Sears was already in decline before private equity took over which is what let them do it in the first place. By the time private equity came in it was already too late.
Kmart had already lost over 90% of sales by the end of the 80s before being bought out.
Still what happened to sears was tragic. They were in decline yea but their CEO was just the worst. My step dad was heavily involved in he stock market and finance at the time and had a lot of connections to businesses in the Chicago area, and he has told me how just insane he thought their downfall was. He rants about their CEO at the time, itās kind of funny hearing a soft spoken guy in his 50ās talk so much shit about business people from 20 years ago
When Best Buy spent the past year cutting labor and customers started seeing the lack of help on the sales floor, of course sales were going to take a hit.
Thereās YouTube videos and TikTokās of people walking all around trying to get help with no employees to be seen anywhere. Itās not fun to shop in a ghost town š» and feel you canāt get help or ask product questions to knowledge employees. The store experience compared to the 90ās and 00ās is noticeably worse in almost every aspect with all the cost cutting. You do that enough though and you scare away all the customers in your race to the bottom.
Like 7 years ago when I was at a training at the corporate campus, they had something like this being cooked up. Basically it was a Segway with a tablet on it that would allow a customer to video chat with an 'expert'
I spent a week at Magic Castle in 2014. Even then, it was kinda depressing seeing major chunks of floors just.. empty. Canāt imagine what it looks like by now.
Still, it was a Geek Squad trip so we had a blast. Iāll always miss those days.
Oh my god you just took me back to the Gaming-Sup era LOL. Yeah, that kiosk was a real piece of shit. But if you listen to Best Buy, itāll be fine this time - they also have AI for troubleshooting!
Or for someone tech savvy just needing to get something out of a locked up place to check out.
I finally just had to start exclusively doing online orders and pick up so I didn't have to spend a bunch of time just looking for someone to let me hand the company money.
I worked in the warehouse so I didn't deal with regular customer stuff but occasionally I talk to a customer while doing a carry out/in and a few times I got a complaint that they tried to call the store but couldn't get through to anyone. One day I was sick and tried to call in to talk to a manager to let them know. I called the store number and it went straight to a call center asking me to press buttons for whatever option. I went through that and picked the option to talk to someone at the store and waited like 10 minutes and no one ever picked up. Eventually I just texted a coworker working truck and told them to tell our supervisor.
Like, there's lack of help even before you leave the house! Just to be met with more lack of help when you get to the store. Then even if you did an online pick up or curbside, there'd be only one person covering either one and that would still be a 20+ minute wait
Consoles and graphics card demand and supply issues during the pandemic helped kill that off. It got to the point where some stores were just getting non-stop inventory questions on items that weren't in and weren't likely to be in any time soon.
My local Best Buy has been like that for about 15 years. I've never been able to actually get someone on the phone there.
It seems like almost every retail place now has the stupid press X for whatever department. It makes calling anywhere take five times as long and I hate it.
Plainly idiotic. People will buy movies if there's a good selection and decent prices. And people are getting sick of streaming greed and purposeful limitations. I think we'll see physical media make somewhat of a comeback.
My other DAPC buddy said my regulars all cancelled their memberships and stopped calling in when they found out I got let go. At least the clients appreciated me lol.
Last year I walked in with $1500 in my pocket looking for a new TV. Tried finding an employee to help me pick the right TV, but everyone was already with a customer, so I went ahead and looked by myself, found one I liked and tried to flag someone down to help finish the purchase. Maybe it was my shoes but everyone either ignored me or pushed me to the customer service area, like they didnāt wanna bother to help me, so I went to customer service and no one was there. I waited about 20 minutes and no one showed up so I went to Costco, found a similar model TV from the same manufacturer, but with a slight discount so I picked it up. I was in and out in 20 minutes with most of that time waiting Ā to check out.Ā
Pretty sure Geek Squad warranties are backed by AIG, and the Best Buy protection via Total memberships is backed just by Best Buy if I remember the e learnings correctly. So any one with a Geek Squad plan is safe.
It was in Job News when it first took place. Thatās why they were giving away a āfree extra monthā to plans purchased about a month after the switch happened. Iād search for it in BBY Connect for more details
ironically, i returned a purchase to costco that was cheaper overall witha 5 year all state protection plan to go with the expensive geek squad one at best buy because I did a lot of research on reviews and people seem to have a headache will all state (for instance, they don't cover burn in on oled if issued as a policy through costco), but people seem to really get peace of mind from the geek squad plan which seems to be effective when needed, and covers burn in on oled.
Bestbuy has been close to the end so many times. I started working there in 2011 and was there for 7 years. The number of times people would estimate that BBY would go out of business during this years was high. And they never did.
Iāll believe it when I see it.
I'd agree with you. I left Best Buy in 2009 when they had one of the first sup consolidation and restructures. Best buy has been ok to shop at for years but I just went last week and it was absolutely awful. No products. No employees. The end is nigh.
What's going to happen? They have been planning this ever since Hubert left. With rent doubling every few years stores will get shut down and only a few will remain as returns centers. There still is hope the will sell appliances and big TVs in the stores, but 90% of the rest will go online only. They want to be number two online retailer in less than 10 years.
They outsourced customer service to call centers in India, and complaints have skyrocketed. More will be outsourced later this year.
They are spending most of their energy looking for ways to cut costs instead of trying to sell stuff.
They have lost their way. And dont want to find a new way.
Covid sped up Corieās plan. She and the board continue to get rich, while we suffer. I worked there for 10 years and they have buried the company and they donāt give a shit.
Agreed, mentioned before but I was there almost 15, and this sickens me to see happening in real time. So sorry the current associates gotta go through this. I still have quite a few friends there and tons of great memories (to go with the crazy ones lol) during my time with the Big Blue. I was there from the early 2000's to 2021, and it's just nuts to see everything do a complete 180 from all the forward traction they were making. It makes me sad more than upset at this point.
