". Uhh? Well now I'm gonna have to go to the store anyway because I need hangers NOW not 5 damn years from now. Also how is it possible to have a whole MONTH for the expected delivery date?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#262

Post by throwawaymath » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

bachmeier wrote: post #128

throwawaymath wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here you go: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/06/17/sixty-four... tl;dr: As of June 2017, 64% of American households had Amazon Prime. 43% of all American dollars spent online are spent at Amazon.

Hate to be that guy, but I have Amazon Prime in my household because my wife uses it just enough to be worthwhile. She makes only a small percentage of her purchases there, and the others in our household make none. The 43% figure is more relevant, and that's 43% of a relatively small share of all consumer spending, with much of it being done by a small group of large Amazon customers. So I don't think it's accurate…

Okay...here's more statistics for you. 75% of American online shoppers use Amazon for most of their online shopping [1]. 80% of Americans shop online [2]. So approximately 60% of all Americans frequently shop at Amazon.

_________

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/19/more-than-75-percent-of-us-o...

2. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/12/19/online-shopping-and-e-...

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#263

Post by kop316 » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

daphneokeefe wrote: post #203

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…

If you are a Prime buyer and your package is not delivered by the promised date, you can request and receive a free one-month extension of your Prime membership. I have done this several times. For obvious reasons, Amazon doesn't publicize this much.

They did that for me a couple of times, but what started to happen is packages were mark delivered, then not be there. I complained to Amazon, who gave me the run around (and kept it open), so when it came a day later, there was all the sudden no issue.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#264

Post by mieseratte » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #6

When I go in Best Buy, the only people in there are old Boomers and boy do they love Best Buy and talking to the workers there. That generation has nothing but problems with their devices, it's like a mini game for them.

Might just be your neck of the woods? I went in last week looking for a portable speaker[0] and was pretty young, of course my metro skews young so it might just be my neck of the woods.

[0] - If anyone has a recommendation for a good one that lacks a built-in microphone / assistant I'd be very grateful.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#265

Post by nilkn » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

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…

There's both a Best Buy and Microcenter near me (I feel very fortunate about this). I always buy from one of those two when I can instead of Amazon. It's always preferable to not deal with shipping at all, especially considering receiving packages at an apartment complex is never quite ideal, and it's always same-day.

There are other benefits as well. A year ago, I was trying to decide between a 27" 1440p 16:9 144hz monitor vs. a 34" 1440p 21:9 100hz monitor. Microcenter made it super easy for me to just try out both and return one. I suppose I could've done this with Amazon but it wouldn't have been as straightforward. (I went with the latter, for what it's worth.)

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#266

Post by ntoeu0nt » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

What is Best Buy anymore? I recently bought a refrigerator there and it was a really bizarre experience. It seemed more like a small mall than a big box store. The appliances were in a section called "Appliances by Pacific Sales", where Pacific Sales is a chain of stores in LA. We actually bought our oven at Pacific Sales years earlier. Then they had the "Apple Store at Best Buy," next to the "Verizon Store at Best Buy." I couldn't really tell whether Best Buy was directly selling anything or not. It just seemed to be a collection of stores within the Best Buy store. It was like a small mall, but only with electronics and appliances. So odd.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#267

Post by silveira » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:50 PM UTC

Sometimes they have some good deals online. I buy and get in the store. In the store itself, it's kind of a mess. I went to buy an $80 item that I saw online but the price there was $100, had to talk to manager to get the price (price matching themselves?).

The thing that makes me usually go to Amazon or elsewhere compared to Best Buy is the return policy. Best Buy will give you only 15 days to do a return with refund. Many times 15 minutes is not enough to install the product, test it and go to the store to return it.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#268

Post by duckarmada » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

ntoeu0nt wrote: post #266

What is Best Buy anymore? I recently bought a refrigerator there and it was a really bizarre experience. It seemed more like a small mall than a big box store. The appliances were in a section called "Appliances by Pacific Sales", where Pacific Sales is a chain of stores in LA. We actually bought our oven at Pacific Sales years earlier. Then they had the "Apple Store at Best Buy," next to the "Verizon Store at Best B…

This is more common than you might expect. Another example: The electronics and games section at Target is staffed and run by a company called Marketsource.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#269

Post by fireattack » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:51 PM UTC

avgDev wrote: post #79

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,…

Mining existed when ATI is still a thing?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#270

Post by tjr225 » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 5:52 PM UTC

_JamesA_ wrote: post #247

Fry's doesn't appear to be doing so well. The Austin store reduced it's product selection during a remodel a couple of years ago. For a tech city Austin only has 1 Fry's and 1 Altex for serious electronic / computer stores. I wish MicroCenter would open a location here.

Had a MicroCenter back in Kansas City...that is a FUN store to go to for geeks.