Posted on 01/02/2012 9:56:28 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits. I can’t say when exactly, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.
Consider a few key metrics. Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City, the company is losing market share. Its last earnings announcement disappointed investors. In 2011, the company’s stock has lost 40% of its value. It’s forward P/E is a mere 6.23 (industry average is 10.20). Its market cap down to less than $9 billion. Its average analyst rating, according to The Street.com, is a B-.
Those are just some of the numbers, and they don’t look good. They bear out a prediction in March from the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, which forecast “the worst is yet to come” for Best Buy investors. With the flop of 3D televisions and the expansion of Apple’s own retail locations, there was no killer product on the horizon that would lift it from the doldrums. Though the company accounts for almost a third of all U.S. consumer electronics purchases, analysts noted, the company remains a ripe target for more nimble competitors.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
In a rare defense of Brick and Mortar stores...:
How many of us are guilty of wasting sales staff time “researching” a product, only to leave the store empty handed and purchase on-line.
I’ll admit to going to stores to learn, touch, and feel, but I ALWAYS decline offers to assist, when I know I’m buying on-line.
To be honest, in the past, when I was interested in buying a product, I would always got to the Best Buy in my neighborhood which had a very attentive staff. I would get the lowdown on the product- and then I’d buy it online cheaper and with no sales tax. I believe the sales tax advantage is now gone, but I’d probably still buy online.
Too bad. On black Friday I bought my daughter’s Kindle Fire, my wife’s Samsung Galaxy tablet, my son’s cell phone, my other son’s Martin guitar, and my Lenovo laptop there. Was in and out in under an hour and got pretty good deals on everything I bought....
I understand the words, yet they make no sense.
I'd rather read the reviews of many people who've owned the product than rely on some kid who's trying to strong arm me into some useless warranty.
I am willing to pay a little more to a retail store, but BB employees are useless. In the last 15 years I NEVER got help from a solitary employee and gradually stopped going.
If I want that service I can go to the wholesale club and get the same TV for less.
For what it is worth, at the present time, both retailers are in financial trouble, losing market share, have diminishing margins, are cutting employment, and are closing stores. A lot of smart money is betting they will be wiped out sometime within the next decade -- sooner rather than later.
I had the same experience when I went there to buy DVDs for gifts. They didn't have what I wanted, but I couldn't get the saleswoman to leave me alone.
I finally told her: I have Verizon FIOS, and I'm staying with them. I'm not interested in anything else. She finally got the hint.
The next time it happens, I'm going to tell the manager that I didn't come into the store to be bugged by a DirecTV salesman.
I purchased an “as-is” display model stove from them a few years ago. They dropped it off the tailgate onto the concrete while loading it on the truck. The glass top shattered and it had a huge dent in the side. The employees that dropped it had the nerve to laugh and tell me that it’s mine now as they walked back into the store, leaving the stove turned on its side on the ground.
I have never shopped at Best Buy since.
All you have to do is compare the business model at BB vs how it was say, 10 years ago, with the how other retailers like McDonalds have innovated and changed.
BB is going the way of the Sears catalog.
Seems like the corporate franchise stores are bending over backward to tailor their “shopping experience” to the atheists, hoplophobes, and sexually confused and are willing to alienate everyone else to do it.
Because the sales-people think they're uber-geeks but actually possess the same tech savvy as toe jam? Because they surreptitiously sign customers up for their ripoff extended warranties after they've repeatedly declined the high pressure push for the actuarially fraudulent scam? Because they add software to computers you purchase without your knowledge then give you the choice at the register to either pay for what you DIDN'T ask for, or wait to have them remove it? Because the terrestrial entrance to the netherworld is in their lunchroom?
Although, come to think of it, yeah, the "gradually" part does baffle me.
Their Black Friday deals are usually very good. They had the biggest discount on the Ipad 2 this year, which was something I bought.
For the past few years I'll go about an hour after they open to miss the camping out crowd, then get whatever I want. After purchasing everything from all of the different stores I frequent, I'll price them out on Amazon when I get home. If I find it cheaper, I'll order it online and take the product back to the store.
Exactly! Plus, talk about the ol’ bait-and-switch! Alive and well at Best Buy. Whatever great sale is in their ad, you can be sure they will be out of stock by the time you arrive. You can wait for it (an always undefined length of time) or gee, we have this great model of your item over here but it’s just a little more. You can pay that and take it home today. Story of every Best Buy shopping experience over the years here.
As mentioned above, I go to Best Buy to examine the product and then buy it from Amazon. No sales tax (yet) and delivered to my door. No salesperson trying to up-sell me either.
For computers, digital cameras, cellphones, Blu-ray players, etc... I find on-line to be a better source of information.
On-line tends to give the exact dimensions, exact specifications, exact capabilities, and multiple reviews. Whereas the in-store approach leaves you having to rely on the mentally challenged ‘help’ for that information. And nine times out of ten, they’ll go to their computer and look it up on-line, anyway.
Well, the good ones do, the rest just say, “I dunno.”
Televisions are about the only electronic item that I still need to see work in person.
Or the direct youtube link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KgUIbPfhSuo
I agree, but the brunette with the short hair was attractive. The Walmart ads were more annoying.
Back in the day, stores like that were all we had -- Sears, Radio Shack, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. Now we have options, and we don't need them.
I sure wouldn't be holding their stock if I owned it. It will continue its downward spiral, just as the article states.
same here. I got my new HDTV from Best Buy.
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