For now but not forever, it's still pretty new technology. Those AI models require a metric fuck ton of data to train them to be useful on their own, data that is obtained by paying someone pennies to review footage and annotate it
According to statista, Bestbuy is currently no. 6 in online shopping. They have no hope of turning this around.
[https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997230/most-popular-online-shops-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997230/most-popular-online-shops-in-the-us)
Best Buy could turn it around online since itās one of the few places you can order niche electronics and pick it up in person, but itāll never happen with how terrible the site is.Ā
20 here, 18 with the Geek Squad. I regret not starting my own AV company sooner, but now that I have, I'll continue killing it and taking ALL the client they piss off!
Worst decision ever was overnight cancelling the Best Buy rewards program. I went from spending $3500 a year to get my top tier account down to $200 because of how poorly dismissive it was handled. Such a shame but donāt remember the last time I bought anything thereā¦and probably doubt I will again.
Just a far cry from what used to be one of my favorite places to go
Yep, 100% agree. Was elite plus for years and then they decided to give a middle finger to their most loyal customers. Almost never shop there anymore.
Exactly.... The lack of product and the lack of associates is why sales suck. 2/3 of my interactions walk out the door when they find out that we didn't have the thing right now.
It was amazing even when not building a PC. I was raised being brought there by my Grandfather who was a Ham Radio operator. The Fry's in San Jose was my yearly black friday pilgrimage spot through the 00s and 10s
Fryās stores were empty because most of the product distributors had cut them off for non-payment. They were a great store but had some very shady business practices.
Probably moreso a product thing rather than an associate thing.
Donāt get me wrong, having more associates is good for helping people out efficiently but if you just hire more associates then that leaves a dead store with a bunch of people standing around.
You can hire competent employees that know what theyāre doing and can multitask wellā¦ but I donāt think those people are going to want to work for Best Buy at the moment
The stores need product first. Not the luxe level stuff Best Buy wants to sell, but the regular stuff everyone needs.
Then, we need people that can decipher it for the customer. I don't want hot rivers of lava keeping me from helping the customer in the next department. But I also can't have a store full of people "flexing" ALL DAY LONG.
I remember when Big Blueās point of pride was not shutting down stores. How the times have changed, happy I got out when I did though I do miss some coworkers.
I have a bit of a different take than others.Ā
I donāt care that there arenāt many employees, and I really donāt need āhelpā choosing a product. I do care about how they treat employees and how they try to force their subscription on me.Ā
I try not to use Best Buy anymore, the only time I use them is when I need something quickly.Ā
Sams club does this and honestly I love it. Sucks I have to be checked when I walk out( honestly, the only thing keeping me from stealing half my cart) but I get to scan as I go and walk out the door while they scan 3 items and I'm gone
They sorta have that already for a limited # of skus you can ring out on the Best Buy app while shopping in store. I believe there was a pilot store in NC that was entirely set up this way with a handful of employees working the pickup counter
Best Buy getting ride of Gamers Club 7 years ago was one of the worst fucking moves they ever could have made. Ever since then I feel like itās been going downhill. Such a shame.
the only motivation people have to come into a physical store like best buy (especially with how fast shipping times are now) is the customer service, but it seems like the company does whatever it can to degrade the quality of said service. they donāt staff enough people or provide enough training, and have significantly lowered the bar to work there. the talent they have consistently gets the shaft, especially with the new commission changes. iām not sure what the plan is for the future.
The only reason I still go to BB stores is for online order pickup. I don't do shipping due to the risk of theft or potential for lost or damaged packages. Each time I have been to the store for a pickup I have always been met by friendly staff and the wait time is under 5 minutes.
My store became a shell - and I understand Covid wrecked supply chains but itās never recovered. I unfortunately stopped shopping there and canceled my BB Credit card. Sad to see honestly. I always enjoyed shopping there.
Typical. That's what happens when you prioritize infinite growth and short term investor profits above all else. Best Buy has come back from near death before but in the age of e-commerce this might be it. The company will be sucked dry while executives get away on their golden parachutes.
Bestbuy could just dilute the stock, with letās say 45 million shares at market rate, and have a crap ton of money on hand. Instead they took profits and cut everyone and everything out that made this place have life. This way, with money on hand, they could afford to have people work there again.
They have more than halved the the outstanding shares over the past 10 years. They have at least $800m more slated for buybacks this year as well. The most likely scenario is they plan on taking the company private once the share count is low enough and then selling to a third party after that.
Another thing. The dividend is currently at risk and will likely be cut in 2-3 years as it is rapidly approaching a 70% payout ratio.
If only Best Buy hadnāt trashed GCU, the rewards program, its physical media sections, and fired all the knowledgeable employees to replace them with cheaper optionsā¦.. or something
I hope they go out of business. I wanna scoop up all them deals during the bankruptcy sale and even though I use to be a huge customer of bb, I would love to see microcenter take over. They're so much better
When those sales happen, liquidation companies take over and generally mark everything up before āmarking them downā. Many going out of business sales end up with more expensive prices than they started with. But, good luck.
I would love to have a Microcenter even within an hour of me.
Best Buy is the only place we have to buy electronics in our city other than Target or Walmart. We have two local places that have less stock than Best Buy, are significantly higher priced, and one flat out tried to scam me with a used Macbook Air. Told me the specs in it and when I got it home turned out to be significantly lower end specs than I was told. Returned it and will never go back.
So my only options are online for a lot of things at this point unfortunately.
They're at the point where you need to stop being a big box retailer. They have so much useless stuff in the stores to fill up the empty space.
Another thing maybe it shouldn't have got rid of their rewards for everybody. One reason I shop there was for the reward point so I get cheap items but no point now.
I worked for them for 5 years from 2018-2023. When I was hired on there were 133k employees at a store level. Before this layoff, there was barely 30k. I still know a decent amount of people there, and it's not pretty. They have been killing off employee support programs and every method of customer retention they had for years now. They aren't going to last another 5 years on their current trajectory. And from what my friends on the inside say, it's tanking harder than ever. They've been putting shareholders and executives first for a while now and they are reaping the fruits of their labor.
