Best Buy must be following Circuit City.

I have been looking at the Android tablets to replace my netbook. My netbook is a Asus. It's been outstanding but having to get out my big laptop to watch videos is driving me nuts. It's getting worse as most of the videos are now HD. The net book just won't play them.

So, I go in Best Buy today to see what they have. The Asus Transformer and the Asus Transformer Prime are both on display. I study, fiddle, and fend off the sales girl for 20 minutes. I walk up to the counter and asked the girl a couple of questions and tell her I want the Prime and the keyboard dock. Her response, we don't stock those and have to order them. It only takes a week to get them.

I ask about the regular Transformer. Nope, order only.

My response, If I wanted to order them I wouldn't have come here. I can do that online from home.

Circuit City did that to me with my Sony Vaio six months before they went out of business. I bought it at Best Buy. I guess Best Buy is next. Online is going to be the only way to get stuff before long. Kind of sucks, I like to fondle things before I buy them.

Yeah, they seem to be going down. Just whacked their CEO, closed 50 stores, etc. It don't look good for BBY.

I know, I prefer to shop brick and mortar myself, but unfortunately sometimes the local stores do a great job of shooting themselves in the foot.

I recently read this related piece: http://techland.time.com/2012/03/29/big-surprise-the-world-has-more-best-buy-stores-than-it-needs/

I ran into the same thing trying to get a new cordless impact driver before last weekend when my old one crapped out earlier that week. Found the one I wanted on the Home Depot site, saddledup and rode to the local HD just to discover that what I wanted was an online-only deal. My other two choices were the same. So I said FU to HD and ordered what I wanted from Amazon.

I only get games from Best Buy. Everything else can be somewhere else for cheaper. Sometimes much much cheaper. Its a great place to get touchy feely with things though.

I was DSLR shopping a few months ago. Went into the only local photo store. I asked for a t3i with the 50mm plastic canon lens. They said sure, that they'd have to order it, and it would be $300 over amazon prices.

I asked them if they would match amazon. They wouldn't budge at all.

I told them that I wanted to buy locally but if the wait was going to be longer and the price was going to be $300 more, I was going to go buy online. I liked this option the least but $300 goes far these days.

They still wouldn't budge on the price.

Amazon FTW... Got my 32gb Prime for a good price and next day shipping (Prime)... I'm typing this post from my couch watching Top Gear as we speak...

I like the TF Prime because it's an Android tablet and had a great processor. I plan on rooting it pretty quick. Good stuff...

Taiden wrote: I was DSLR shopping a few months ago. Went into the only local photo store. I asked for a t3i with the 50mm plastic canon lens. They said sure, that they'd have to order it, and it would be $300 over amazon prices. I asked them if they would match amazon. They wouldn't budge at all. I told them that I wanted to buy locally but if the wait was going to be longer and the price was going to be $300 more, I was going to go buy online. I liked this option the least but $300 goes far these days. They still wouldn't budge on the price.

Why didn't they just buy from amazon and sell it to you for a more reasonable markup. Boom instant $50 for letting you feel up their camera.

The scenarios being described in this thread ("Oh, we don't carry that, we'll have to order it") are especially ironic since big brick and mortar chains are complaining that "showrooming" (going to a store to check out a product, then buying online from another retailer) is killing them. Sounds like they're not even taking their own advice.

In which case, berkeley 'em. Adapt or die. You won't see me lamenting the loss of another chain of big box stores. When I buy brick and mortar, I buy Mom and Pop.

Cross post heaven... A thread started on another sports board I read:

The en of the big box store, is Best Buy dying? Just a couple weeks ago Best Buy announced they would be closing 50 stores and they laid off about 400 people. This isn't the first that has happened in the last 5 years. Now today, Brian Dunn has announced that he has resigned as CEO of Best Buy. Thoughts?

I don't think it's coincidence that both of the threads started TODAY.

Circuit City is doing well- we bought my wife's laptop there earlier this year.

I thought the point of doing business was to cater to the customer and their needs? I mean I can see if you want something "special" and needing to be ordered, but if it is a "stocking item" and that needs to be ordered, geez. I mean Just about ANY part store out there should have 87 Suburban 1500 calipers, pads, and rotors on the shelf ready to purchase without the fear of ordering them, unless sold out, but I should expect to have to order and WAIT for parts for some off beat 62 Rambler or 78 Pinto Cruising Wagon.

What gets me the most is I don't mind paying 10-20% for the local sale. By the time I get to the store I already have my choices narrowed down to a couple. From there it's touchy feely. The only thing I want is for them to have the thing in stock. Sold out is one thing. Not stocking something on display just pisses me off.

