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Apple + Best Buy Update: Just A Pilot?

I for one would welcome it if Best Buy sold Mac stuff. It would be nice to drive to the local Best Buy and buy my Mac stuff instead of having to order it online and pay shipping and the like. The nearest Apple store to me is like 5 hours away.

Sure the staff at Best Buy may be useless, but the more people that see Macs, the more people will consider them viable options, it's not like the staff at Best Buy will be able to help people with PCs either, I think they're just all around useless.
 
Best Buy...Best Die

Don't get me wrong, I would love having more retail locations that sold Macs but seriously, Best Buy is notorious (and I'm not singling them out, because even smaller computer chains or Mom & Pop computer stores for the most part are ignorant of Apple products) for product ignorance. Not just on Macs mind you, but on the whold realm of computer products in general. I would love it so I could play with new Macs, but...in reality, in spite of my own selfishness, I don't think this is a good move for Apple. Just a thought.
 
yg17 said:
I'm not so sure it's a good idea unless there will be full time Apple reps at the store.

BB employees aren't the brightest crayons in the box, I can just imagine a potental switcher who knows nothing about Macs walking into the store:

Customer: "So, I can check my email, chat with friends, and surf the web with this thing, right?"
BB Employee: "Uhhhhhhh......I'm not sure if Macs can do any of that. I think you need Windows for that sort of thing."
Customer: "OK, I'll take this HP then"

----------

Customer: "So, if I buy this digital camera, and this Mac, they'll work, right?"
BB Employee: "Uh......the box for the camera says Windows is required, so I guess it won't work."
Customer: "You don't know if it will work with that iPhoto thing I've read about?"
BB Employee: "Ummm....guess not. The box says Windows"

---------

Customer: "What's the difference between this Mac and that eMachines computer?"
BB Employee: "The eMachines has 2 buttons on its mouse, and with computers, more is better so you want that one"


You get the idea. I just don't see it being good for Apple's sales.
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yg17 totally nailed it!!!!!!!!!! 100% true. NO...... I changed my mind yg17 is, 1000000000000000000% true. for the most part, best buy computer employees are STUPID!!!!!!!!!
 
From my experience, this is not as good as you might think it is...

I worked at best buy and out of a dozen salesperson, only 2 of us knew something about apple computers... and guess what, none of us still work there anymore...

My supervisor didnt appreciate the fact i sold apple computers, since it meant a low profit margin, no geeksquad service, and very few people actually bought the in store extended warranty since it was more expensive then applecare

One time, he convinced a customer not to buy a mac mini because he didnt want the extended warranty. He told him he would get lots of spyware that could fry his hardware... shows how much he knew about OS X...

So to sum it up, very few best buy employee are knowledgeable enough to sell apple hardware, and even if they do, their supervisor will most likely give them a hard time about it since they wont sell as much accesories, warranties or in store software installs (anti virus, spy sweeper)
 
The program will ONLY be successful if Apple has a specialist dedicated to selling the machines. The average Best Buy sales associate lacks the knowledge to push the Mac.

If the pilot lacks the Apple specialist, it has FAILURE written all over it.
 
Bad news for Apple. Bad frickin' news.

Have you ever been to Best Buy and tried to get any type of information from the sales staff? You'll have two chances of being successful: Slimski and Noneski, and the chances will be that Slimski just left town.

If you know exactly what you want then maybe it's not a bad thing. But as previous posts have stated the new comers, converts and people switching from Windows are in for a long nightmare.

I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt, and I hope they know what they are doing. But I'm finding it difficult to see how this is going to enhance the image of the product and create satisfied customers.
 
todstiles said:
Bad news for Apple. Bad frickin' news.

Have you ever been to Best Buy and tried to get any type of information from the sales staff? You'll have two chances of being successful: Slimski and Noneski, and the chances will be that Slimski just left town.

If you know exactly what you want then maybe it's not a bad thing. But as previous posts have stated the new comers, converts and people switching from Windows are in for a long nightmare.

I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt, and I hope they know what they are doing. But I'm finding it difficult to see how this is going to enhance the image of the product and create satisfied customers.
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Ditto.

I don't go into Best Buy with any questions in mind. If I'm making a big purchase, I answer any questions I have with research online and then go in and buy. I'm sure there are a few exceptions scattered across the US, but for the most part, their employees are complete morons.
 
stuartluff said:
So what is BestBuy? Is it like Tesco/Walmart in England?
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The typical BB store is a large square building, maybe 150 feet on a side. Inside there are maybe 100 different TVs and steros all bing demo'd at once with diffent programming. If you hunt around you can find some poor kiid working for minimum wage who is only working at BB untill he can find a better job. They can give directions; "TV sets? That way" but only the most unknowagable consummer would ask them a technical question.
 
Could help.....

As the "mac guy" amongst my friends I received a call from a guy on Saturday who wanted to buy a mac. He was at our local Best Buy and was wondering where all the Apple computers were. I had to inform him that he would need to drive an hour to the nearest Apple Store or 30 minutes to the nearest CompUSA where he would find out of date versions of Apple Computers. So perhaps this would help boost sales to the uninitiated potential Apple Customer.

I for one don't mind Apple having a small but profitable user base. It reduces the chances that some hacker will try to write a virus for the platform.
 
ChrisA said:
The typical BB store is a large square building, maybe 150 feet on a side. Inside there are maybe 100 different TVs and steros all bing demo'd at once with diffent programming. If you hunt around you can find some poor kiid working for minimum wage who is only working at BB untill he can find a better job. They can give directions; "TV sets? That way" but only the most unknowagable consummer would ask them a technical question.
Click to expand...