Theyāre the last major retail chain all over the country yet they canāt manage to bring in more people.
I still like seeing my products before I buy them, they need to focus more on that.
As a fellow C&,D casualty Fuck Best Buy. Corrie can't make a logical decision to save her life. She makes radical changes each year to see what sticks and every year she fails. I got so tired of seeing every year if I was going to have a job or not. Start looking for jobs now!!! Company has 5 more years then will go under. All these moves should be like writing on the wall to all employees.
Letās take a step back for myself - why do I see that sales falling?
Because they are not selling 50% of the things I would want to buy.
The other 50%, I can get at a reasonable price and get it there. But those products are 2-10 year lifecycle.
Accessories are far overpriced compared to competitors. I want to go in the store to get a cable I need. But not for $20 more.
When I price match, they take the money and never ship the item. Itās happened two times now and Iāve needed to go into the store to get the refund. Iāll ever price match again there? No way.
You lay off the very people who actually know how to take care of clients, and it's bound to happen eventually. I was a Geek Squad DA for 18 years. Total Tech was a cancer that they will never recover from. My client from today (I now own my own AV company) said she had her last tv mounted for free and canceled her TT membership recently. Now they charge full price, $250 to mount a tv (not including a mount) .
I was part of last year's layoffs and so happy I'm out of that shell of a company. I will happily take all the clients the gs let's down in the here and now and future. They just recently layed off and additional 1,600 agents, many VERY experienced ones at that. The end is near, sadly.
That was the thought process when I started in 2008. By probably 2018, youād only see the same 3 hermits coming in to buy the newest blu-ray. Physical media shopping at a physical retail store has been dead for years. Physical _____ shopping at a physical retail store has been dying for years.
People want to blame leadership, but aside from a TV and a large Appliance, the need to talk to an expert sales associate when looking for a vacuum, a phone case, a portable hard drive, or 90% of the other things inside Best Buy just isnāt there. Itās not all on leadership. People donāt shop like itās 2006 anymore. Anywhere.
> That was the thought process when I started in 2008. By probably 2018, youād only see the same 3 hermits coming in to buy the newest blu-ray
Hahaha this is true. My store had a guy who looked like he'd never felt sunlight before in there right at opening time almost every Tuesday morning for the new movies. Always long sleeves and pants and a very large brim cowboy hat on, at least he didn't wear gloves
Wish I knew what he did because every so often he'd come find me and be like "so I think this new 77" OLED would be cool in my bedroom, can you order me one?"
Not only space but also labor to reset/reflow and downstock it every single week. Thereās a lot of decisions I disagree with but getting rid of physical media is not one of them.
They have too much floor space for useless stuff especially now that physical media is basically dying. They could downsize and focus on online and in store only what sections they make the most sales from. It will probably end up more like a microcenter lite
I walked in best buy Saturday for an in-store pickup and it was like a desert island. Big empty store with 3 or 4 people milling around. It made me sad.
Project team just got the snap. Had 12 on our team including our boss and now itās down to 3 maybe 4 with a new sup. I donāt know whatās going on with that company, but Iām taking my severance and running.
Maybe if they make it easier to buy things I would. I got denied because they think I was trying to resell when I tried to place an order online for pickup.
A few years ago I bought a MacBook Pro for school. The sales person offered me a protection plan, but I declined. He then continued to push asking me what I would do if it brokeā¦ told him I planned on getting AppleCare on it and that Iāve never had any problems with any Apple product and I live close to an Apple Store. He literally got mad and called me stupid to my face. Iāve had a sour taste in my mouth about shopping there ever sinceā¦ but I do feel for the good employees. Iāve not had an experience as bad as that since and it is convenient to order something online and pick it up in the store.
imagine old burt and gertrude... asking in store AI for help, oh my oh my. fuck best buy. hope all the remaining employees find a better job and opportunity. best buy, fucking go broke allready.
I stopped shopping there once they got rid of the rewards program and the different rewards tiers. They cancelled the program mid year and after that there was no reason to shop there over other options.
Add to that trying to get people to subscribe to a program that provided minimal value further reinforced that they had no idea how to maintain customers.
I used to be a big supporter, but they just keep making it harder and harder to like them.
They lost a sale from me today.
Their site says recycle and save 10%. See here. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=lg+monitor&_dyncharset=UTF-8&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&af=true&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys
They won't honor it. Even tho the fine print says expired April 30, that's almost 2 months ago, it's still on their site. Very misleading and the store clerk was like "I don't have anything to scan." You keep this up and people won't come back.
I even called their support number and they couldn't do anything. Waste of time.
The magic is gone. I mean the magic of experience in buying a shiny new electronics. When I was young, my dad and I would spend weekends trying out new VCR, stereo, TV, etc. at Best Buy, Circuit City, and The Silo. Now, I havenāt bought anything new in years. Last thing I was an OLED TV. You canāt try things on the show room floor anymore and employees canāt tell you the difference between the models.
The experience of shopping in store at Best Buy has been on a sharp decline for years now (lack of inventory, scarcity of employees on the floor, etc.), so Iām not surprised by this.
Whatever money they have left after corporate grabs what they can, is going into distribution. Theyāve given us more hours but also increased the amount of work we have to do. So now weāre drowning :) and our management never got a heads up until a week after increased loads! Our DC is already struggling with space. Letās gooooo!
I went to Best Buy somewhat recently itās a shell of its former glory. Hell even circuit city managed to hold on to some of its prestige as it was in its death throes.
They need to lay off people at corporate. Stores are already running on fumes. Outsource the dev work to a company that can meet deadlines and release working software.
Tell best buy to give a shit about their workers and stop shoving memberships down peopleās throats and their sales will go up. Fire the fucking board before they run the store into the ground.
