Best Buy (BBY) was the big winner in this year's fourth quarter. It took the lion's share of consumer electronics sales after competitors Circuit City and CompUSA shut down earlier in the year. No doubt, there was enhanced competition from mega-retailer Wal-Mart (WMT) and online behemoth Amazon.com (AMZN). But Best Buy managed to nip at customer heels with deep discounts on flat-panel televisions and laptop PCs that just weren't seen at the competition (yes, I looked). Laptops for $299 and 32" flat-panel TVs for $249 are probably loss leaders by a big margin -- but those prices make a dent on consumer psychology.
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