Why we hate the store we love to hate

[Origisaurus]

Big box store

I haven't been in a BB for maybe 8 years.  They are much like CC used to be, except the "sales" people are pushier and more ignorant. 

The article confirms my impression of Amazon.

[The Gorn]

Best Buy absolutely grates on me. It always has. The stores just have a bad vibe/aura about them. Their stuff is almost always unnecessarily expensive. I have a story about looking for a replacement for a fried power supply there and finding over-wattage units for well over $100 - went to a local distributor the next day and bought a cheap and cheerful PS with the right rating for $35. The customers always seem stupid, rude and in a rush to run you down. I think it is all related. The sales people are know-nothings with occasional knowledgeable people, and everything about the store seems to assume that consumers will act like Pavlov's Dog when they see technology products. I think the stores attract a lowest denominator crowd.

I tried to buy my wife one of the Nook tablets at BB this Christmas. The guy checked and said that they were backordered with no ETA in sight and no way of knowing if they would come in by Christmas. After seeing the mess that BB made of this Christmas season's orders I feel like I dodged a bullet by not buying from them.

I went down the street to a Barnes and Noble and bought the same Nook from stock and walked out with it.

Yeah, I can absolutely see how they will hang themselves by getting in the face of customers. I agree with this article.

[John Masterson]

Two months ago I went to the Best Buy to purchase an iPad2.  I knew what I was in for, but I had made a plan and I stuck to it.

As I was trying out the iPad2, a sales droid wandered up and asked if I needed help.

"No thanks," I said matter of factly, and turned back to the iPad screen.

Despite what I had just said to him, the guy immediately asked me, "What kind of Internet service do you have?"

I just kept working with the iPad, my eyes never leaving the screen. I said nothing.

He then prodded: "Do you have broadband?"

I just ignored his rudeness and kept exploring the iPad2, maintaining complete silence.

Now he asked, "Are you interested in wireless service?"

I resisted the urge to angrily ask him what part of "No Thanks" did he fail to comprehend. I just kept working with the iPad2, my eyes never leaving the screen. I ignored him.

Finally, after an exasperated pause, he stalked off briskly.

I made it a point to buy the iPad2 from someone else.

[The Gorn]

...
I made it a point to buy the iPad2 from someone else.

This anecdote sounds exactly like CompUSA when I went to one to buy my wife a digital camera back in 2002 or so.

I kept asking idiots walking by if they could help me and they brushed me off. Some dumb sales associate comes up to me and asks me if I want AOL. I told him "no, but I'd like to buy a !@^* camera for my wife" and he walked off. After about 20 minutes of this I finally went to a manager and sort of exploded in his face about this experience. He sends over the most servile imaginable rumpled older guy seemingly at or over retirement age, who finally would show me some stuff I actually wanted to see, and afterward I got the impression that this guy was being blamed for not finding and helping me. (I was in their camera department and it was not apparent who was supposed to help.)

CompUSA is now defunct. Good riddance, losers, really glad they're out of business.

Sort of the same vibe I have about BB.

[Origisaurus]

What's not to like?  The ignorant punk can't give you any product informaton, and may not even be able to ring up the sale after you pick out the product on your own.  All the while trying to push whatever is this weeks' hot sales quota.

¡No mas!  For self-abuse, I prefer a single malt.  Not what you thought, was it?   

[TRexx]

Sometimes Best Buy has good deals of specific products, but don't expect to get any help from the sales staff. They get paid about $11/hr (I suppose that varies by region) and don't make commission. There was time when the folks who sold high end electronics and large appliances worked on commission so they were able to attract some knowledgeable staff, but those days are gone.

[TechTalk]

...except the "sales" people are pushier and more ignorant.

Well, during the 1990s the low-paid BB customer sales staff seemed to me to be competent (but not exceptional).  I think the difference back then was that they actually tried to help the non-knowledgeable customer purchase what he/she actually wanted  or needed to purchase.  This might have been what differentiated BB from Circuit City and their sales force who worked on some sort of partial commission basis.  If BB's sales staff actually are pushier and more ignorant. nowadays, I place the blame on management at the headquarters rather than the existing sales staff.  Seems to me that when BB went to the model of cutting costs to the bone and attempting to maximize their profit on every customer visit is the point at which they started to go downhill.