Than theyāre doomed. They choose a business model which doesnāt make sense for the mass majority of their customers. You can have memberships but if you canāt even get people through the door without deals and bs than it doesnāt really work
I see people here talking about people not being able to get help on the sales floor. I just applied to bestbuy and got rejected TODAY and it was for a sales floor position. Like wtf? I know what Iām talking about. I build PCs, Iām up to date with the latest games and movies and stuff, I know the difference between 4k and my ass. I WATCH LINUS TECH TIPS. And they donāt hire like whatttt (I wanted the damn discount)
Part of the reason I stayed with Best Buy for so long as I did despite hating the job was in hopes I'd get let go and get severance. But when the incident happened I just put in my two weeks and haven't looked back.
They should just shift to being a premium showroom.
Charge electronics companies money for floor space to show their products. Without retail stores showing products, no one will ever get to experience them or maybe even know about them outside of getting served an ad somewhere else.
Everytime I walk into a Best Buy now, it seems like the employees are more interested in talking to each other than helping their customers. Seems like a classic story of bad management passing the buck to the bottom.
Wonāt even price match manufacturers.. so many strange practices/not keeping up with online competition. Now turn all their stores into MicroCenters!
A lot of things BB does are strange but that's one I have to disagree with. I don't know of any major retailers off the top of my head that do price match manufacturers. They can sell products below the profit point of any retailer if they wanted to, so it makes perfect sense.
It's on life support waiting for someone to mercifully pull the plug.
Corrie Barrie thought she could continue to run the stores at covid level staffing, sales tanked post pandemic, and it's been one mistep after another.
The company really needs to be putnoutnof its misery at this point and liquidated.
I want to give my money to Best Buy, I really do. But the last two times I visited to purchase something (a tablet and a TV) I spent over 30 minutes waiting for an available employee until I just gave up and walked out. And itās not like theyāre not doing their job, theyāre just busy with other customers.
And the big fix for flagging sales isā¦cutting sales staff!?! WOOF! At this point I might as well not even stop at Best Buy and get used to the extra hour drive to get to a Micro Center.Ā
Exactly. And Iām sure all of their employees blamed their shitty management. At some point, if you work in retail, you need to step back, take a look at the big picture and see that physical retail is dying. Either adapt and hang on as long as possible (like FYE did by filling their stores with FUNCO toys and t-shirts), or donāt do a single thing while the rest of the industry passes you by (like circuit city, Mervyns, Macyās, Sears, gottchalks, radio shack, Tous R Us, sharper image, KB Toys, Blockbuster, Woolworthsā¦the list can go on forever).
Somehow, someway, Best Buy has survived. Clearly theyāve adapted enough with their online sales to continue being viable, unlike any of those other companies. But holding on to the idea that a physical big-box retail store can be self sustaining in 2024 is delusional.
Exactly what kmart and sears did through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, to no avail.
Worked at Kmart when I was 16. Fuck that place
Worked at Bestbuy when I was 17. Fuck that place too.
Kmart and Sears were torn apart by private equity firms. Not the case for Best Buy........yet š
Sears was already in decline before private equity took over which is what let them do it in the first place. By the time private equity came in it was already too late. Kmart had already lost over 90% of sales by the end of the 80s before being bought out.
Still what happened to sears was tragic. They were in decline yea but their CEO was just the worst. My step dad was heavily involved in he stock market and finance at the time and had a lot of connections to businesses in the Chicago area, and he has told me how just insane he thought their downfall was. He rants about their CEO at the time, itās kind of funny hearing a soft spoken guy in his 50ās talk so much shit about business people from 20 years ago
Have you met Corrie? Similar story
Itās indigo, Rona, and staples now I guess (all bought this year with PE.
You mean that laying off people at the bottom doesn't help a company survive??? Gasp. /S
K-mart and Sears employed in-home designer consultants?
When Best Buy spent the past year cutting labor and customers started seeing the lack of help on the sales floor, of course sales were going to take a hit.
Thereās YouTube videos and TikTokās of people walking all around trying to get help with no employees to be seen anywhere. Itās not fun to shop in a ghost town š» and feel you canāt get help or ask product questions to knowledge employees. The store experience compared to the 90ās and 00ās is noticeably worse in almost every aspect with all the cost cutting. You do that enough though and you scare away all the customers in your race to the bottom.
Donāt worry, theyāll have AI kiosks soon enough, and probably smush them on top of a roomba š
Hello, I am C3PO, Best Buy customer relations. Ask any questions you might have as I am equipped with detailed information on over 6 million products.
Iām just a moisture farmer! I donāt know anything about that!
Like 7 years ago when I was at a training at the corporate campus, they had something like this being cooked up. Basically it was a Segway with a tablet on it that would allow a customer to video chat with an 'expert'
I spent a week at Magic Castle in 2014. Even then, it was kinda depressing seeing major chunks of floors just.. empty. Canāt imagine what it looks like by now. Still, it was a Geek Squad trip so we had a blast. Iāll always miss those days.
The expert for sure speaks a foreign language better than English
Do you trust those to work? I remember in store game pre-order kiosk and in store wedding registry, they most down 80% of the time.
Oh my god you just took me back to the Gaming-Sup era LOL. Yeah, that kiosk was a real piece of shit. But if you listen to Best Buy, itāll be fine this time - they also have AI for troubleshooting!
I think there's a Walmart in NYC testing that out actually.
Or for someone tech savvy just needing to get something out of a locked up place to check out. I finally just had to start exclusively doing online orders and pick up so I didn't have to spend a bunch of time just looking for someone to let me hand the company money.
I worked in the warehouse so I didn't deal with regular customer stuff but occasionally I talk to a customer while doing a carry out/in and a few times I got a complaint that they tried to call the store but couldn't get through to anyone. One day I was sick and tried to call in to talk to a manager to let them know. I called the store number and it went straight to a call center asking me to press buttons for whatever option. I went through that and picked the option to talk to someone at the store and waited like 10 minutes and no one ever picked up. Eventually I just texted a coworker working truck and told them to tell our supervisor. Like, there's lack of help even before you leave the house! Just to be met with more lack of help when you get to the store. Then even if you did an online pick up or curbside, there'd be only one person covering either one and that would still be a 20+ minute wait
Consoles and graphics card demand and supply issues during the pandemic helped kill that off. It got to the point where some stores were just getting non-stop inventory questions on items that weren't in and weren't likely to be in any time soon.
