Sliding Game Sales Hammer Best Buy
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
I prefer Amazon. They don't charge taxes and I have prime membership that I want to use as much as I can.
Edit: That being said... Game retail stores don't seem to be doing well these days. That's worrisome.
Edit: That being said... Game retail stores don't seem to be doing well these days. That's worrisome.
Word.Worr Monger said:
Everyone has bad experiences when it comes to best buy and video games. And it's because they're a company that just carries all these electronic devices, and oh yea we carry video games too somewhere over in that part of the store. If they wanted to jump into the video game market then do it, don't just expand your video game sections slightly and start accepting pre-orders and trade-ins, and pretend that your big into video games now.
More recently I went to one of my local best buys for a random purchase and while I was there I decided to see if I could get Mario & Sonic at the London games, which came out in November. After looking around I asked a store clerk about it, he looked it up and said oh we don't carry that game anymore, but we can order it for you if you'd like and will have it sent to the store so you can pick it up in a few days. I looked at the guy and said why the hell would I want to do that. I don't come to a store to order things, I come to a store to shop, if I wanted the game that badly I'd just order it myself and have it sent to my house. I stopped in there today to go and buy Game of Thrones the 1st season and out of habit I walked over to the video game section to find 4 copies of the game I was told they no longer carried.
Now I've had plenty of problems with Best Buy in the past with other purchases, so I wasn't exactly surprised.
More recently I went to one of my local best buys for a random purchase and while I was there I decided to see if I could get Mario & Sonic at the London games, which came out in November. After looking around I asked a store clerk about it, he looked it up and said oh we don't carry that game anymore, but we can order it for you if you'd like and will have it sent to the store so you can pick it up in a few days. I looked at the guy and said why the hell would I want to do that. I don't come to a store to order things, I come to a store to shop, if I wanted the game that badly I'd just order it myself and have it sent to my house. I stopped in there today to go and buy Game of Thrones the 1st season and out of habit I walked over to the video game section to find 4 copies of the game I was told they no longer carried.
Now I've had plenty of problems with Best Buy in the past with other purchases, so I wasn't exactly surprised.
It's not surprising to me that they're having problems, but it is surprising that the area that's flagging is videogames and DVDs; those are two of the very few products that Best Buy carries without a huge mark up. I've never really noticed a big difference between their game/DVD prices and those I can find anywhere else, but man do they overcharge on almost everything else. HDMI cables in particular still cost something obscene, like $50 for a 3 foot cable, while you can go to Big Lots and get a 6 foot one for $12, or go online and get it for $2. Granted, the average for big box stores seems to be about $30 for six feet of cable, but even by that measure Best Buy has the worst buy possible.
Edit: Reading through this thread, it seems like my local Best Buy stores are the exception to the rule, at least when it comes to selection. They have more PC games than any other retailer, with the exception of the occasional Target (Targets tend to have inexplicably large PC game selections, at least around here), and their console game selection, while generally smaller than what you'll find at a Gamestop, is generally pretty good by big box store standards. I mean, the game area and the DVD area combined take up a quarter to a half of the store at every Best Buy I've ever been to, with most of the rest being appliances and home audio equipment.
Edit: Reading through this thread, it seems like my local Best Buy stores are the exception to the rule, at least when it comes to selection. They have more PC games than any other retailer, with the exception of the occasional Target (Targets tend to have inexplicably large PC game selections, at least around here), and their console game selection, while generally smaller than what you'll find at a Gamestop, is generally pretty good by big box store standards. I mean, the game area and the DVD area combined take up a quarter to a half of the store at every Best Buy I've ever been to, with most of the rest being appliances and home audio equipment.
The only game retailers doing good are Gamestop and small local ones, both of which focus on used game sales. The ones that still try to focus on new product sales are floundering. New sales will be a break even at best, usually a loss. The purpose is to get the customer in the store. The used sales are what make the real money.mysecondlife said:
You realize, they don't tell us fucking anything. Really. In order to get information on our sales, I had to go up to the front and find our weekly ad and try to memorize the sales in between helping people. That said, most of the people working in gaming where I worked had at least knowledge of 1-2 consoles (I don't own any of the current gen, but I hang out here for crying out loud).shintakie10 said:
Oh, and one thing that really pissed me off was that the supervisor was the only one who could do game trade-ins or have the key to the locked game cupboard.
