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

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#321

Post by maxyme » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:10 PM UTC

let_var wrote: post #311

I have had good experience (on multiple occasions) when buying consumer electronic from the Best Buy. They do price matching, you get to experience the product, and the customer rep was really helpful. I can't say the same about the snob at the Apple Store.

You have to keep in mind though their "price matching" is basically dependant on whatever manager is currently working. Ive had them outright refuse a match on Amazon because the margins for them were too thin, or even add in the cost of same day shipping to the "matched" price.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#322

Post by jmuguy » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:13 PM UTC

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.

I ordered a MBP from Adorama and got shipped an empty box. It took about a month to get the notebook. I ended up ordering from B&H and having Adorama just refund me because they were taking legit forever to "investigate". I hate that I didn't throw the box back at the UPS guy when I realized it was empty :(

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#323

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #305

3rdAccount wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromebooks from anywhere including Walmart are of course free of any crap.

They probably have slightly different hardware to keep a price edge. But anyway, to anyone on HN I'd think bundled software is pretty much a non-issue; I've always installed Windows fresh and I feel like doing that isn't a big deal if you are technical.

Where do you get a free non OEM install of Windows if you aren’t an MSDN subscriber?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#324

Post by foxhop » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

I went to Best Buy recently on a whim to try and _not_ by something from Amazon.

I had found a product on the Best Buy website, a $79 55-65 inch LCD/Plasma corner wall mount. So I drove to the store and looked for it. This was roughly 2 months after Christmas.

The store had about 300 units of a $199.99 version and 0 units of any thing the below $150...

I spent about 15 minutes looking for somebody to tell me what I already expected, they only carry the expensive one in store.

I bought the same brand (slightly different model number off Amazon.com [likely to prevent price matching]) while in the Best Buy for $69, shipped to my house.

It was $10 cheaper, I didn't need to leave my house, I didn't need to talk to anyone...

Best Buy completely lost my sale because they didn't have inventory and pushed a more expensive and way higher margin unit ...

I was so disappointed because I really, really tried to _not_ buy from Amazon.

It's no wonder Amazon is eating the world while only being mediocre... Retailers are simply botching any advantage they have (being local) for the last 15 years...

(disclosure: I worked for Sears Electronics department part time for about 3 years while going to college [sears no longer sells electronics like Televisions or radios])

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#325

Post by ryneandal » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

beenBoutIT wrote: post #301

portaljester wrote: post #256

I was gifted a 25$ Best buy gift card, I thought I would never remember to use it. One day the lady is looking at makeup and I see a Best buy. I go in looking for a new mousepad. The place is full of washers and blenders etc. The only mouse pad they had was 60$ (extreme gaming blah blah). I ended up grabbing a Pink Floyd vinyl for 22$. I found it odd but if it works it works.

Buying someone a gift card is another way of telling them that you're a consumerist idiot who doesn't give a shit about them. "First and foremost, I don't care about you at all. That said, instead of giving you $20 in cash, I'm going to give that same $20 to BestBuy and force you to shop there or forgo my gift in its entirety, because I'm an imbecile." Intelligent people who don't give a shit about a person will alwa…

I'm truly glad I don't see the world in such drastic black and white. Sounds miserable.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#326

Post by chillwaves » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:27 PM UTC

mgleason_3 wrote: post #255

tyu100 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon is a small miracle. They stock everything, it comes right to your door, the prices are competitive in general and with Subscribe and Save you are doing even better. E-books are also incredible and with Prime you get Instant Video thrown in for free. I'm sure bad experiences happen but compared to driving to the big box suburban wasteland to browse through a limited selection, Amazon is a godesend.

In my experience, Best Buy’s return policy and process has been awful. Granted it’s been years because it was so bad. Literally the worst of any store I’ve ever shopped at. Last time I bought a router from them it was defective. I had to stand in line for over an hour. The clerk was surly and didn’t believe it was defective. Kept opening the box, pulling everything out, looking at all the pieces. Putting it all back.…

I just charge back.

They screwed me over on a price match and I ended up getting the whole thing charged back.

BestBuy want to play games? I can play too.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#327

Post by emodendroket » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:28 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #323

emodendroket wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably have slightly different hardware to keep a price edge. But anyway, to anyone on HN I'd think bundled software is pretty much a non-issue; I've always installed Windows fresh and I feel like doing that isn't a big deal if you are technical.

Where do you get a free non OEM install of Windows if you aren’t an MSDN subscriber?

Well, I am an MSDN subscriber. But if you aren't, can't you get a "recovery disc" from Microsoft somewhere and then use the serial on the label? I can recall doing something like this in the past.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#328

Post by riku_iki » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:31 PM UTC

rrix2 wrote: post #307

j79 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The delivery, unboxing, etc, was all free (prime) "Free" in that it came with your Prime membership which you paid for ;)

your parent comment got more than 120$ of benefit in a single order; if you amortize the cost of that prime membership across a year and use it like this it certainly seems closer to free.

I was in similar situation not long time ago, and they wanted to charge me some money (around $100) for TV setup, even I am prime member.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#329

Post by NelsonMinar » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:32 PM UTC

Don't forget, Best Buy's Geek Squad has been acting as an extension of the FBI for awhile. The FBI regularly pays Geek Squad employees to report on suspected illegal activity worth investigating further. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/geek-squads-relationsh...

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#330

Post by jpindar » Thu, Jul 19, 2018, 7:32 PM UTC

segmondy wrote: post #107

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's great for a big-ticket, low-margin purchase like an MBP, but poor for cheap, high-margin items like cables and accessories. Which is, of course, where they really make money. They'll price match a laptop to Amazon, but cannot price match a $2 Ethernet patch cable because they're retail space, not a warehouse.

I've bought plenty of SD cards online for my raspberry pi and dashcam. They all die and start giving errors within a month or two. Even tho I went of my way to buy name brand, and not the cheapest 4 star cards. :-/

These are some of the most counterfeited items of all, so I'll only buy them from industrial distributors. I figure they are accustomed to vetting their suppliers and have a reputation to protect.