Nowadays, you don't walk into a local retail box store and apply for a job.  You do it online and a computer program does the initial screening of your job application.

BB treats its website or online store as a separate business entity.  Why?  I don't know, however, I do know that this has confused many customers.  Some stores appear to be attempting to integrate all of their shopping channels so that the customer's transition from one sales channel to another is seamless.  That said, I don't personally know of any retail chain store that has reached this goal yet.  I think if BB does eventually go out of business it will happen because redefining a large company takes time -- perhaps decades.

While the various big box / department retail stores have many challenges and problems, one of the biggest problems seems to be corporate management's arrogance and greed.  For example, a couple of months ago, J.C. Penney (a department store company) hired Ron Johnson (a marketing executive for Apple and before that a vice president of merchandising for Target) away from Apple and made him the CEO.  Apparently, J.C. Penney is paying this person $25 million which is the same exact amount that the company was planning to spend on remodeling their existing bricks-and-mortar stores!

In the days before the Internet, large retail stores used to be the primary "discovery place" for consumers looking for a new appliance or a new wardrobe.  People used to go to large retail stores for information and research.  Today, because of the Internet and mobile devices product information is already in their hands.

I kept asking idiots walking by if they could help me and they brushed me off. Some dumb sales associate comes up to me and asks me if I want AOL. I told him "no, but I'd like to buy a !@^* camera for my wife" and he walked off.

I don't know if this was actually the primary factor that lent to their downfall, however, imo CompUSA seemed to go downhill when they expanded from being just a computer technology store to offering a broad assortment of products.

[The Gorn]

I see several hallmarks of these three chains: Circuit City, CompUsa, and now Best Buy:

They seem to view the technology as itself "the thing." I used the phrase "Pavlov's Dog" in my last post. I think all three of these chains assume that the technology is an instant attractant  and will outweigh any shortcomings in customer service or presentation.

No sense of the customer, no sense of reading of the customer's emotions or intentions, just blundering ahead with some sales line, like selling internet service. Probably due to web based, shake and bake hiring which brings in mediocre people. Also probably due to a corporate culture of shoving crap down people's throats instead of listening to them attentively.

Probably no real teamwork. Effective retail operations operate like tag teams. If the salesperson you are talking to does not know something, they will find a more experienced or knowledgeable person. That was aggravating about CompUSA. If the drip that contacted me at CompUsa didn't know something and it wasn't his area, or he was not involved with selling that merchandise, his attitude was like "f*** you, that's not my department, you figure it out."

All in all - the bottom line is, absolutely no real respect for the customer.

[Richardk]

The article was good.

I think customer service took a dive once 'professional sales people' got replaced with near minimum wage workers. I recall hearing that taking away commissions was supposed to improve the situation for customers since the sales person wasn't under pressure to close the sale.

Regardless, today with razor thin margins, commissions are a thing of the past.

It's clear that BB is "broken". It seems that it's only a matter of time before they go the way of their past competitors.

[TechTalk]

All in all - the bottom line is, absolutely no real respect for the customer.

While I do not disagree with your assessment I do try to look at the "big picture" from all angles.

Imo, large corporations such as Bank of America which is currently demanding that some small-business customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments are the type of companies that really need to go out of business.  You would think that after doing business with BofA for many years that these profitable small businesses would be treated like a valued customer -- but over the last few years, many of them have been nickel-and-dimed for checks, credit card charges, cashiers checks, and just calling their telephone banking center. 

BofA was a leader in the banking industry's abortive attempt to impose debit card fees.  Two months ago, BofA dumped billions of its derivatives onto the public coffers through a transfer of these derivatives into a subsidiary ensured by the FDIC.  BofA then used its lobbyists and pressure from the Federal Reserve to have Congress permit this transfer of risk.

