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Who actually buys anything from Best Buy?

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Leros said:
I also found some local stores to be cheaper when buying TVs. The TV I wanted was $200 more on Amazon than Best Buy.

In general, I'm finding local stores to have equal pricing to Amazon on a lot of items. For example, I've bought a bunch of kitchen appliances from Bed Bath and Beyond because they had the same price as Amazon.
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Yes, but I do wonder how the local stores manage to do that financially
 
steppinthrax said:
I'm 32. The last time I bought anything from BB was when I was given a gift card back in 2003. I've never bought anything from BB since.... How do they think they will win customers who habitually shop at Amazon, Ebay and tiger (like me)?

What demographic is BB aimed at? I'm thinking the 60 year old technical luddite.
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Why do so many people on this forum think they are more cool and hip and what not than anybody else? I've noticed this a lot, also in the condescending remarks. Must be a lot of insecurity going around
 
Power supply failed on my sister's PC last March. Ran down to BB and got an Antec Basiq 450W for her. Prior to that it had been a couple years (got a microwave). I don't have some attitude about the place - I don't shop many brick and mortar stores anymore unless I'm in a hurry.
 
Pretty frequently. When I don't want to wait for shipping, or when they have what I want immediately. Plus their financing options are pretty solid.

I also live less than 5 minutes away from 2 of them, so there's that.
 
prices are pretty much the same everywhere so i wouldnt not buy there, but ever since cpus stopped getting faster my interest in computers waned so i just dont really need/want new stuff. i bought a couple macbooks there a month or so ago, but before that i hadnt bought much there or even gone there much
 
The in-laws gave me a $100 Best Buy gift card last Christmas. I went to Best Buy and bought $100 worth of Amazon gift cards with it. Even more comical, they had some sort of deal going where if you spent $100, you got another $15 gift card. So I effectively traded $100 in Best Buy gift cards for $100 in Amazon gift cards and another $15 Best Buy card, which I still have.

What effectively killed Best Buy for people like us was 1) Getting rid of most of their PC hardware/software and even more importantly 2) Getting rid of their generous rebates. You could often get hardware there for just a few dollars more than Newegg or Amazon but when their arrogant CEO came out a few years ago and eliminated rebates and basically said they didn't want any "bargain" shoppers, that killed them.
 
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IndyColtsFan said:
The in-laws gave me a $100 Best Buy gift card last Christmas. I went to Best Buy and bought $100 worth of Amazon gift cards with it. Even more comical, they had some sort of deal going where if you spent $100, you got another $15 gift card. So I effectively traded $100 in Best Buy gift cards for $100 in Amazon gift cards and another $15 Best Buy card, which I still have.

What effectively killed Best Buy for people like us was 1) Getting rid of most of their PC hardware/software and even more importantly 2) Getting rid of their generous rebates. You could often get hardware there for just a few dollars more than Newegg or Amazon but when their arrogant CEO came out a few years ago and eliminated rebates and basically said they didn't want any "bargain" shoppers, that killed them.
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Since rebates were created by Satan himself, that's one of the few BB policies I've agreed with.
 
Anubis said:
people who want things instantly. covers all ages

i got my last TV at BB last November. they pricematch online places and its 1000x easier to return if needed

im 32
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^ This, but I am not 32.

If they matched the price, I'd buy locally especially larger items such as TVs.
 
Mursilis said:
Since rebates were created by Satan himself, that's one of the few BB policies I've agreed with.
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I would've much preferred they just lowered the prices of the products and dealt with the manufacturers to have them provide kickbacks to their corporate office for every product sold, but when BB eliminated rebates, they didn't drop prices and as a result, many people stopped shopping there.
 
Best Buy is great. They never gave me any trouble price matching amazon even before that was their official policy. A simple 'hey I'm ready to buy this today but amazon is this price. Your call.' and they matched and then gave me 0% financing.

When I moved in 2012 I bought a 65" plasma plus a washer/dryer in one trip. They price matched all of it and once again 0% for 36 months.

Now do I do most of my purchasing on Amazon? Of course. But for anything reasonably big ticket best buy is my preferred choice.

Viper GTS
 
I buy from Best Buy all the time. They own Future Shop, and carry a lot of the same stock, so whenever something I want goes on sale at Future Shop, I run over to Best Buy and get it price matched for a lower price.

Yes they price match Future Shop as a competitor despite the fact they own Future Shop.

For Newegg, they have no showroom, and for a lot of stuff, their shipping kills the deal.
 
Last thing I bought at Best Buy was my current dishwasher. That was around 2 years ago. Otherwise it's pretty much Amazon.com for me.
 
Picked up a 3tb exteneral HD from them $10 cheaper than Amazon\Newegg\Microcenter\ etc etc.

Sometimes they have some competitve deals
 
PottedMeat said:
i have them to thank for my HP touchpad. $99 firesale->order online->pickup the next day


lately i've been dumping my old CRT tvs over there. they just say wheel it in and we'll take it from there no questions asked.
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Yeah... the last time I was there was to unload my old 220 pound 32" Sony Wega with a bad sound controller.

Funny thing is that I bought the TV from Circuit City back in September 2001, and got it's replacement TV from Sears in 2012 🙂
 
I buy stuff from Best Buy all the time. They actually made their prices competitive on some products, and they often have some great sales on their website.

I picked up an iPad Mini for $199 there a few weeks back, and get a 55" Samsung Smart TV for $700 ($1200 regular price) during a private sale.

They also tend to have awesome deals on games and movies the first week they're released. I know people tend to hate Best Buy, but truthfully they've always been good to me in my area.
 
The good thing about physical stores is that you can easily return something if you don't like it. I don't think you can easily do that with amazon etc.
 
squarecut1 said:
The good thing about physical stores is that you can easily return something if you don't like it. I don't think you can easily do that with amazon etc.
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It depends. If it's an Amazon Prime purchase, it's very easy to return things. 3rd party sellers all vary.
 
squarecut1 said:
The good thing about physical stores is that you can easily return something if you don't like it. I don't think you can easily do that with amazon etc.
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I actually buy 90% of my electronics from amazon and if you need to return something they have you print out a prepaid label and UPS picks it up.
 
I went in Best Buy a couple months ago to get a HDMI cable. I figured that after being the butt of internet jokes for half a decade BB would have brought their prices in line with online sellers. Nope. $8 from Amazon or $60 at BB. I did stop to play with the Kindles.

Back in the 90s BB was the bees knees but they lost their way.

Also, how does one buy decent speakers these days? One used to go to a stereo/TV store, CC, or BB to listen to them first. Now BB's speaker room is almost empty. I went to visit my parents and they have an American TV store which used to have an enormous selection of speakers. Their speaker room was also about empty. Ultimate Electronics went bust. Can't really try speakers out over the internet.
 
Sometimes their prices are actually better than online. There was a soundbar system I had my eye on and low and behold, they dropped the price on their site to below all other online vendors, even with tax included. Went in-store where it was still full price, they checked their own site, was surprised, and immediately changed the price.

I also picked up my AT&T Note 3 on launch day as the AT&T stores wouldn't sell full price, non-contract phones on launch day (lame) and BestBuy pricematched the AT&T price.
 
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