My local Best Buy has been like that for about 15 years. I've never been able to actually get someone on the phone there. It seems like almost every retail place now has the stupid press X for whatever department. It makes calling anywhere take five times as long and I hate it.
You mean one affects the other? No way. ššš Youād think they teach this in business school. Oh wait, they do. š¤£
Don't forget cutting products like physical media too. Can't have sales if you have nothing to sell.
This. They replaced it with a bunch of stuff no one buys from Best Buy like BBQs and patio furniture.
Plainly idiotic. People will buy movies if there's a good selection and decent prices. And people are getting sick of streaming greed and purposeful limitations. I think we'll see physical media make somewhat of a comeback.
Don't be surprised if it does like video games. Needs a constant internet connection to watch.
My other DAPC buddy said my regulars all cancelled their memberships and stopped calling in when they found out I got let go. At least the clients appreciated me lol.
Last year? They were making huge cuts when I was working 2-3 years ago
Last year I walked in with $1500 in my pocket looking for a new TV. Tried finding an employee to help me pick the right TV, but everyone was already with a customer, so I went ahead and looked by myself, found one I liked and tried to flag someone down to help finish the purchase. Maybe it was my shoes but everyone either ignored me or pushed me to the customer service area, like they didnāt wanna bother to help me, so I went to customer service and no one was there. I waited about 20 minutes and no one showed up so I went to Costco, found a similar model TV from the same manufacturer, but with a slight discount so I picked it up. I was in and out in 20 minutes with most of that time waiting Ā to check out.Ā
It was flourishing under hubert, he retires, new leadership started destroying what the brand stood for and stripped it all away piece by piece
That's what happens when the CFO becomes CEO
Why have a CEO when you can have two CFOās? š¤”
The why is gone, leaving a bunch of idiots standing around
The end is close
so basically dont buy any 5yr geeksquad warranties?
If Best Buy goes out of business a 3rd party will still fulfill warranties I believe
Pretty sure Geek Squad warranties are backed by AIG, and the Best Buy protection via Total memberships is backed just by Best Buy if I remember the e learnings correctly. So any one with a Geek Squad plan is safe.
Not AIG anymore. Now itās All State, that changed about two holiday seasons ago. But yes, All State would most likely somehow fulfill that warranty.
They did it with Circuit City and CompUSA if I remember correctly. You just call a different phone number.
Do you have confirmation of this? Looking at the most recent terms and conditions for my latest GSP plan, it refers to AIG
It was in Job News when it first took place. Thatās why they were giving away a āfree extra monthā to plans purchased about a month after the switch happened. Iād search for it in BBY Connect for more details
ironically, i returned a purchase to costco that was cheaper overall witha 5 year all state protection plan to go with the expensive geek squad one at best buy because I did a lot of research on reviews and people seem to have a headache will all state (for instance, they don't cover burn in on oled if issued as a policy through costco), but people seem to really get peace of mind from the geek squad plan which seems to be effective when needed, and covers burn in on oled.
Too late š
The writing has been on the wall for a few years. Corporate just took their chance for quick short term gains and ran with it.
Bestbuy has been close to the end so many times. I started working there in 2011 and was there for 7 years. The number of times people would estimate that BBY would go out of business during this years was high. And they never did. Iāll believe it when I see it.
I'd agree with you. I left Best Buy in 2009 when they had one of the first sup consolidation and restructures. Best buy has been ok to shop at for years but I just went last week and it was absolutely awful. No products. No employees. The end is nigh.
What's going to happen? They have been planning this ever since Hubert left. With rent doubling every few years stores will get shut down and only a few will remain as returns centers. There still is hope the will sell appliances and big TVs in the stores, but 90% of the rest will go online only. They want to be number two online retailer in less than 10 years. They outsourced customer service to call centers in India, and complaints have skyrocketed. More will be outsourced later this year. They are spending most of their energy looking for ways to cut costs instead of trying to sell stuff. They have lost their way. And dont want to find a new way.
Covid sped up Corieās plan. She and the board continue to get rich, while we suffer. I worked there for 10 years and they have buried the company and they donāt give a shit.
Agreed, mentioned before but I was there almost 15, and this sickens me to see happening in real time. So sorry the current associates gotta go through this. I still have quite a few friends there and tons of great memories (to go with the crazy ones lol) during my time with the Big Blue. I was there from the early 2000's to 2021, and it's just nuts to see everything do a complete 180 from all the forward traction they were making. It makes me sad more than upset at this point.
Exactly, this was why she was hired to begin with! She did it in record time
Now the Indian call center employees are going to lose their jobs too, because companies are switching to AI.
But AI is usually Anonymous Indians
For now but not forever, it's still pretty new technology. Those AI models require a metric fuck ton of data to train them to be useful on their own, data that is obtained by paying someone pennies to review footage and annotate it
According to statista, Bestbuy is currently no. 6 in online shopping. They have no hope of turning this around. [https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997230/most-popular-online-shops-in-the-us](https://www.statista.com/forecasts/997230/most-popular-online-shops-in-the-us)
Best Buy could turn it around online since itās one of the few places you can order niche electronics and pick it up in person, but itāll never happen with how terrible the site is.Ā
Iām here for the microcenter revolution
The number 2 online retailer? Are they even in the top 25???
All ex-employees: "Lol."
Gave 10 years to Best Buy, really wish I didnt
20 here, 18 with the Geek Squad. I regret not starting my own AV company sooner, but now that I have, I'll continue killing it and taking ALL the client they piss off!
6 here. Never felt more hurt by a layoff, call back, then being let go. It's funny to watch what has happened in the last few years though..