Best description EVER
 
quigleybc said:
I've seen iMacs and other Macs at the Best Buy here before....and ya, the employees were no help....
Click to expand...

MacRumors is the best help anyway when buying an apple computer...
 
kahos said:
From my experience, this is not as good as you might think it is...

I worked at best buy and out of a dozen salesperson, only 2 of us knew something about apple computers... and guess what, none of us still work there anymore...

My supervisor didnt appreciate the fact i sold apple computers, since it meant a low profit margin, no geeksquad service, and very few people actually bought the in store extended warranty since it was more expensive then applecare

One time, he convinced a customer not to buy a mac mini because he didnt want the extended warranty. He told him he would get lots of spyware that could fry his hardware... shows how much he knew about OS X...

So to sum it up, very few best buy employee are knowledgeable enough to sell apple hardware, and even if they do, their supervisor will most likely give them a hard time about it since they wont sell as much accesories, warranties or in store software installs (anti virus, spy sweeper)
Click to expand...

And this is exactly why I hate Best Buy.

Me: I'd like to buy this widget.
BB Employee: Great, would you like the Super-Duper Wow Warrenty?
Me: No.
BBE: But, with the Super-Duper Wow warrenty...
Me: I know. But, no.
BBE: But, that widget has this problem with the whazzit and it sometimes breaks off.
Me: You just told me this was the most reliable widget ever made.
BBE: <shrug>
Me: So, which is it then?
BBE: You need the warrenty.
Me: How much is it?
BBE: <rediculous number>
Me: That's more than this widget costs.
BBE: But, it's covered.
Me: I said no.
BBE: Okay, how about a year's subscription to Entertainment Weekly?
Me: <&$#)$#&>
 
Reply

I think this is good and bad. Apple needs to get their name out there and get switchers, but the staff at BB is horrible. If you ask them a technical question, they simply look at the box and if it doesn't say then they make up an answer. All I am thinking is, "I wouldn't have asked you if it was on the box". And as someone already stated, they are really only good for pointing you in the right direction. I've found that if you go to the Geek Squad counter and ask a question about a product than they are MUCH more helpful. So unless Apple gets certified staff, like they have at CompUSA, it might not work out.:rolleyes:

Kevin

Edit: I forgot to add that most of the staff have not much interest or knowledge of the products, but are just there as a "stepping stone" and could pretty much care less about helping potential customers. AND, this doesn't apply to all of the staff, most however.
 
It its anything like Currys/Dixons in the UK if they don't sell 10% of products with a warrenty then they get fired, normally I find though that a firm NO shuts them up completely, I guess they realise they wont sell any warrenty to me as I know they're a waste of time. It's a problem though, and in the long run will loose them sales to Amazon etc. They are also hugely expensive, a 512MB Flash SD card costs £7 on Amazon and £28 in PC World, such a rip-off...:rolleyes:
 
Rocketman said:
Free advise. Buy from someone willing to give service AFTER the sale.
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That's what Best Buy's "Geek Squad" is for. However...the negative light painted upon Apple by the salespeople at Best Buy, pales in comparison to the opinions held by the Gamer, er, Geek Squad.
 
This story is the "Groundhog Day" of Apple retailing. This must be the third "pilot program" in the last three years. My local one (Virginia) participated in one in the days of the g4 imac; none of the saleskids knew anything about them. Apple has correctly focused on creating their own retail network.
 
I bought my first mac 6 months ago at the new apple store that opened around the corner.

my previous laptop came from BB.

when i asked their sales rep about the macs (which i had intended on getting) he replied something along the lines of:

" Macs are hard to use, incopatible with everything, unsafe due to no virus protection, more expencive for no reason, bad, bad, machines."

that guy kept me from switching for a whole 2 years.
 
BBY isn't all bad, and certainly not all bad for Apple

I find it interesting that most people see "Best" and "Buy" in the same sentence with "Apple" and automatically think that not only will whatever plan it is fail, but Apple's market share will instantly fall to negative percentage, all iPods will simultaneous explode, and every machine with OSX installed with have a kernel panic. Sorry, guys, not the case.

I'm an employee of Best Buy. I make way more than minimum wage. I know my department like the back of my hand (home theatre, that is). I'm not a pimply teenager. And, true, I don't see myself working for the Big Blue Box in ten years, but right now, I'm moving up in the company, and enjoying it. I like what I do, and what I sell. And I understand the stuff I sell because the company gives me a basic education on it, and what I can't find out from them I research myself.

And that's the key to making things in Best Buy move out the door: making sure employees know selling points. It's true, some employees flub up on some stuff. I had a co-worker once tell a customer that a DLP projector uses red, green, and yellow light (she must have had DLP's and stoplights confused). But we talked with her, educated her, and now she knows DLP's.

The key is NOT educating employees on the fine points of Darwin, or making sure they all are aware of the performance differences of every processor Apple used since the 68020. If Apple gives good basic training materials to BBY, and BBY in turn lets their employees know, then life will be gravy.

The other big "if" is if Apple makes it worth BBY's while to sell Macs. If there's margin in it for BBY, there should be no problem. We recently had a company-wide mandatory training because we started selling Infinity car speakers. Paying every carfi employee in every store (all 700) for two hours to learn about a specific brand of car speakers is EXPENSIVE. But BBY will recoup those costs on the margin of the speakers. Same goes for Macs. If there's money to be made, there's money to be spent on education. It all depends on Apple's end of things.

But don't blame Best Buy if this falls through... product education is just as important on the vendor side as it is on the sales side.
 
I live in Vegas, and in our Best Buy there are two MacBooks, a MacBook Pro, Power Mac G5, iMac, and Mac mini. So the whole lineup with the exception of a 17-inch MBP.
 
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