I believe that BofA shares have been trading near $5 for a while.  If it drops below $5, some institutional investors may have to sell (Note: some funds don't hold shares that fall below a certain threshold.).  I am guessing that BofA is doing everything it can to keep this from happening.  For example, fire staff, employ more H-1Bs, get rid of under performing accounts, increase fees, fancy internal accounting, anything to keep their share price from dropping.  Of course, this is just a guess on my part.

... Regardless, today with razor thin margins, commissions are a thing of the past.

From my understanding (which currently isn't that great) the BB store employees have been pressured to act like commissioned sales people for some time now.  Hence, the observed pushiness that poster John Masterson wrote about earlier.

[Richardk]

TechTalk, when I looked at BofA many years ago, I thought they were out of their minds with high charges for nearly everything and service that seemed slow at the branch that I visited.

Their transfer of risk, if as stated, is appalling.

From my understanding (which currently isn't that great) the BB store employees have been pressured to act like commissioned sales people for some time now.  Hence, the observed pushiness that poster John Masterson wrote about earlier.

What a great place to work! "Act like commissioned sales people" without any of the benefits. That must be the "be glad you have a job" line of thinking.

[benali72]

Can anyone here tell me why they would buy in-person at BB, CC, or CompUSA rather than online (like Amazon or wherever)?   Are return policies better at in-person stores than online?   

The big benefit of FTF used to be that you had customer assistance that "by mail" ordering didn't give you. But these comments make clear that's no longer the case. Plus online places like Amazon have tons of reader reviews, which give you all the help you could possibly want (if you take the time to read them all).

Another big benefit of in-person buying was immediate possession of the item. But as the comments make clear, that's no longer the case and you can't check whether an item's on hand any easier than online stores. Most my online purchases arrive in 3 - 5 days, which is sufficiently fast for most items.

Finally, in-person buys don't have any shipping fees. But online you often get out of sales tax and at places like Amazon you can often opt for "super-saver" (free) shipping deals.

Bottom line, for me I don't see why I'd ever buy lots of stuff in-person ever again versus online.

[Walter Mitty]

I'm trying to recall, and I think I've bought one thing each at CC, BB, and CompUsa.  In no case was my experience good enough to stimulate any loyalty to the store.  I think I still have and use all three items.

What I really miss is the "old, old, old Radio Shack".  I'm talking back to the days where they had row after row of vacuum tubes in the big stores.  You could find any tube you wanted, if you knew the right numbers, and how to search.  I stopped liking Radio Shack when they started selling leather working tools.  There's one local Radio Shack I still like,  but it's the store manager I like, and not the chain.

The BofA subtopic is worth a discussion of its own.

[Carrie Cobol]

I think it's a combination of attitudes:

1.  Employees are pure expenses to be minimized at all costs (heh, punny), therefore no or minimal training is offered. An re-training is never offered, you simply fire people who don't measure up.
2.  Customers these days are also almost seen as an expense.  Customer service costs money and the return on investment appears to be mostly non-tangible and hard to measure.  Concepts like repeat business and customer loyalty?  Meh, whatever.

And you're right, benali, without the face to face benefits of customer service and with online stores now offering free shipping and FAST shipping, there's pretty much no reason to shop in brick and mortar stores.  I haven't Christmas shopped at a b&m in about 5 years.  Amazon provides pretty much everything I need outside of grocery.  They also offer that, but that's one thing I want to do face to face (squeeze the tomatoes).  Amazon also now offers large appliances with delivery and installation (and warranties - heh!).  Amazon just may kill off all other retailers in the country if they don't shape up fast.

[TechTalk]

Their transfer of risk, if as stated, is appalling.

I like the way you worded your comment because you shouldn't blindly believe that what I wrote was correct.  If you wish to confirm though you could do a simple Google search with these keywords "BofA derivatives FDIC".

If you do this, you will find that my post was incorrect.  I just did the above mentioned Google search and then took a very quick peek at the first article that appeared on the list and here is what I read:

Excerpt
Potential losses on Bank of America’s massive $75 trillion book of risky derivative contracts has just been dumped onto the FDIC by the Federal Reserve.

It appears that I was mistaken and the number is potentially $75 trillion instead of the billions of dollars of its derivatives that I stated in an earlier post.