Best Buy's strategy contrasts Circuit City's situation
What is Best Buy doing that is so right that Circuit City is doing so wrong these days? One of them comes down to employee hiring and development. In fact, the hiring at the new Sierra Vista store produced a rather neat quip from a Best Buy store manager: "We did look for experienced employees, but mostly we considered work ethic and a willingness to learn." This makes sense, as Best Buy's customer experience (which has morphed over the last 10 years) will most likely need to be ingrained into new employees.
Want another quote? Try this: "Our goal is to respect our customers -- to differentiate ourselves and make it a very personable experience so we can take care of them." This sounds like a quote from another retailer that I've followed -- Wal-Mart. Can Best Buy really follow through on this premise? Time will tell. So far, though, it's not having trouble selling merchandise and making profits (unlike the competition), so something's working, right?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-04-2007 @ 2:43PM
Adam said...
Ive always preferred Circuit City. It just seemed like a place for the buyer who knew what he wanted and didnt need a salesman to push him around. There was always too "flash" associated with Best Buy that came off as fake to me. But if Circuit City is going to leave that many people unemployed, I'll spend the extra 5 bucks on the same product at Best Buy just so retailers see that cutting workers is not the answer.
5-04-2007 @ 2:52PM
Barbara said...
Don't know if Best Buys' customer service policies have changed since then, but I wasn't impressed with the response they gave me to an after-Christmas return a few years ago. My husband had given me a small tv for use in the kitchen, however, it was larger than what I wanted. So I returned it, box unopened, with the receipt. Best Buy tried to charge me a restocking fee of something like 15%. I told them they were free to charge me whatever they liked, but since the tv purchase had been put on a credit card I had no intention of paying it. They decided to not charge the restocking fee after all. I shop at Circuit City whenever possible.
5-04-2007 @ 5:43PM
Jeff Downs said...
Circuit City might have layed off a lot of employees, and I dont agree with it at all, but they have always been more customer friendly than Best Buy. I have lived in 7 different states and have always found Circuit City employees more knowledgeable and friendly while Best Buy employees seem more arrogant and careless. From my experience, I also think Circuit City has a much easier return and price match policy than Best Buy. Oh, and they have the best website out of all the electronics retailers. Best Buy might be doing better financially but in my opinion CC is a better overall experience.
5-04-2007 @ 5:45PM
shawn said...
this appears to me that you have no concept of a retail enviroment whatsoever. circuit city has opened more new stores in the last year than bb and plans to open over 60 new stores this year plus 20 relocations to better markets than where previously placed. this means a forward approach to the future of its company. that fact combined with a better training program for its associates and better overall pricing can only bode well for cc to at least stick around for quite awhile. what i am surprised at is the lack of acknowlegement that cc is quite a bit older than bb and has to make a lot changes to get away from older mindsets compared to the flashier look of bb. with older stores in sagging markets they have to do what needs to be done to stay alive. cutting your workforce down 3400 from 46,000 seems to be a rather small percentage and from what i understand it was a forward outlook as opposed to laying off a larger amount in 4-5 years i think is quite commendable.
5-04-2007 @ 5:49PM
Brian White said...
Umm - what? CC is *adding* stores? Where do you get this information from? Looks to me that they are *closing* stores:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-circuit0907feb09,0,4603585.story?coll=orl-business-headlines
Cutting the workforce happens all the time - I will give you that. But the way in which CC is booting 3,400 employees is despicable. I have no respect for the way CC management handled the situation. But, hey, they told the truth, right?
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/03/29/circuit-city-layoffs-set-a-scary-precedent-for-workers/
You sound like a Circuit City apologist. Are you? Not quite sure which reality you're living in, but I welcome more comments.
5-05-2007 @ 11:03AM
thomas said...
where I live we have 2 Circuit City's, 3 best buys, and the remains of a CompUSA. in the time I have lived here I have only ever shopped at CompUSA and Best Buy. CC never was an option.
the few times I went in a CC, I was ignored by sales associates talking about this and that. the only way I got service was by walking right up to one, waiting until they stopped talking then asked my question, only to be pointed off some where in the distance to look for the product myself.
CompUSA before it shut down a month or so ago was great for getting those hard to find pieces for my older PC's, now all i have for that is Radio Shack. the sales people where quality individuals who really seemed to care about what I was looking for and on more then one occasion directed me to a much cheaper option then what I was looking for.
finally there is Best Buy. I have always had a good experience at best buy. they have knowledgeable staff, a friendly outlook, and I always see the associates either helping customers, putting out stock, or straitening shelves. if Best Buy had the rare parts I look for I would be in hog heaven.
as it stands now I will do 90% of my electronics shopping in Best Buy and the rest on-line or in Radio Shack.
3-22-2008 @ 1:13AM
nehad said...
Best Buy was chain shop then they decided launched a full pc with brand name vpr matrix. Best buy nation no 1 consumer electronic chain has aimed to compete the key National brand pc as like hp,compaq and sony. Their main mission was to introduce its new brand in the market and dominate the brand image in the same way other brand does. To fulfill their mission the took a new strategy and that was reduce the price less then other competitor
Strategy:
Out let:- best buy based chain of 470 stores.
Marge: - They were merged with deal for better service
Reduce the cost: - Reduce the cost other competitors.
Limitation:-
• Market Research: - Best buy don’t have any specific research like primary or secondary research on perpetual basis.
• Strong rivals:- Already exist strong rivals in this pc market such as HP, Compaq and sony. As a result they faced many problems:
o Lack of market strategy:- 4ps
Price
Place
Product
Promotion
o Lack of brand image
• Competition in current market: - Comparatively competition in current market position with HP, Compaq and sony was become weaken for best buy
• Industry profitable: - Industry profitability was unfavorable with HP Compaq and sony affecting by the prevailing driving forces for best buy
• Able to defend:- Best buy is not able to defend against or counteract the factors the make the industry unattractive
In fine, it can be said that- bb is not likely to succeed because
• Their market segmentation was wrong because bb is not targeting the low end of the market
• They were failure to select the target consumer
• They could not fulfill the consumer satisfaction