Box them up and resell them as new? http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/20/b...y-gets-busted/
Box them up and resell them as new? http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/20/b...y-gets-busted/
Hmm, I dunno what all the BB bashing is about, I have no complaints.
I read online reveiws, specs, etc before buying, checkout forums (lke SMC) before buying anything, but if it's a major purchase or something I don't fully understand, I still need to see, touch, and get my questions answered in a bricks & mortar world.
BB staff were very helpful & knowledgable when we bought our first big screen. The salesman helped us decide on a plasma since we watch lots of sports. Ditto when I bought Kindle Fire's for my wife & son (and I hate having Christmas gifts shipped). I saw the comment on their being a car lot and haven't found that so.
LOML checks just about everywhere and I always look on Amazon before buying. We have yet to find better prices on anything we bought over $100. In fact, LOML the TV had the price guarantee, and LOML was on a mission to find it cheaper. She never did.
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I know they're a big-box, but they are a specialty store with in-house expertise. If they go belly-up, where ya gonna go locally for electronics? Wally world, Fryes? There's some J.D. Powers-league customer servcie! I do go to Fryes occasionally, but know exactly what I'm buying and with the expectation I will get no help or service-after-sale.
There are gobs of places around here that sell TVs, computers, etc with people who are just as knowledgeable. Same with computers, ipods, phones, appliances,... whatever.
I don't know if I can think of a single place that has every single thing BB does, but I could literally go in the same shopping center that the BB is in here, and get a better deal on everything, except appliances (nobody else in that shopping center has them). For appliances, I'd have to go one street over to the local independent dealer who has been here for eons (where they have been honest, willing to deal, and always will deliver on saturdays for no extra charge). They have a wider range of appliances and you can even talk to the repair people if you really want to find out what comes back the least.
I just can't think of anything I'd have to go to BB for, and I can't think of anything they have in their store where I can't find just as good of a deal or better around here brick and mortar. Maybe CDs or something, I don't know - I don't really buy those in person now, either. It's always cheaper to get them online.
Congrats, you must have a BB that's on another planet in comparison to the rest of them, if you've found them to have good service and lower than anyone else prices. It's a very rare occasion that I don't hear some punk giving people a story about an item, and I can nearly always find an item cheaper somewhere else.
If they make you happy, then I guess that's all that counts.
I own a small mobile electronics business. Most people go to big box stores because they think they are going to be here for ever and they know what they're doing. I've been around to see Federated, Silo, Circuit city, Incredible universe, Best catalog showrooms and a few others rise and fall. So the next time any of you are looking for electronics of any kind, support your local small business!!! We fight harder for your business and do better work because our livelihood is on the line. We're not some kid that thinks he gets paid for getting out of bed in the morning. I'll put our knowledge and quality against the biggest box stores out there. Let em fall!!!
What you listen to is your business....what you hear is ours.
I don't even know where to find a non-chain electronics retailer and I am in a large metro area. One local TV retailer went out of business a while back. Meanwhile, there is a Best Buy everywhere one looks.
I take that back. There is one local electronics retailer, but they specialize in high end stuff.
Growing up in Southern Minnesota I always looked forward to the Best Buy ad on the weekend. I would scour that thing to learn all about the latest and greatest. In Minnesota we were lucky to have Target and Best Buy based locally. I never had a bad experience with either. I purchased quite a bit of stuff from Best Buy in High School and College and was never unhappy. I haven't made any major electronics purchases in quite a while except for my ThinkPad about 4 years ago. It had to get ordered online because no one locally had the ones with the TrackPoint.
Audio Perfection in Minneapolis is awesome. I remember going in there with my father when he was starting the sound system for the basement. Our sales guy was super cool, extraordinarily knowledgeable and blind. I was amazed, he was just fine getting around the shop and setting everything up for us to listen to. The speakers(NHT) that he ended up with weren't too unreasonable and the receiver(NAD) was also really cool. I just had to reprogram the remote for him over our Christmas visit as he had purchased a new VCR/DVD and TV.
In Chicago I've not been to The Little Guys but I enjoy their program on Sunday mornings on WLS 890 AM. I would start with them if I was in the market for electronics but would also price compare to make sure I'm getting a fair price. Like many I would expect to pay more, but a reasonable amount, to get something locally with local service and support if needed.
Many years ago my nephew worked at BB. When my wife and I were looking at refrigerators he bought it with his discount I bought a $1200 refrigerator for $600 as he told me the more expensive the item the more the markup was. This was about 10 years ago I think he said he paid 5% over there cost.
That's probably true for a lot of places and a lot of stores, regardless of what they sell. I'd imagine if they sold the $250 each washing machine and dryer only, they wouldn't be able to keep the lights on.
It's certainly true of cars. It's like the old saying about why do you rob a bank...
.. why do you charge a higher markup for people who can afford better things. Because they're the ones with the money.
We have a local appliance store like that too. I dont know that their pricing is as good as Best Buy or a similar store but their service and sales expertise is markedly better. That's the store I prefer we use. My wife picks our appliances though, and she really likes Kenmore, so ..................
I *hear* kenmore appliances are good. They won't deliver them on a saturday, though, so we don't have any.
Our sears appliance center is like walking in a bee swarm of salespeople. You can't just look at anything, and within seconds, if you dispense of one salesperson by telling them you're just looking, another one is on you right away. They must have a large % of their compensation as commission.
Since kmart and sears got together on tools and appliances, you can go to the kmart up the road and look at most of the same stuff and likely never see a person. Our "big k" or whatever they call the second from the largest size kmarts has 1 person patrolling the entire back of the store.
But our small guy (place with maybe 4 or 5 salespeople in the store) will always win, because he's been honest and forthright about everything I've asked, and offered plain as day answers to questions about energy use, reliability, claims of different manufacturers, and likely things coming in the future - down to which appliances he has and why. You just don't get that kind of talk at BB or sears, and every time, once he dispatches us off to a sales person to close the sale, he's been at least a dollar cheaper (on each appliance) than anyone else around, even though we didn't request it, he asked what we'd found for deals. (and they will deliver on saturday with guys who will properly hook up an appliance when they show up).
Hope they get what they deserve, Best Buy screwed up and lost a 200$ order of mine, and never gave me my money back.