LOL @ Bestbuy

[Dropmachine]

When the OP is making the kind of money that BB does annually, then you can laugh. Until then, you really can't say crap for selling a product at an inflated price knowing full well some assclown is going to come in and pay that.


No cussing in technical forums please.

Moderator Idontcare

 

[Daedalus685]

When the OP is making the kind of money that BB does annually, then you can laugh. Until then, you really can't say shit for selling a product at an inflated price knowing full well some assclown is going to come in and pay that.


No cussing in technical forums please.

Moderator Idontcare

Kind of sad isn't it..

Ridiculously high prices? Check
Terrible delivery charges and options? Check
Poor selection on many items? Check
Staff that are clueless? Check

Making tens of billions every year because your store is "shiny" and people are dumb? Check Check...

 

[manimal]

Now to play the devils advocate BB is in business to make money. They have costs associated with overhead, labor, etc...

They also are in the death throws of the the drive to zero in all their once profitable categories.. They have to make margin somehow or the lights go off ala' Curcuit city...

Within the next couple of years expect these stores to have less than half their current employees.

Have you guys ever seen how cheap a ISF calibration is at best buy these days? If you target the right item and the right sale yes they have competive prices in certain categories.

Do you guys have the same type of hate for intel and their 500 percent margins?

 

[Dropmachine]

Kind of sad isn't it..

Ridiculously high prices? Check
Terrible delivery charges and options? Check
Poor selection on many items? Check
Staff that are clueless? Check

Making tens of billions every year because your store is "shiny" and people are dumb? Check Check...

Absolutely. I find for TVs and receivers and such they are fine. But for computer stuff, you're bang on. People go there because its big and pretty and shiny and they advertise a ton.


Hmmm. Maybe they should rename themselves from BestBuy to Applebuy.

 

[Daedalus685]

Now to play the devils advocate BB is in business to make money. They have costs associated with overhead, labor, etc...

They also are in the death throws of the the drive to zero in all their once profitable categories.. They have to make margin somehow or the lights go off ala' Curcuit city...

Within the next couple of years expect these stores to have less than half their current employees.

Have you guys ever seen how cheap a ISF calibration is at best buy these days? If you target the right item and the right sale yes they have competive prices in certain categories.

Do you guys have the same type of hate for intel and their 500 percent margins?

Ah we don't hate BB... We'd just never shop there given the more sane options.

Doesn't really compare to intel. Now perhaps if AMD parts were twice as fast and half as much but people still flocked to Intel it would be the same... but as it is the fact that BB makes money with their prices is just a sign that price is not important to the average dumdum.

Going to a store that looks like it cost a lot, is full of bright disorienting things, and no real information on the products they sell get people to buy. Not the product or the price itself.

That being said, given the massive spread of local shops of what used to be nearly online only retailers in Canada I am almost certain BB will have to lower prices or simply stop making money.

 

[Arkadrel]

Intel has faster cpus, amd doesnt have any product to offer simular performance = prices on intels cpus are higher (at high end).

on Lowend, intels prices almost match amds (price/peformance ratio)... so besically amd dont make much on cpus ^-^.

Intel has like 80%+ market share.

Im kinda glad amd are around, without them Im sure even lowend cpus would cost alot more.


You can say alot about apple, but they know how to design nice products... and do marketing for them.
They sell at their prices because their able to sell at those(brand name/design ect). Whats crazy is that at one point they where near going bankrupt and people where suggesting share owners should sell their stock while they could still get something for it. A few years lateron and stock prices are up, apple is makeing a fortune selling alot of differnt things other than just pcs.

 

[Teizo]

Even worse is that is the standard version of the PNY GTX 460 and not the PNY GTX 460 OC.

So, you can get the PNY GTX 460 OC for $200 on Newegg, or spend $100 more on the vanilla 460 they have and get a slower card.

Best Buy should rename itself Worse Buy. It's been that way for years though. They wouldn't do it if they couldn't get away with it, and that is what is so mind numbing....they can and do.

They are competitive on HDD's and Keyboards and the like, however.

 

[Tristicus]

If people don't know any better, that is their own fault.
We do price match.

 

[Teizo]

If people don't know any better, that is their own fault.
We do price match.

Will a retail store match Newegg prices? I can understand $20 more or so given overhead and convienence of buying local, but $50 to $100 more is just plain crazy.

 

[edplayer]

Making tens of billions every year because your store is "shiny" and people are dumb? Check Check...

I doubt they make tens of billions

they probably have a small profit margin.

 

[betasub]

Do you guys have the same type of hate for intel and their 500 percent margins?

Firstly, hate is far too strong a term. Mocking, ridicule, perhaps.

Secondly, do BB have the same sort of R&D and innovation to support as Intel?

 

[nOOky]

I suspect Best Buy adjusts the prices on things according to what people will pay or are paying. So if I were in business to make money, I would probably do the same thing.
If I were to sell lemonade for 25 cents a cup, while some kid three blocks away sells it for a dime, am I wrong to not willingly lower my price even though I'm still getting business? Is it my responsibility to educate the consumer, or should they educate themselves?

 

[OmegaShadow]

well at least best buy has a good return policy.

and good price protection and pricematching if you can convince the sales rep to do either.

 

[Daedalus685]

I doubt they make tens of billions

they probably have a small profit margin.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=best+buy

granted, only a couple billion in net. But they have a $50billion revenue, and nearly 20billion market cap. They are no small potatoes. They are bigger than Nvidia and AMD combined.