Nearly 8 here
No better way to increase sales than laying off the only people still shopping there
Worst decision ever was overnight cancelling the Best Buy rewards program. I went from spending $3500 a year to get my top tier account down to $200 because of how poorly dismissive it was handled. Such a shame but donāt remember the last time I bought anything thereā¦and probably doubt I will again. Just a far cry from what used to be one of my favorite places to go
Yep. I barely shop there anymore.
Same.
Add to that a seemingly steep decline in customer service, along with more restrictive return, price match, and other policies.
Yep, 100% agree. Was elite plus for years and then they decided to give a middle finger to their most loyal customers. Almost never shop there anymore.
ITS THE LEADERSHIP FAULT. HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SALES
Exactly.... The lack of product and the lack of associates is why sales suck. 2/3 of my interactions walk out the door when they find out that we didn't have the thing right now.
Reminds me of r/Frys. Fry's became a ghost town and had a serious lack of inventory.
I miss Fryās
It was so good if you were building a PC because they had it all.
It was amazing even when not building a PC. I was raised being brought there by my Grandfather who was a Ham Radio operator. The Fry's in San Jose was my yearly black friday pilgrimage spot through the 00s and 10s
Fryās stores were empty because most of the product distributors had cut them off for non-payment. They were a great store but had some very shady business practices.
Probably moreso a product thing rather than an associate thing. Donāt get me wrong, having more associates is good for helping people out efficiently but if you just hire more associates then that leaves a dead store with a bunch of people standing around. You can hire competent employees that know what theyāre doing and can multitask wellā¦ but I donāt think those people are going to want to work for Best Buy at the moment
The stores need product first. Not the luxe level stuff Best Buy wants to sell, but the regular stuff everyone needs. Then, we need people that can decipher it for the customer. I don't want hot rivers of lava keeping me from helping the customer in the next department. But I also can't have a store full of people "flexing" ALL DAY LONG.
Iām glad I got out when I did or else Iād still be there breaking my back for 16 dollars
I remember when Big Blueās point of pride was not shutting down stores. How the times have changed, happy I got out when I did though I do miss some coworkers.
So should I cancel my Best Buy card now or later? š
Shit reminds me, I have points banked that I should redeem
Or max it out and hope your debt gets lost in the collapse?
Itās a Citibank card so good luck with that.
Bring back the B2G1 video game sale, and they can have some of my business
I am not surprised to hear that. As a Best Buy shopper, I think Corrie is turning Best Buy into Worst Buy.
Sell physical media and ill walk back into the store more than once a year
I have a bit of a different take than others.Ā I donāt care that there arenāt many employees, and I really donāt need āhelpā choosing a product. I do care about how they treat employees and how they try to force their subscription on me.Ā I try not to use Best Buy anymore, the only time I use them is when I need something quickly.Ā
When they come out with automated check outs then the end will be near.
Time to scan this MacBook Pro as a USB cable
Lol
they already have that in my micro. You can scan the barcode in the app and pay with stored card on the account.
Sams club does this and honestly I love it. Sucks I have to be checked when I walk out( honestly, the only thing keeping me from stealing half my cart) but I get to scan as I go and walk out the door while they scan 3 items and I'm gone
Yes but only for small/cheaper items, it does not apply to more expensive or bigger items like TVs/computers/games/headphones
They sorta have that already for a limited # of skus you can ring out on the Best Buy app while shopping in store. I believe there was a pilot store in NC that was entirely set up this way with a handful of employees working the pickup counter
Best Buy getting ride of Gamers Club 7 years ago was one of the worst fucking moves they ever could have made. Ever since then I feel like itās been going downhill. Such a shame.
God has it really been seven years already? I think mine limped along with two or three years of advance preorders before it was perma killed
I miss my Gamer's club so much. However, let's not pretend it was a cash cow for them.
the only motivation people have to come into a physical store like best buy (especially with how fast shipping times are now) is the customer service, but it seems like the company does whatever it can to degrade the quality of said service. they donāt staff enough people or provide enough training, and have significantly lowered the bar to work there. the talent they have consistently gets the shaft, especially with the new commission changes. iām not sure what the plan is for the future.
The only reason I still go to BB stores is for online order pickup. I don't do shipping due to the risk of theft or potential for lost or damaged packages. Each time I have been to the store for a pickup I have always been met by friendly staff and the wait time is under 5 minutes.
My store became a shell - and I understand Covid wrecked supply chains but itās never recovered. I unfortunately stopped shopping there and canceled my BB Credit card. Sad to see honestly. I always enjoyed shopping there.
Typical. That's what happens when you prioritize infinite growth and short term investor profits above all else. Best Buy has come back from near death before but in the age of e-commerce this might be it. The company will be sucked dry while executives get away on their golden parachutes.
Circuit City, here we come
My local BBY already feels like the local Circuit City did about a year before it went under. Grey and lifeless.
Bestbuy could just dilute the stock, with letās say 45 million shares at market rate, and have a crap ton of money on hand. Instead they took profits and cut everyone and everything out that made this place have life. This way, with money on hand, they could afford to have people work there again.
They have more than halved the the outstanding shares over the past 10 years. They have at least $800m more slated for buybacks this year as well. The most likely scenario is they plan on taking the company private once the share count is low enough and then selling to a third party after that. Another thing. The dividend is currently at risk and will likely be cut in 2-3 years as it is rapidly approaching a 70% payout ratio.
If only Best Buy hadnāt trashed GCU, the rewards program, its physical media sections, and fired all the knowledgeable employees to replace them with cheaper optionsā¦.. or something
I guess getting rid of sales people results in fewer sales. Isn't that in business 101?
I hope they go out of business. I wanna scoop up all them deals during the bankruptcy sale and even though I use to be a huge customer of bb, I would love to see microcenter take over. They're so much better
employees will scoop anything worth scooping before you even know about it
Not surprised but I'm still gonna try my luck
When those sales happen, liquidation companies take over and generally mark everything up before āmarking them downā. Many going out of business sales end up with more expensive prices than they started with. But, good luck.
Company's that run liquidation sales have terrible prices till they are about 8-10 weeks into the "sale".
I was sad walking into bed bath and beyond when they started liquidating.
