Posted on 11/10/2005 8:04:58 PM PST by voletti
Wal-Mart is attacking the business model of the two largest U.S. consumer-electronics chains by offering lower-cost extended warranties. This holiday season, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ) has made no secret that it's gunning for the nation's two largest consumer-electronics chains, Best Buy (BBY ) and Circuit City Stores (CC ). Wal-Mart has spiffed up the interiors of many of its electronics departments and added a slew of high-end products, from Sony (SNE ) liquid-crystal-display televisions and Toshiba (TOSBF ) laptops to Apple (AAPL ) iPods. It's backing the changes with an aggressive holiday marketing campaign and a big day-after-Thanksgiving sale. But here's what really has Best Buy and Circuit City worried: Wal-Mart has entered their most profitable line of business, extended warranties, and it aims to turn that business on its head.
Although they don't disclose it in their financial filings, the real earnings engine at Best Buy and Circuit City is not the sale of gadgets themselves but the sale of warranties. Those are the high-priced, multiyear protection plans on TVs, computers, and other items that are hawked by the retailers' salespeople at the close of each purchase. This fiscal year analysts estimate warranty sales will account for more than a third of Best Buy's operating profit and all of Circuit City's. On Oct. 27, Bentonville (Ark.)-based Wal-Mart attacked that profit source by launching extended warranties on TVs and computers at prices that average 50% below Best Buy's and Circuit City's, says Jane J. Thompson, head of Wal-Mart's financial services.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
I have bought from there before. They had pretty good deals. So did Micro center Mall.
Seriously, would anyone admit to having purchased their home theater system from Walmart?
Actually, Christmas WAS a Celtic/Pagan holiday.... One that the Christian Church adopted/adapted when their empire expanded into the regions in which Celtic culture had previously dominated. They changed the name to include Christ..... But the common traditions are basically Pagan.
It's interesting you say that.
I am not an avid shopper, in fact I avoid it as much as possible when it comes to any kind of department store, and so I tend to seek places where there is the least amount of discomfort (for a lack of a better word). The experiences I have had in Target have crossed them off my list.
There is a certain "attitude" to the store that I would be more inclined to expect at Lord & Taylor or Macy's or Bloomingdale's, yet I find myself far more comfortable in those than in Target. So when it comes to a discount retailer I'll even take K-Mart over Target, even though I haven't shopped in K-Mart in years. But WalMart is convenient, so I'll stick with it.
I refuse to buy any hardware at best buy because they make their sales robots pester you endlessly about extended warranties.
I even had one tell me that the car stereo I was buying was crap and would break down immediately. I asked him if his boss knew that he was telling customers that they sold crap. Then he kept it up. I finally told him that if he so much as breaths loud enough for me to hear it, I wasn't going to buy the stereo and that he needed to piss off.
He did, then his boss got a phone call.
About a year ago I heard Clark Howard complaining that Best Buy has a terrible return policy.
They will grudgingly honor a warranty or complaint but as much as tell you to 'Don't come back'.
I haven't been back.
I've had great service at Best Buy!
Oh good grief - another one falling for the bogus nonsense.
I am not aware of anything that even resembles a service department at the big "W" outside of customer service!
Electronic's Express in Nashville, Tn. Close to Vandy.
As I am sure you know, they are getting these cheap, shoddy extended warranties from China where they are made in horrible sweat shops using child slave labor.
They are handsdown far superior to PepBoys when it comes to automotive service department.
Wal-Mart lost my pictures from a Carribean vacation, irreplaceable pictures.......
After a few weeks of my calling they summoned me to say that they found my film. I went to the store, got my "Free pictures" and opened up an envelope full of nothing but empty ruined negatives. I threw the BS envelope back on the counter, and left that store vowing to never let a monolithic anything get a piece of something so precious to me.
I went shortly after that depressing fiasco to a Ritz Camera Shop and purchased a new hi-tech digital camera. No more development problems for me.
The clerk at Ritz was excellent, the service and all was spectacular, and the camera that I bought was something that has improved the quality of my life immensely. (I like pictures.)
You will never duplicate that sort of thing at a Wal-Mart.
I am not sure which I despise more, Wal-Mart or the Unions. I suppose that I'll just wait and see who survives the war, and then I'll choose sides. Personally, I hope that they both lose.
I went into BB 2 weeks ago to try to get them to price match some software that just came out. They wouldn't, even though their policy was to do it. They said that because the other store was out of the software (first day, they sold out) they couldn't do it.
Pure, uttter BS.
I told the manager that I was in the market for a $1200 laptop and that because of her dancing to not give me a $10 break, she lost the future sale of the laptop.
And HDTV, and MP3 player, etc.
Fry's is the best electronics store, bar none. They take everything back, no questions asked, they match everything, no questions asked, and they let their sales people make decisions.
I gave up on those idiots (Manny,Moe and Jack@ss) years ago when I thought I would save some money on engine mount replacements for my kids car. After 5 return trips, Yes, that's "Five" with a capital "F" to replace failed mounts, Apparently they only are supposed to last a few weeks anyways, I swore off of ever darkenning their doorway again.
However I did get a free oil change coupon out of the whole ordeal. Plus the satisfaction of scaring away dozens of customers everytime I returned. I have a tendency to be a bit loud when I have an unresolved customer complaint!
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