Best Buy - More News

[Bengal]

Hey Bengal - Best Buy on University in DSM is going to be doing this. A friend of mine is being "trained" on the department right now!

Cool. It will be interesting to see what that does to GC who is about a block from that Best Buy.

[sully]

there's a best buy being built down the street from me. i wonder if it will have the music section as well.

[mattsmusiccenter]

I just spoke to my accountant about this. He does accounting for many of the top music stores and consulting for a bunch of well known vendors. In his words "Best Buy smells like Mars Music to me, I give them 2 years and they'll walk away from this idea. The music industry definitely doesn't need this, but the one it's going to hurt the most is GC".

[Jayster]

hahahahahahaha Mars music- I'd forgotten about that!!!!!!!:ROTF:

[lerxstcat]

I think you make a good point. People are assuming that the same employees that stock the DVD and Cd shelves will be selling guitars, and I bet that indeed they will be poaching some of the better music store employees, offering them jobs with better benefots than they get from GC and better pay as well.

Whether it lasts is the other question, but even shaking up the industry for a couple of years may benefit consumers as well as music store employees.

Many are assuming the sales people at BB will be ignorant about the products they're selling, and for all I know they very well may be. But... what if BB trains these people very well and what if when you walk into their store you see sales people you know and have done business with in the past at other music stores?

I've heard that unlike GC, BB won't be using a pay structure based on sales performance for their employees. I've also heard they are recruiting their people from within the industry. In other words, it may be of interest for current employees of GC and other stores to possibly work at BB instead. This in itself would change the employee we're assuming will be behind the counter in these BB stores.

[Jack Napalm]

I went into one of these in Fairfax, Virginia a few weeks ago. Its the same guys selling in there as out in the floor as far as I could tell. It was pretty small and tried to cater to many different musicians as well as dj's. But, they had guitars all the way to the ceiling. They had a nice amp room with some decent stuff. Prices were on par with GC.

One guy had a mom bought in to buy some things. They will make money if they target mom.

[Soap]

I think you make a good point. People are assuming that the same employees that stock the DVD and Cd shelves will be selling guitars, and I bet that indeed they will be poaching some of the better music store employees, offering them jobs with better benefits than they get from GC and better pay as well.

This is what they did with the PC repair staff/department several years ago.
I went to the local store and gave them my resume, they loved the resume.
BUT, policy and protocol had to be adhered to.
In other word, after question 386 from the online application process, I gave up. At that point, I didn't care anymore and didn't finish the process.
None of the questions had anything to do with your work knowledge or skills, all of it was about personal character. I got tired of answering the same question three hundred different ways.

[Wylde06]

Should be interesting if the Best Buy near me does this...they are within walking distance of GC

[Phantom Hawk]

So BB is gonna start selling music equipment, eh ? Does that mean they're also going to do setups ? It would seem kinda strange for the average person to buy a new guitar and have to go somewhere else to get the initial setup. And if they're going to do setups, will they do pickup replacements and other things like that ? They'd really have to set up a whole tech department for the musical instrument section. While it'd be great to create the jobs, it just seems like a lot to undertake.

[CharvelRocker]

So BB is gonna start selling music equipment, eh ? Does that mean they're also going to do setups ? It would seem kinda strange for the average person to buy a new guitar and have to go somewhere else to get the initial setup. And if they're going to do setups, will they do pickup replacements and other things like that ? They'd really have to set up a whole tech department for the musical instrument section. While it'd be great to create the jobs, it just seems like a lot to undertake.

I doubt it. It will probably work like GC. they can do setups there, but have a tech that comes in once a week or so to do the "technical" stuff

[hippietim]

Am I the only one that doesn't care either way?

[Newc]

Probably, Tim.

What bothers me about it is the "training" these people are going to get. Industrial production environments are very similar to retail environments in the sense of who gets "trained" and what constitutes "training". I've seen industrial production "training". It's based strictly on the bottom line. It costs more money than they're willing to spend to train someone effectively.

Managers get managerial classes, but that's it. I doubt the "floor crew" in the MI dept are going to get any training other than how to run the cash register.

You can also bet they're going to push the most expensive items in the store, commission or not, or if they're musicians (whether real or imagined), they're going to push their personal favorite, and it won't be Jackson or Charvel. It'll be whatever that guy who plays guitar for all those bands on the radio plays.

If someone older than 30 comes in to buy a guitar, the 18 year old "Associate" won't know what to do if the guy doesn't want to buy whatever the kiddies are playing these days.

Amps will be the same. Don't let the customer choose, sell him a $5000 Mesa Triple Rec and send him on his merry way.

[hippietim]

How is this any different than Gutter Center or Sam's Ass?

To me this is like debating whether Lowes or Home Depot is the better hardware store. It makes no difference at all.

[Venomboy]

I really don't care about Best Buy entering the market.

If I'm going to buy a guitar, I'll use a small shop or buy directly from the builder.

I might use the retailers for a test drive but they've never given me incentive to buy from them.

Do your homework, find the best product you can afford and buy from someone you like. This goes for any product.

If someone is going to drop $4k for a Les Paul from Best Buy with mile high action and finish cracks they must not have a brain and no amount of education will help them.

[Newc]

How is this any different than Gutter Center or Sam's Ass?

To me this is like debating whether Lowes or Home Depot is the better hardware store. It makes no difference at all.

Well, since Best Buy is just getting into it, they have an opportunity to change the cliche of what people expect when they walk into a music store that is owned by a larger chain, or by someone who doesn't know anything about it other than research data: they can have qualified, intelligent musicians running their music department rather than some pizza delivery dropout moron, or rather than a manager who is only interested in those customers who are waving cash in-hand when you come through the door.