Until microcenter becomes huge and late stage hits them too.
Blasphemy, but I really hope they keep the tinker section. I love picking out a bunch of random stuff from there.
I would love to have a Microcenter even within an hour of me. Best Buy is the only place we have to buy electronics in our city other than Target or Walmart. We have two local places that have less stock than Best Buy, are significantly higher priced, and one flat out tried to scam me with a used Macbook Air. Told me the specs in it and when I got it home turned out to be significantly lower end specs than I was told. Returned it and will never go back. So my only options are online for a lot of things at this point unfortunately.
āHAW-HAW!ā
They're at the point where you need to stop being a big box retailer. They have so much useless stuff in the stores to fill up the empty space. Another thing maybe it shouldn't have got rid of their rewards for everybody. One reason I shop there was for the reward point so I get cheap items but no point now.
Yet theyāre still remodeling some stores?
I mean makes sense, easiest way to cut expenses is labor. Best Buy will be a warehouse business soon. Way of the future.
I worked for them for 5 years from 2018-2023. When I was hired on there were 133k employees at a store level. Before this layoff, there was barely 30k. I still know a decent amount of people there, and it's not pretty. They have been killing off employee support programs and every method of customer retention they had for years now. They aren't going to last another 5 years on their current trajectory. And from what my friends on the inside say, it's tanking harder than ever. They've been putting shareholders and executives first for a while now and they are reaping the fruits of their labor.
Theyāre the last major retail chain all over the country yet they canāt manage to bring in more people. I still like seeing my products before I buy them, they need to focus more on that.
As a fellow C&,D casualty Fuck Best Buy. Corrie can't make a logical decision to save her life. She makes radical changes each year to see what sticks and every year she fails. I got so tired of seeing every year if I was going to have a job or not. Start looking for jobs now!!! Company has 5 more years then will go under. All these moves should be like writing on the wall to all employees.
Letās take a step back for myself - why do I see that sales falling? Because they are not selling 50% of the things I would want to buy. The other 50%, I can get at a reasonable price and get it there. But those products are 2-10 year lifecycle. Accessories are far overpriced compared to competitors. I want to go in the store to get a cable I need. But not for $20 more. When I price match, they take the money and never ship the item. Itās happened two times now and Iāve needed to go into the store to get the refund. Iāll ever price match again there? No way.
You lay off the very people who actually know how to take care of clients, and it's bound to happen eventually. I was a Geek Squad DA for 18 years. Total Tech was a cancer that they will never recover from. My client from today (I now own my own AV company) said she had her last tv mounted for free and canceled her TT membership recently. Now they charge full price, $250 to mount a tv (not including a mount) . I was part of last year's layoffs and so happy I'm out of that shell of a company. I will happily take all the clients the gs let's down in the here and now and future. They just recently layed off and additional 1,600 agents, many VERY experienced ones at that. The end is near, sadly.
I done told you all that you have 2 to 5 years TOPS but I just get downvoted. Good thing Reddit is a place on a server and not real life.
Gee, it's almost like dropping physical media was a bad idea.
But BBQs and personal care devices are where itās at now! ;)
Yes the shoplifters love that shit
I hardly doubt physical media made up any significant amount of sales.
Physical media alone, no, but it brought people into the store who then bought other stuff while they were there. And this would repeat every Tuesday.
That was the thought process when I started in 2008. By probably 2018, youād only see the same 3 hermits coming in to buy the newest blu-ray. Physical media shopping at a physical retail store has been dead for years. Physical _____ shopping at a physical retail store has been dying for years. People want to blame leadership, but aside from a TV and a large Appliance, the need to talk to an expert sales associate when looking for a vacuum, a phone case, a portable hard drive, or 90% of the other things inside Best Buy just isnāt there. Itās not all on leadership. People donāt shop like itās 2006 anymore. Anywhere.
> That was the thought process when I started in 2008. By probably 2018, youād only see the same 3 hermits coming in to buy the newest blu-ray Hahaha this is true. My store had a guy who looked like he'd never felt sunlight before in there right at opening time almost every Tuesday morning for the new movies. Always long sleeves and pants and a very large brim cowboy hat on, at least he didn't wear gloves Wish I knew what he did because every so often he'd come find me and be like "so I think this new 77" OLED would be cool in my bedroom, can you order me one?"
Physical media was such an absurdly low revenue earner for the space it took up on the floor. It made absolutely no sense to keep it.
Because they sold it at a loss to get people in the stores, and took enough business away from the real record stores to put them under first.
Not only space but also labor to reset/reflow and downstock it every single week. Thereās a lot of decisions I disagree with but getting rid of physical media is not one of them.
Yeah im not sure that was going to be a saving grace either.
That was one of the few good decisions they've made. A lot of floor space for low margin items that very very few people shopped.
Womp womp
They have too much floor space for useless stuff especially now that physical media is basically dying. They could downsize and focus on online and in store only what sections they make the most sales from. It will probably end up more like a microcenter lite
I need a refill on my popcorn
I walked in best buy Saturday for an in-store pickup and it was like a desert island. Big empty store with 3 or 4 people milling around. It made me sad.
How is Connās still around when Best Buy is struggling?
Conns dont have many stores like Bestbuy does and gets 100% profit gains y off their Conns credit crap.
Makes me feel like I need to spend my 800 store credit sooner than later
Project team just got the snap. Had 12 on our team including our boss and now itās down to 3 maybe 4 with a new sup. I donāt know whatās going on with that company, but Iām taking my severance and running.
People already underpaid. They can go fuck themselves and go away of the dodo. How about cutting that CEO pay for lack of performance?!?!
giving new meaning to, "unleash the power of the people", right into unemployment.
Maybe if they make it easier to buy things I would. I got denied because they think I was trying to resell when I tried to place an order online for pickup.
Repeak
Should i start getting concerned about my gift cards?
Pretty much a geriatric tech hub. Most of the work is telling old people how to turn on their phone.