Toyman01 wrote: What gets me the most is I don't mind paying 10-20% for the local sale. By the time I get to the store I already have my choices narrowed down to a couple. From there it's touchy feely. The only thing I want is for them to have the thing in stock. Sold out is one thing. Not stocking something on display just pisses me off.

Yep, we bought the wife the Asus Transformer Prime a few months ago.

Same deal, walked into Best Buy, ready to buy it right then..........we will have to order it, takes 7 days. Went home, got on the Office Depot web site, ordered it and had it 2 days later.

And for $100 less.

A couple months or so ago I posted in one of the 'look how great the economy is doing" threads that Best Buy was in trouble. They simply built way too many stores way too fast. There is no way for them to go but to close a bunch of stores or just wait a bit longer and go bankrupt. Their sales are terrible for the amount of money they've spent on adding new stores. Their stock went up when they released their quarterly report a while back, but if you actually read even the press release it was pretty obvious it was all bad news.

As I said then, after Best Buy, I predict either Walgreens or CVS to start closing a lot of stores if not going under all together.

Wallgreens is still building stores around here. You can't throw a rock in this town without hitting a drug store.

The people really building stores is Dollar General. We've installed the doors in 15 of them in our territory in the last year and they have built 600 nation wide.

At least they both stock what they have on display.

I just bought a computer in February (I think). Started at Office Depot, looked around, then decided to go to Best Buy to compare. They had the same stuff, same price, but the salesman pissed me off. Went back to Office Depot and bought it there.

Toyman01 wrote: Wallgreens is still building stores around here. You can't throw a rock in this town without hitting a drug store.

Same here. CVS just got into our area, and I thought we were already at the drugstore saturation point. Evidently I was wrong. Pretty soon it's going to be that you can't throw a rock from a drusgstore's parking lot without hitting a different drugstore.

But that's a bit of a different scenario, I think. They make all their real sales in the pharmacy, and that's all insurance money.

nofloundernofloundernoflounder

The Best Buy Reps will often say, "just so you know we are not on commission." or something similar.
I always reply back, "yeah, but don't sell enough extended warranty and get fired!"

alex wrote: In which case, berkeley 'em. Adapt or die. You won't see me lamenting the loss of another chain of big box stores. When I buy brick and mortar, I buy Mom and Pop.

EXACTLY. Screw big box. I'm so much more pro-mom and pop these days. I'm bummed that my local Ace Hardware went under. There's a Lowe's a mile from me, but I'd much rather support the smaller guy.

"Service plans" and member cards are all they care about these days--to the misery of their lower-and-lower-paid employees.

Remember when half the store seemed like it was CDs? I miss that.

Toyman01 wrote: Circuit City did that to me with my Sony Vaio six months before they went out of business. I bought it at Best Buy. I guess Best Buy is next. Online is going to be the only way to get stuff before long.

Your best buys are always at Frys.

I like to fondle things before I buy them.

Y'know, Best Buy bought out a major Canadian chain (Future Shop) about ten years ago. They sold almost exactly the same stuff, similar prices, similar looking stores, advertising, etc. Best Buy had no stores in Canada at that time, so what did they do? They immediately plunked a Best Buy store literally less than a block away from every single Future Shop in the country. Which they now owned. WHAT.

So they spent billions to acquire an existing brand, retail outlets, supply infrastructure, etc. and then went and did exactly what they would have had to do if they hadn't bought anything and were building from scratch, leaving them paying for double staff (hell, double everything) so that they could... what, compete with their own stores? In a market that was already way over-saturated with retailers? Where's the advantage here? Everybody knows the two brands are the same company so it's not like they're fooling anyone...

Hell, in one spot they "closed" a Future Shop, opened a Best Buy in that location with all kinds of fanfare, and then built a brand new Future Shop like two minutes up the street less than a year later! How was that numb-tarded idea supposed to turn them a profit?

And now they're going to close a E36 M3load of stores, leaving their rotting, empty gigantic husks to blight urban landscapes everywhere. They should be charged with littering. Good riddance though.

nocones wrote: Why didn't they just buy from amazon and sell it to you for a more reasonable markup. Boom instant $50 for letting you feel up their camera.

There's a garage near me that does that with tires: Tire Rack's retail price + $50 for mounting and balancing 4 tires. Not a bad deal at all. I'm sure they get wholesale from TR and it's cheaper than I could get them m/b if I had the tires delivered to the house and brought them in myself.

I was a CC buyer for years, then when they went under I went to BB. They have not exactly thrilled me with all those damn extended warranties so I generally shop HH Gregg.