I've never had a problem with people not getting their preorder stuff, but the only big preorders that happened while I was there were Skyrim and TOR (I worked winter seasonal).
That said, this is quite true. Gaming especially was constantly under budget and, surprisingly, it was mostly due to the AAA games not selling that well at all, the only people that actually shop at Best Buy for games (besides employees) are parents looking for stuff for their kids.
Good since the last interaction with Best Buy I hoped it would go out of business.
After being a customer for years what it finally came down to cutting off this relationship was the LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE.
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/BestBuy-Com/bd-p/Dotcom
After being a customer for years what it finally came down to cutting off this relationship was the LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE.
http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/BestBuy-Com/bd-p/Dotcom
This just in: retail sales down. Scientists predict possible increase in digital media distribution.
What a revelation, Tom! Here's Cindy with the weather.
What a revelation, Tom! Here's Cindy with the weather.
What he said. From working at a Best Buy, they really don't enable their employees to be helpful. They give off misinformation and managers and supervisors constantly undermine employees. Hell, using our inventory program, I'll look up stock on a product to which it will say the product is "Deleted" meaning the product will no longer be sold in that store. So I tell the customer that because that's what the computer tells us, and lo we get 3 of that model in in a week. There's no way for me to tell otherwise, it doesn't label any in transit or inbound allocated. Yet it's my fault that I could not tell otherwise.deth2munkies said:
Right now I am of the firm belief that Best Buy's biggest problem is that they don't allow the individual stores discretion.
That and people come into a "tech" store, and the computers I'm using are from the late 90s.
I am one of the few employees who know's what he's talking about when it comes to tech stuff, and Best Buy is its own worst enemy.
EDIT: Clarification
I've purchased a game from Best Buy exactly once. I pre-ordered FF13-2 there cause I wanted their exclusive bonus, a small hard-cover book. I happened to be at the store while doing some other shopping near by. I went in and told them I wanted to pre-order the game, they went to some big stupid computer display by the electronics section which barely worked and several minutes later said it wasn't in that system. I had to go home and order it online from them.
Several years before that, I purchased an Ipod from them which almost immediately died for no discernible reason. The only way I could return the thing was to ship it to some central Best Buy facility and I found out this fact after blowing a good chunk of my day to drive up to the store.
The only positive experience I've ever had there was buying a PC monitor cause they had them on sale really cheap.
As many people have said, their prices for Games and DVDs are absurd. I may go and roam around their aisles if I'm in the area, but to actually buy stuff, I'll take Amazon.
Several years before that, I purchased an Ipod from them which almost immediately died for no discernible reason. The only way I could return the thing was to ship it to some central Best Buy facility and I found out this fact after blowing a good chunk of my day to drive up to the store.
The only positive experience I've ever had there was buying a PC monitor cause they had them on sale really cheap.
As many people have said, their prices for Games and DVDs are absurd. I may go and roam around their aisles if I'm in the area, but to actually buy stuff, I'll take Amazon.
I got to Best Buy in December & December only. I buy gifts of games, CDs, & DVDs there. The only reason I go there at all is because Amazon shipping times aren't reliable in December, especially if there's ice on the roads.
Umm, I done think they're losing profit because of digital distribution... have you BEEN in a bestbuy? They load malware/bloatware into everything, argue with their few tech savvy customers over everything, and are very rude/snide to the few customers whom aren't tech savvy. Digital distribution? Partially. Bad treatment and rudeness? Mostly.
No truer words have been said, my friend. I love that store.Worr Monger said:
I'm not really surprised by this. As a former Best Buy employee back in the day, their markup on items is ridiculous. They overprice just about everything except for a few sale items each week, so closing stores doesn't seem shocking.
At one point early in the current gen's lifespan, they were charging $20 for "service" to install Xbox LIVE and download the updates to the console if you wanted to buy a console.
How can you trust that nonsense? "Here, let me open your new console and do something you can do for free"
Also, Best Buy in Canada bought up Future Shop and they are the only real competition they have in that type of store. I'm not for monopolies. I'm also not for Wal-Mart which is anti-competitive.
How can you trust that nonsense? "Here, let me open your new console and do something you can do for free"
Also, Best Buy in Canada bought up Future Shop and they are the only real competition they have in that type of store. I'm not for monopolies. I'm also not for Wal-Mart which is anti-competitive.