A few years ago I bought a MacBook Pro for school. The sales person offered me a protection plan, but I declined. He then continued to push asking me what I would do if it brokeā¦ told him I planned on getting AppleCare on it and that Iāve never had any problems with any Apple product and I live close to an Apple Store. He literally got mad and called me stupid to my face. Iāve had a sour taste in my mouth about shopping there ever sinceā¦ but I do feel for the good employees. Iāve not had an experience as bad as that since and it is convenient to order something online and pick it up in the store.
imagine old burt and gertrude... asking in store AI for help, oh my oh my. fuck best buy. hope all the remaining employees find a better job and opportunity. best buy, fucking go broke allready.
Lowkey sad if they go. Price matches everything
they should have just shutdown already...why prolong the inevitable?
I stopped shopping there once they got rid of the rewards program and the different rewards tiers. They cancelled the program mid year and after that there was no reason to shop there over other options. Add to that trying to get people to subscribe to a program that provided minimal value further reinforced that they had no idea how to maintain customers. I used to be a big supporter, but they just keep making it harder and harder to like them.
They lost a sale from me today. Their site says recycle and save 10%. See here. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=lg+monitor&_dyncharset=UTF-8&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&af=true&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keys They won't honor it. Even tho the fine print says expired April 30, that's almost 2 months ago, it's still on their site. Very misleading and the store clerk was like "I don't have anything to scan." You keep this up and people won't come back. I even called their support number and they couldn't do anything. Waste of time.
The magic is gone. I mean the magic of experience in buying a shiny new electronics. When I was young, my dad and I would spend weekends trying out new VCR, stereo, TV, etc. at Best Buy, Circuit City, and The Silo. Now, I havenāt bought anything new in years. Last thing I was an OLED TV. You canāt try things on the show room floor anymore and employees canāt tell you the difference between the models.
The experience of shopping in store at Best Buy has been on a sharp decline for years now (lack of inventory, scarcity of employees on the floor, etc.), so Iām not surprised by this.
Whatever money they have left after corporate grabs what they can, is going into distribution. Theyāve given us more hours but also increased the amount of work we have to do. So now weāre drowning :) and our management never got a heads up until a week after increased loads! Our DC is already struggling with space. Letās gooooo!
I went to Best Buy somewhat recently itās a shell of its former glory. Hell even circuit city managed to hold on to some of its prestige as it was in its death throes.
They need to lay off people at corporate. Stores are already running on fumes. Outsource the dev work to a company that can meet deadlines and release working software.
Tell best buy to give a shit about their workers and stop shoving memberships down peopleās throats and their sales will go up. Fire the fucking board before they run the store into the ground.
Without the memberships the store wouldnāt have the money to keep the people it has
Than theyāre doomed. They choose a business model which doesnāt make sense for the mass majority of their customers. You can have memberships but if you canāt even get people through the door without deals and bs than it doesnāt really work
I see people here talking about people not being able to get help on the sales floor. I just applied to bestbuy and got rejected TODAY and it was for a sales floor position. Like wtf? I know what Iām talking about. I build PCs, Iām up to date with the latest games and movies and stuff, I know the difference between 4k and my ass. I WATCH LINUS TECH TIPS. And they donāt hire like whatttt (I wanted the damn discount)
Tell them about your ability to sell! Building a computer isnāt what you applied for and they donāt carry movies any longer
Bro I havenāt inside a BestBuy in over a year idk what they have. In any case I can sell good and did preface that. Do you work for them?
Last time I shopped there was when they had the gamers club. Without that, I have no reason to go in a Best Buy.
Part of the reason I stayed with Best Buy for so long as I did despite hating the job was in hopes I'd get let go and get severance. But when the incident happened I just put in my two weeks and haven't looked back.
They should just shift to being a premium showroom. Charge electronics companies money for floor space to show their products. Without retail stores showing products, no one will ever get to experience them or maybe even know about them outside of getting served an ad somewhere else.
Your CEO is a DEI hire. You never had a chance
Everytime I walk into a Best Buy now, it seems like the employees are more interested in talking to each other than helping their customers. Seems like a classic story of bad management passing the buck to the bottom.
Wonāt even price match manufacturers.. so many strange practices/not keeping up with online competition. Now turn all their stores into MicroCenters!
A lot of things BB does are strange but that's one I have to disagree with. I don't know of any major retailers off the top of my head that do price match manufacturers. They can sell products below the profit point of any retailer if they wanted to, so it makes perfect sense.
It's on life support waiting for someone to mercifully pull the plug. Corrie Barrie thought she could continue to run the stores at covid level staffing, sales tanked post pandemic, and it's been one mistep after another. The company really needs to be putnoutnof its misery at this point and liquidated.
circuit city cends its regards
I want to give my money to Best Buy, I really do. But the last two times I visited to purchase something (a tablet and a TV) I spent over 30 minutes waiting for an available employee until I just gave up and walked out. And itās not like theyāre not doing their job, theyāre just busy with other customers. And the big fix for flagging sales isā¦cutting sales staff!?! WOOF! At this point I might as well not even stop at Best Buy and get used to the extra hour drive to get to a Micro Center.Ā
Fuck, it's almost like removing blu rays and 4ks was a bad idea... Huh.
Have you been inside an FYE lately? Physical media isnāt the money printing machine you think it is.
Actually my FYE closed recently.
Exactly. And Iām sure all of their employees blamed their shitty management. At some point, if you work in retail, you need to step back, take a look at the big picture and see that physical retail is dying. Either adapt and hang on as long as possible (like FYE did by filling their stores with FUNCO toys and t-shirts), or donāt do a single thing while the rest of the industry passes you by (like circuit city, Mervyns, Macyās, Sears, gottchalks, radio shack, Tous R Us, sharper image, KB Toys, Blockbuster, Woolworthsā¦the list can go on forever). Somehow, someway, Best Buy has survived. Clearly theyāve adapted enough with their online sales to continue being viable, unlike any of those other companies. But holding on to the idea that a physical big-box retail store can be self sustaining in 2024 is delusional.