Posted on 07/18/2017 9:31:05 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Five years ago Best Buy Co. looked like a retail dinosaur, another victim of e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com and other online sellers.
The big-box electronics chain was suffering dwindling sales and profits due in good part to “showrooming,” when shoppers would come in to a Best Buy store to check out televisions, computers and other items in person, and then buy them at cheaper prices at Amazon or elsewhere online.
Best Buy also was struggling with executive turmoil and facing a buyout threat from a major stockholder. The chain in 2012 named a new chief executive, Hubert Joly, but the Frenchman came from the hospitality field and had no retail experience.
His appointment stunned analysts, with one saying that fixing Best Buy was “a herculean task even for an accomplished retail executive.”
But Joly has proved up to the task so far. Under his turnaround plan, Best Buy has rebounded to remain one major U.S. retailer that’s holding its own in the face of Amazon’s relentless growth and the conventional retail industry’s slump.
Best Buy “came out the other side successfully to defend itself against Amazon,” said Peter Keith, an analyst with the investment firm Piper Jaffray & Co.
As more consumers shift to online shopping, other brick-and-mortar retailers have closed thousands of stores in shopping malls and elsewhere in the last year. A few have filed for bankruptcy protection, including rival electronics chain RadioShack.
Best Buy still operates 1,600 outlets — including 143 in California, its biggest market — and Joly views the stores as “a great asset” even as Best Buy also moves increasingly to online sales.
“We don’t see ourselves as a brick-and-mortar retailer, we’re a multichannel retailer” that combines the stores, Best Buy’s website and its phone app to boost sales,
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
When people shell out a thousand bucks or more for a flat screen TV, they pick it up and handle it themselves.
You gonna trust a USPS goober to not throw this Amazon package on your porch?
Close the thread. That’s all there is to say about that.
I love Amazon. Shop it regularly. But for many things, you just gotta put your hands on the product before you buy it.
I think that is the point of the story. How did they survive when their customers 5 years ago felt the way you do? Apparently they have figured out how to please some people and get them to walk in the door again.
My son is a corporate bankruptcy attorney and used to live in an apartment overlooking the Best Buy headquarters. He joked that he was waiting for the buzzards to start circling.
So good to hear that Best Buy is doing well.
And it also explains why Bezos is investing in brick and mortar. He realizes he’s missing something important.
Now we’ve got to get rid of the tax breaks on on-line purchases. I want to see Amazon on a level playing field with everyone else.
The employees are local. The property taxes paid by the site owner are local.
I love Best Buy, and know the sales people well. They remember my name, know what I like, are low pressure (no commissions) and extremely knowledgeable. Their prices are great and their open box surprises are sometimes a steal.
The owner is a friend of my cousin. He is an Orthodox Jew and big conservative, Trump supporter.
I love B&H. I always stop in when I’m in the neighborhood
That doesn't sound very "great."
And the corporate profits are not, and usually there are no property taxes as the big chains work deals with the city to even show up. The “shop local” movement is an anti-big box store movement. Best Buy is one of the companies you’re supposed to avoid when “shopping local”, so going there is exactly the opposite of “shop local”. I personally don’t care, I think the movement is stupid, I shop convenient. But the movement has rules, and Best Buy is outside of them.
Don't ever buy anything at Best Buy without checking their own website first. Sometimes the prices on bestbuy.com are different than at the store and even less than Amazon. Of course, they'll price match.
>> GREAT delivery...no shipping from Friday sunset to Saturday
>> sunset.
>
> That doesn’t sound very “great.”
Don’t order on Friday, then.
If you order Saturday, they will process your order as soon as the sun goes down.
Besides, they’re Trump supporters.
Meanwhile, Bezos and the box stores are NOT.
packrat I hear you, I had purchased cameras, appliances, computers, everything from them 10 to 15 years ago, but I eventually came to hate them. Prices too high, stupid reward points scams and no return on computers or electronic devices if you open the box. I began going to hhgregg and anyone else before going there. I clicked on the article because I recall reading how they were going do the tubes years ago. I did return this past fall after probably and ironically 5 years and noticed a difference. Purchased 3 computers for wife and kids and had no problem returning one because the performance just stunk. Like ordering on line then picking up at store in seconds on way home from work or have the wife grab for me. Maybe you should reconsider. PS, the stupid rewards program is still a scam and insulting to their customers.
If you don’t need the very latest machinery, their refurbished and open box site can provide some good deals. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/electronics/outlet-refurbished-clearance/pcmcat142300050026.c?id=pcmcat142300050026
They will ship from anywhere in their store system that has the item on the shelf.
savoir faire
I don’t think that phrase means what you think it means.
The corporate income tax issue is a wash, as they will be paid regardless of where you shop.
Big box retailers are usually located in investor-owned retail developments. Home Depot, Wal Mart, and Best Buy aren’t real estate developers/investors in such ventures; they’re rent-paying tenants. Sometimes the municipality grants a tax abatement; sometimes not. But if the municipality is doing its job right, it makes sure it gets something — jobs, sales tax revenues, or PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes). I have no love for large corporations, but the people working in the stores are my neighbors, and the more taxes the city collects there, the less it will be looking to me to cough up.
Yes. But there is a lot of counterfeit stuff on ebay. You really have to be careful there. I got ripped on a bomber jacket. False advertising. Ebay never responded to my flag.
How do they get a straight answer at Best Buy?
I never had any luck with them or their amateurish Geek Squad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.