 

[faxon]

how many of you guys heard about this scam best buy was running? $300 to have your 3D glasses "calibrated" to your brand new 3D TV! http://blog.ziggytek.com/2010/03/24/best-buy-3d-geek-squad-scam/

ed: it was $300 where i live, looks like it was less elsewhere

 

[SHAQ]

Best Buy is the Abercrombie of the electronics world. Except the employees aren't hot. I think if Fry's or Microcenter expanded enough to give them some competition they would be in trouble.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Best Buy is very inconsistent in their pricing. If you are careful and look for close out items you can do OK. For instance, I got a 9800GT about a year ago for 84.00 on "close out", which I think is a reasonably good deal. However, they are selling the same card now for over 100.00. Go figure.
Anyway, for small items that are easily shipped, returned, etc it is usually better to buy online. But for large items, I still like to buy at a local brick and mortar store for ease of return if there is a problem.
I think part of the problem also is that at least in my area, (Minneapolis), Circuit City and Comp USA have gone out of business and there are not Fry's or MicroCenter stores nearby, so Best Buy is not really facing much competition for sales of computers.

 

[manimal]

how many of you guys heard about this scam best buy was running? $300 to have your 3D glasses "calibrated" to your brand new 3D TV! http://blog.ziggytek.com/2010/03/24/best-buy-3d-geek-squad-scam/

ed: it was $300 where i live, looks like it was less elsewhere

over imaginative marketing....


In regards to the store that had a bad calibration demo it was just a overzealous-and wrong-store level employee..small time.....now if you want to talk about crime tell us more about Omar from frys....


BTW BBs calibration service is very good. I have had calibrations done by a local operarator here in Indianapolis that is very renowned...cost me 600.... The calibrations I had done by BB cost me 200 each and were done with the same equipment and had similar results...

 

[edplayer]

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=best+buy

granted, only a couple billion in net. But they have a $50billion revenue, and nearly 20billion market cap. They are no small potatoes. They are bigger than Nvidia and AMD combined.

isn't a couple two or more? :awe:

Need to reach 2 first! Pretty far off from "tens of billions"

 

[Anubis]

how many of you guys heard about this scam best buy was running? $300 to have your 3D glasses "calibrated" to your brand new 3D TV! http://blog.ziggytek.com/2010/03/24/best-buy-3d-geek-squad-scam/

ed: it was $300 where i live, looks like it was less elsewhere

their TV calibration costs 300$ for standard TVs as well IIRC, and its not very good as you can imagine

 

[manimal]

their TV calibration costs 300$ for standard TVs as well IIRC, and its not very good as you can imagine

calibration from BB if the calibrator is good is the same as you would get from anyone else. 6500K grayscale.....


BTW calibration where I live in Indianapolis is 200 and I used a 15 percent off coupon.


BTW I used to color correct film and TV as far back as the linear days with rudimentary scopes.....I have onlined hundreds of hours of TV and know what things are supposed to look like..scopes do not lie. If the calibrator is trained correctly and they have the right tools than the services are the same...there is art to the skill as well though..


Do you have some firsthand experience with a calibration from BB? I have had my projo and 3 tvs calibrated by the guy here in town and he was just as good as the guy from the boutique shops in town. I have heard that in some markets the quality of the work is suspect-pioneer calibration menu issues etc- but for the most part they do quality work here in my town.

 

[3DVagabond]

Actually, Best Buy is the one laughing. They're getting $100.00 more than the Egg for the same item. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[exar333]

Keep in mind that BB doesn't make much off TV or Computer sales (margins are very small). They make their money on service plans and accessories. To a lot of consumers, a GPU is more of an "add-on" anyway. People don't build computers are BB, they get a computer and then upgrade it (GPU, HDD, etc).

When you look at the markup for a lot of accessories to be > 300% this isn't THAT bad. That said, it is still very expensive. Most stores don't push a ton of GPUs anyway, and for the time they probably sit on the shelf, they need to mark them up considerably to even have a chance to make money on them. They don't sell volumes of these GPUs (I know, an acquitance of mine works for the Geek Squad - Sad I know!).

 

[Daedalus685]

isn't a couple two or more? :awe:

Need to reach 2 first! Pretty far off from "tens of billions"

Are semantics that important in this instance, really?

They move tens of billions in product, their revenue is well into tens of billions. They do not claim all of that in profit, I had assumed the word "make" was vague enough as to not distinguish between revenue and profit..

From now on I will endeavor to never use any vague words and use specific values including uncertainty reports to meet the high standards of this up until now entirely non serious thread..

If I go to work and get my check I'd often claim i "made" such and such dollars. Rarely would i deduct the gas it took to get there, or my food, in that statement.. But I suppose make is not necessarily synonymous with revenue..

If it helps everyone sleep better at night I can claim:

"Making tens of billions in revenue because people like shiny things" instead... or "moving tens of billions in product"


As for 1.5 becomine a "couple".... you'll simply have to forgive me on that one.... :|

 

[pmv]

Firstly, hate is far too strong a term. Mocking, ridicule, perhaps.

Secondly, do BB have the same sort of R&D and innovation to support as Intel?

Quite. Comparing BB to Intel is silly. "Margins" doesn't mean the same thing for a manufacturer and a retailer, you don't just look at cost-per-unit for the former, you have to look at the development and design costs. Plus I don't know who the equivalent of newegg would be for Intel, they can charge high prices for their top end because nobody else is making anything to compete with it.

Why do all local stores have such insane markups on cables especially though? I bought a DVI-HDMI cable recently £2 at Amazon, the local store wanted £30 for the exact same thing!

Likewise, USB cables are available at the 'pound shop' for £1, or, if you are insane, you can go to PCWorld who will sell you one for £15.