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In Reply to: In my town, Circuit City has been 'dead' for years posted by Elizabeth on March 29, 2007 at 06:11:59:
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When I was at University of Virginia in the mid - 70s Dixie Hi Fi's mail order catalogs were second only to Playboy as the most popular reading material in the men's dorms.
Dixie hifi was the original name of Circuit City (from Richmond VA). Around the late 70's and early 80's they bought all the Lafayette Radio locations in the NYC market. It didn't work out.Circuit's plan was to hire semi-knowledgeable salespeople and place them on a very attractive commission plan.
Best Buy's plan was to position themselves against Circuit by hiring "less expensive" people who didn't know much about the products but who also weren't high pressure...very low key in fact.
you see who won *that* battle
Now Best Buy's making sure their people are trained enough so as to position themselves above Costco, Sears, Target,and Walmart. They're absolutely brilliant; and what they're doing with Magnolia should be intersting too.
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Here, from the Hartford Courant:From courant.com
--------------------
Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
--------------------George Gombossy: Consumer Watchdog
WATCH DOGMarch 2, 2007
Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is
now confirming my reporting that its stores have a
secret intranet site that has been used to block some
consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on
BestBuy.com.Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February
denied the existence of the internal website that
could be accessed only by employees, says his company is
"cooperating fully" with the state attorney general's
investigation.Barber insists that the company never intended to
mislead customers.State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered the
investigation into Best Buy's practices on Feb. 9
after my column disclosed the website and showed how
employees at two Connecticut stores used it to deny
customers a $150 discount on a computer advertised on
BestBuy.com.Blumenthal said Wednesday that Best Buy has also
confirmed to his office the existence of the intranet site,
but has so far failed to give clear answers about its
purpose and use."Their responses seem to raise as many questions as
they answer," Blumenthal said in an interview. "Their
answers are less than crystal clear."Based on what his office has learned, Blumenthal said,
it appears the consumer has the burden of informing
Best Buy sales people of the cheaper price listed on its
Internet site, which he said "is troubling."What is more troubling to me, and to some Best Buy
customers, is that even when one informs a salesperson of
the Internet price, customers have been shown the
intranet site, which looks identical to the Internet site,
but does not always show the lowest price.Blumenthal said that because of the fuzzy responses
from Best Buy, he has yet to figure out the real
motivation behind the intranet site and whether sales people
are encouraged to use it to cheat customers.Although Best Buy also refused to talk with me on
specifics of the intranet site or its use, it insisted
that its policy is to give customers the best price."Our intention is to provide the best price to our
customers which is why we have a price-match policy in
place," the company said in a written statement to me.
"As prices and offers may vary between retail and
online, our stores will certainly match BestBuy.com pricing
as long as it qualifies under the terms and conditions
of the price match policy.""As a company, everything we do revolves around our
customers' needs and desires. It is never our intent to
mislead them as their loyalty is incredibly important
to us," the statement said.Then they threw in this interesting line: "Although we
have an intra-store web site in place to support store
operations (including products and pricing), we are
reminding our employees how to access the external
BestBuy.com web site to ensure customers are receiving the
best possible product price."That last sentence seems to indicate that Best Buy,
which is supposed to be staffed by tech-savvy employees,
is putting the blame on memory lapses: that employees
have somehow forgotten how to access BestBuy.com from
the store.Having been to many Best Buy stores where some helpful
employees showed me how they access the intranet and
Internet, I can assure Best Buy officials that the
re-education process will probably not be lengthy.After making sure the computer is turned on, employees
should click twice on the Yahoo Internet icon and then
type in BestBuy.com.This is not the first time the giant electronic
retailer has gotten into trouble misleading customers. The
firm, based in Minneapolis, operates more than 1,100
electronic retail stores in the U.S., Canada and China.
It has more than 125,000 full-time employees.Attorneys general in New Jersey and Ohio have accused
Best Buy of deceptive sales practices, repackaging
used merchandise and selling it as new, and failing to
pay rebates and refunds. It paid $135,000 in New Jersey
three years ago to settle that state's suit, which was
based on hundreds of consumer complaints. The Ohio
case is ongoing.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant
To my shame, I actually worked for Best Buy one Christmas season, in what they called the audio department. Damned near put me off the industry forever....Bill
while I understand your complaints, the business accomplishments of Best Buy are undeniable. Circuit City has not been able to create a Lowe's-Home Depot scenario with Best Buy where one actually helps the other in the same market.You might say that Best Buy is successful due to an "immensely cynical" consumer.
...and I've got to admit that I don't really understand how they've stomped CC into dust. Service? Nah. Price? Not really. Brands? Nope.All I can come up with is that the cacaphonous Best Buy "experience" is exciting to most people. Personally, it just gives me a headache.
And maybe people prefer blue to red?!? Could it really be that simple?
I doubt it.
Cheers, Bill
PS--what lines do you rep?
Bill...initially BB was appealing because consumers weren't approached by a commissioned salesperson. You could wander about the store and do as you please. If you had a question, then they were there to help ( or so the story goes ) That's how they positioned themselves against CC.Now, they'll approach customers but it's still pretty low-key.
Signal Path imports Musical Fidelity, and we manufacture Era speakers. Thanks for asking.
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