Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 468 posts

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#201

Post by steveeq1 »

j79 wrote: post #199
steveeq1 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I quit Prime a few years ago after 10 out of my last 10 orders arrived late I have a hard time believing this. I've never had late shipments with amazon nor have any of my friends. Are you exaggerating or is there any omitted context?

Prime member for the last 8 years but I'm seriously considering canceling next year (mostly due to the price hike in Prime). I've had plenty of items arrive late or not even at all, with stretches where I've had back-to-back-to-back issues with Amazon, so frustrating that I considered canceling Prime right then and there (~3 years ago). A couple times they were delivered to our neighbors house next door (who dropped…

I live in Los Angeles and have had the complete opposite experience. Been a prime member for 4 years now, I order from them all the time, and shipments always come on time with no problems whatsoever.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#202

Post by ciaranm »

Milner08 wrote: post #49
kop316 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From observing comments here, it seems to be regional and dependent on the carrier. In my experience it has been the USPS (though I am sure people in other regions will say UPPS is fine, but UPS is bad, or FedEx is bad). When I saw that Amazon was shipping via USPS, I automatically knew not to bother to check for it until at least the third day of the "two day" shipping. What was even more annoying is half the time i…

Interesting in the UK they have their own courier who tend to be better than the rest, until it goes wrong that is. Then its a pain in the arse.

I find amazon's own courier is by far and away the most likely to deliver damaged goods, FWIW (Central/East London)

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#203

Post by daphneokeefe »

duxup wrote: post #20
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'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.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#204

Post by kitotik »

kchoudhu wrote: post #191
misterbwong wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally agree w/ your sentiment but don't assume you aren't being tracked. You most assuredly are. If you get a chance, try looking up how retailers are now sharing/selling "Level 3" data with some 3rd parties.

Cash is still a thing.

not just at the point of sale though. from license plate scanning in the parking lot, to facial recognition and traffic analysis in the store, modern brick and mortar retail is not far behind e-commerce when it comes to privacy intrusions to collect data.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#205

Post by spathi_fwiffo »

Guest9812398 wrote: post #141

Similar to a lot of people in this topic, I recently visited a Best Buy for the first time in years, and was impressed with the new interior and layout. I ended up leaving and buying what I needed on Amazon though. I had limited time in the store and didn't feel knowledgeable enough to choose between a handful of products, so I went home to do some research before ordering. I wonder if Best Buy would benefit from a l…

If I'm browsing around a Best Buy, I almost always pull put an item i am looking at on Amazon, so that I can check for price match and check reviews/research.

kind of a reverse of the old model of playing with something in store, then buying it online.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#206

Post by gmiller123456 »

steveeq1 wrote: post #167
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…

> But I quit Prime a few years ago after 10 out of my last 10 orders arrived late I have a hard time believing this. I've never had late shipments with amazon nor have any of my friends. Are you exaggerating or is there any omitted context?

No, this absolutely happened. Since I no longer actually bought many things from Amazon due to price, I would only buy something from there if I really needed it fast and couldn't buy it locally. They were usually cheap, fairly rare items. Looking at my order history, they're things like some transistors, tent stakes, and printer ink. I imagine that played a role in the fact that they arrived late. Since I needed them fast, and they cost more than elsewhere, and arrived late, it pretty much means I overpaid for an item that was useless to me, and I had to do without it when I really needed it.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#207

Post by 52-6F-62 »

nerdponx wrote: post #33
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.

What about consumer electronics like TVs and stereo systems. Are those low-margin?

Can confirm the other comment. TV's are very low margin. It's not uncommon for them to sell at a loss, or even severe loss (if you're buying other higher margin items).

Audio isn't typically so bad, but I think it depends on the systems.

The "home theatre in a box" items outside of Bose tend to be pretty low margin in a lot of cases.

Real amp/stereo/surround setups can be pretty decent margin.

My knowledge is derived from a smaller, mid/high-end outfit, so I'm not too sure about Best Buy but I assume the TV's are about the same.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#208

Post by mikec3010 »

octorian wrote: post #181
mikec3010 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're the same age and this was exactly how I felt going to CompUSA in the late 90s. My first big purchase was spending $85 on a 32mb SIMM module for my Pentium 1 system (maybe it was 2 16mb, I can't remember if they needed to be installed in pairs, maybe that was only ECC?). I would ogle the DVD burners and SCSI cards but couldn't afford either.

And then you discovered that there were online vendors who sold that same stick of RAM for $22 + S/H. Back in those days, the price difference between stores and online/mail-order vendors was enormous. Mostly because the customer populations didn't overlap much, so they could get away with it. Also, the cost of shipping usually canceled out any cost/benefit with smaller items.

I was still much too naive about online orders back then. But you reminded me of the "rebates" fiasco. Remember those days? I once got my rebate rejected because I sent the original receipt and not a photocopy.

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#209

Post by aembleton »

brootstrap wrote: post #115
jccalhoun wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

interesting. the 'digital natives' are definitely not computer experts. They are 100% users and know how to work a phone/tablet , connect to app store, download apps and play them. They don't know too much about what is actually happening. I've said it to my wife so many times now it is engrained in her... we are driving somewhere (live in midwest). she pulls up phone and tries to do something on internet. when it ta…

Does her satellite phone connect to the local cell network when she's in a city? What phone is that?

Re: Best Buy Is Thriving in the Age of Amazon

#210

Post by tyu100 »

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…

Bought my tv from Best Buy (in Canada) last year. Better selection than Amazon for electronics plus free delivery and wall mount and a store in my city in case of service issues. For small electronics I can also just drive there instead of waiting two days for delivery.

I like Amazon a lot but Best Buy is doing well for themselves in the new retail era (so far). In some ways, I think Walmart may be a bigger issue for Best Buy because they have a huge selection and a bigger physical footprint.

Post reply on HN