Why the grim reaper of retail hasn't come to claim Best Buy

Los Angeles Times ^ | 07/18/2017 | By James F. Peltz and Jack Flemming

[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,

[discostu]

I know people at Amazon. In fact not counting waitstaff at bars I frequent I probably know more people working for Amazon than any other retail business. As global commerce has enabled consumers business relationships have lost value. You know longer need to “know a guy” to get the best deal. In the long run it’s good for consumers, though it does mean we never get our butts kissed anymore. As an anti-social person I’m totally cool with that, I prefer to get in, get my stuff and get out without having to learn anybody’s name.

[packrat35]

I have yet to find a BB employee that knows anything. I think most would have to think REAL hard to give me their own name.

Back when I used to go there, I was mistaken for an employee every time I went there. What’s worse is that I was more helpful, apparently I even had people thank me for helping them. One even told me I was the most helpful employee she ever met! LOL

Sorry, but BB is a no go area for the packrat!

[packrat35]

Yep they are always pushing their Monster cables on uninformed newbies for $39.99 and up. The same cables that cost less than $10 most anywhere ele and less than $5.00 online.

And don’t get me started on the magazine subscriptions and extended warranties they pushed on you at checkout making their checks out the slowest in the history of retail!

[packrat35]

Geek Squad was/is a joke!