Best Buy & Geek Squad Policies

[BalekFekete]

I understand Best Buy's current stance is to only price match against local Brick & Mortar stores in the immediate vacinity.  However, give the ever increasing fluency of the population and proliferation of online stores, I find it absurd that they do not consider one of the largest to be one worth matching.  With Amazon's Prime - free in a good number of cases, mine included - has a product to me in two days for free, tax free.  It is a reputable, well established seller of most of the same goods that Best Buy peddles.

Shopping at my local Best Buy store is no longer an incentive because of the delay, hassle, or fear of online shopping.  Failure to treat it as such and match has (today) and will in the future lose my business.  I would rather support local business and local jobs, but will not if something as simple as matching competition is not endorssed.

[AaronE]

By asking Best Buy to match Amazon you're asking for them to go out of business pretty quickly which would be the opposite of supporting local business which employee local workers. 

B&M stores have more overhead, more labor costs, more benefit costs and the same cost of product. So you're asking a local business to survive on a margin they can't. 

All in all you're free to shop where you want to but expecting a store to match the price of Amazon when they could not survive on that is not going to work out.

[Bob_A]

What the poster has neglected to mention. Is the fact that their Amazon "Free" 2 day Prime Shipping. Actually costs about $79 a year, payable annually in advance. And it does not apply to heavy bulky items.

AaronE -

However, what you have said certainly does make a lot of sense. And I don't have any reason to doubt the accuracy of your conclusions. But, isn't that really the recipe for the eventual end of the Best Buy business? Or, at least the end of the Bricks and Mortar version of Best Buy?

Adapt or perish. Survival of the fittest, etc. ?

[AaronE]

My statement was about B&M stores in general.

For instance: I can buy garage door springs online for about 20%+ less than what the home improvement stores sell them for here and do the labor myself for $100+ less than what companies that service garage doors cost.

Stores need to make an operational profit through margin to keep the lights on and the store staffed. It's just the way it is.

[BalekFekete]

I fully understand the additional challenges that a B&M store has to stay afloat.  However, I have tried to price match now once.  Based on how much I shop, the consequence for the store is absolutely insignificant.  As a consumer that is still fairly well off and has a minor technology obsession, the store is losing FAR FAR more than the $20 margin on this particular purchase by pushing me away from their doors entirely.  Quite to the contrary...if they had explained they don't traditionally PM Amazon.com, but in this case would, they'd have earned kudos.  Rather...they lost face in a big way.

[QuantumThunder]

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BalekFekete wrote:

I fully understand the additional challenges that a B&M store has to stay afloat.  However, I have tried to price match now once.  Based on how much I shop, the consequence for the store is absolutely insignificant.  As a consumer that is still fairly well off and has a minor technology obsession, the store is losing FAR FAR more than the $20 margin on this particular purchase by pushing me away from their doors entirely.  Quite to the contrary...if they had explained they don't traditionally PM Amazon.com, but in this case would, they'd have earned kudos.  Rather...they lost face in a big way.

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If they made an exception for you they would have to make an exception for everyone. Your money is no greener then anybody elses. Also, keep in mind that a lot of stuff on amazon for less then normal retail price can be a used, reconditioned, or refurbished item hence the discount.

[bifflez]

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BalekFekete wrote:

I fully understand the additional challenges that a B&M store has to stay afloat.  However, I have tried to price match now once.  Based on how much I shop, the consequence for the store is absolutely insignificant.  As a consumer that is still fairly well off and has a minor technology obsession, the store is losing FAR FAR more than the $20 margin on this particular purchase by pushing me away from their doors entirely.  Quite to the contrary...if they had explained they don't traditionally PM Amazon.com, but in this case would, they'd have earned kudos.  Rather...they lost face in a big way.

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From Best Buy's Price Match Guarantee FAQ:

"Does Best Buy match the prices of Internet retailers?

No. Best Buy does not match the prices of Internet-only retailers or the website prices of our local retail competitors' stores."

Source: Best Buy's website

Also, depending on the situation and product you're buying, just be aware and do some research of the retailer selling the product to make sure you're not getting into a "gray market" purchase (or items/goods sold through distribution channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer). What does this mean for you personally as a consumer? Manufacturers may consider your manufacturer's warranty voided under these circumstances, and for repairs you would be forced to ship your product back to the country of original purchase (i.e. where the gray retailer original bought the product).

More reading (with a focus on Canada, but the same concept applies to the U.S.): http://www.robic.ca/publications/Pdf/128-FMG.pdf

[movie2cats]

I would like to point out that BB.com is often competetive to Amazon.com and a lot of items have in-store pick up as well. I agree with most posts that essentially you are comparing apples to oranges. If Amazon's price is better on any given item, just order from them. Particularly if you have a Prime account. I do understand your frustration though.

[experio]

Supporting local stores by patronizing them despite higher prices is justified when you want and can get service to match the price differential. However, that is often NOT the case. We used to regularly shop at Best Buy and buy local sometimes repeat items until we had horrible experience with our under extended warranty product deling with an arrogant store representative who just turned us away. What bothered us most was the culture at Best Buy does not recognize that the customer DOES NOT have to buy from them, just window shop then buy from Amazon. Therefore when someone is making an attempt to shop local and has been buying from them and when something goes wrong and the corporate office acknowledged mistake but the local store NEVER called to apologize and to this day we do not go to the store in question. We have purchased big ticket items in excess of $ 4-5000 since then. I suppose the writing on the wall is clear unless Best Buy wants to survive and justify the value they CAN ADD but are currently NOT.

[Jimmienomam]

I hate when people say "tax free" when ordering from amazon. If you don't report non taxed purchases it is TAX FRAUD. While I don't expect majority of people get caught, it is NOT tax free.