Best Buy Inc. (NASDAQ: BBY) has managed to prosper as a big box electronics retailer while many of its competitors -- Circuit City Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CC) and CompUSA, among many others -- have descended into oblivion. It is universally acknowledged that Best Buy's force of knowledgeable and well-trained employees have been key to that success.
In a recent segment on MSNBC, Ron Mott looked at the company's commitment to diversity and a better understanding of the history of race relations. The company is paying for more than 800 managers to visit the National Civil Rights Museum located at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Interestingly, the company says that programs like this add to its bottom-line by instilling greater pride and awareness in it workforce.
Starbucks: The next McDonald's
Wal-Mart's launch of $20 slimming jeans will be a huge success
Why I spent some of my stimulus check on GE
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-06-2008 @ 1:13PM
Yannis said...
God, who writes this tripe? Best Buy employees are knowledgeable and well trained? Sending the managers to a museum? This is utter crap! Keep pumping up the stock with bull like this.
4-06-2008 @ 2:12PM
Steve D said...
I've got to say, Zac, my experience has been the complete opposite. Best Buy's employees are the worst aspect of their business!
Perhaps you have data that says otherwise, but when I want a solid demonstration or explanation of a product or technology, I go to Circuit City and get it from one of their TRULY knowledgeable and helpful employees.
Then I say thank you, down the road to Best Buy, and purchase it there, where the prices are lower and the selection is greater.
Best Buy is beating the pants off other retailers for many reasons, but its employees are not one of them.
4-06-2008 @ 2:28PM
meezzzz said...
I work for the competition and we get daily if not hourly complaints about the best buy in our town. The only thing they have going for them it the geek squad.
4-06-2008 @ 5:15PM
RB said...
Apparently the moron who wrote this article is being rewarded hansomely by Best Buy or somebody who stands to gain alot by this crap. We have a local Best Buy and the store is fair at best and the staff isn't much better.
4-07-2008 @ 1:26AM
Joe Beaudoin Jr. said...
I have to agree with the above posters. As a former Best Buy peon, I can attest to the fact that Best Buy makes its money by scamming customers into buying "protection/performance" plans, signing up for "account shield" and secondary credit cards when signing up for the Best Buy Card, and its horrendous "Geek Squad" service.
Best Buy employees aren't trained squat. Anything they may have learned, they learned on their own, or their "knowledge" is a bunch of bull leavings.
Frankly, all you really need to know about Best Buy and its Sears-like/used car salesman-like tactics can be found in various articles of The Consumerist website.
4-07-2008 @ 1:26AM
Howie said...
Best Buy has no better service than any other big box retailer. They suck!
I went to Best Buy to get a laptop and a GPS, my wife told the associate twice we were waiting by the GPS counter, about 10 of their employees walked by and did nothing.
Went to the computer counter and no one was helping us or any other customers.
Best Buy didn't make it by customer service. They made it by selling warranties, installation, and getting kickbacks from their credit cards.
4-07-2008 @ 1:27AM
spearnox said...
That's why you shop at RADIOSHACK!!!