Apple in Best Buy Pilot Over?

[laserbeahm]

As far as Best Buy not knowing about their products, it's not unique to Apple computers. How many times have you gone in there asking about any electronic item, and they can't answer your question? A while ago, I went in asking about cell phones. They couldn't even tell me how to activate them. I don't know how they can sell mobile phones when they can't even tell you how to activate them.

As far as customer service regarding Macs, they seem to be doing fine in my local Best Buy store in Modesto, CA. They have them in a different row from the Wintel machines. Every time I've passed by, they've asked me if I need any help. The store by me has an Apple rep and it seems as though they have no problems explaining things to the customers. The last time I was there I saw one the of the Best Buy employees showing someone how to use iMovie.

As someone stated earlier, a lot of the time it seems as though the employees who work there would much rather sell the Windows machines. I think the reason for this has nothing to do with cost or profit. I'm pretty sure the people working with computers at Best Buy or not on commission. In this case, selling a higher profit machine really wouldn't matter to them. the reason why they don't want to show Macs is because they probably don't know anything about them. By making Macs seem undesirable, they have an easier time selling the computers that they might know something about.

Oh well. If you really are not satisfied by the lack of knowledge found inside Best Buy, do your homework online. Then if Best Buy happens to be the closest Apple Reseller to you, just go there to buy it... or wait and order it off Apple.com.

 

[Fat Tony]

The BestBuy across from my house in Alexandria VA has their Apple section right out front, but the iPods are tucked away in the back. Seems like most of the time, alot of programs and accessories are either out of stock or they just haven't bothered to put them on the shelf. The worst part is seeing the display 15" Powerbook they've bent apart trying to secure it down with an anti-theft bar. It looks as if it's being torn in half right where the screen meets the machine. Very well done....

 

[JuicyGoo]

not sure how much it matters but i just saw a BestBuy ad on ign.com touting digital music and players with a pic of an iPod mini. so maybe they're not abandoning the partnership but just moving past the pilot program.

plus I dont think the people at Best Buy OR CompUSA are a very reliable sourse of info. An Apple rep at Compusa said he didn't know anything about any powerbook updates and then the next day the latest 15" speedbump was announced.

 

[bousozoku]

not sure how much it matters but i just saw a BestBuy ad on ign.com touting digital music and players with a pic of an iPod mini. so maybe they're not abandoning the partnership but just moving past the pilot program.

plus I dont think the people at Best Buy OR CompUSA are a very reliable sourse of info. An Apple rep at Compusa said he didn't know anything about any powerbook updates and then the next day the latest 15" speedbump was announced.

After all their complaining over the 5 colour iMacs, I'm surprised that Best Buy isn't complaining about the iPod Mini. After all, choice is what (apparently) stopped their relationship with Apple in the past.

 

[tonemeister]

BestBuy is not bad with just apple products.

I've been reading a lot about how "BestBuy sales support for Apple isn't good" in this thread.

First of all, to be a sales associate at BestBuy, you have to be willing to earn minimum wage. Consquently, there is not much motivation to learn about the products. I don't think the employees of the Apple Store, at times, are any better. They are certainly more qualified to be enthusiatic about selling apple products, but that's all there is to sell! People you deal with in stores are just working retail for the time being hoping a better job offer will come along. Really, what do you expect? Sometimes you are helped by someone who really likes working retail, but most of the time not.

Secondly, BestBuy employees are not reliable on ANY product. Yes, occasionally you get to deal with someone helpful, but not often. It's not just Apple products they're bad with, it's all products.

Thirdly, BestBuy's prices are not any better than anyone else's prices. They should change the name to "worst buy" and get it over with. The only time you want to go in this store is if you know what you want ahead of time and that you saw what you want in a sale flier. Otherwise, find a better price for the same thing elsewhere.

Anyone who relies on a sales person for all of their product information before buying something is extremely naive.

I could give a rat's behind if they stop carrying apple products. You can buy them online and you get free shipping.

 

[rdowns]

My friend who used to work at Best Buy said that the PCs are barely marked up in price... so they don't make much money from them, but they make all the money from the PC accessories which are marked up like crazy and they want you to buy after you've bought the PC.

Although not a reseller in 7 years now, I doubt things have changed much. Back in those days, margins were razor thin (lucky to make 4 points on a corporate sale and maybe 8 or 9 on a consumer sale). They are probably a point or two or three lower today. Accessories, service contracts and services were much higher margined. To make money, you needed very high volume. So where is the money?

Market Development Funds (some mfgs. have differnet names). The stores/chains get these funds based on volume sold. These funds are used to print those pretty booklets in the paper every Sunday, among other marketing activities. Do you really think the companies can afford to produce those every week on thin margins? They are very, very expensive. The funds can be used to fund sales contests, buy demo models and sometimes, to buy more product. Apple used to let you use them for training and seminars. ( I remember one I did for the launch of System 7. We ran newspaper ads and got software vendors to participate. 62 people showed up and we sold all 50 copies of System 7 we had, RAM upgrades, software and about a dozen Macs. Ah, the good old days)

If you're a reseller and need these Sunday supplements to drive traffic, who do you stock and push?

 

[stoid]

Personally, I like this "new" idea floating around about opening kiosks, etc. in universities or shopping malls (if not a real Apple Store). The Apple Store here in St. Louis is always busy and seems to get good reviews by non-Mac users who ventured in out of curiosity.

I too was really impressed by the Apple Store in St. Louis, the employees are very friendly and helpful. Meanwhile, I can't recount a single positive experience I've had shopping at Best Buy. Hearing about the neglected Macs under cared sitting in the back of the store reminds me of CompUSA. *shudder* Do stores get lower profit for selling Macs, or are they just dumb biased pricks that don't even consider the advantages of owning a Mac?

 

[BrendanP]

Confirmation

I am trying to get a job at a Best Buy location in Coon Rapids, MN. I was talking to one of the guys by the PCs and asked if they were planning on getting Macs in at any point. He said he knew they WERE getting them in. This indicates the pilot program was a success because there is another store in the area that already has Macs, and he said they were in talks to bring Macs into all stores.

Good news for me.

 

[AssassinOfGates]

I went to the BB in Fullerton CA and they never sold macs there anyway. Just iPods. When I asked the guy at the camera center if he had any decent webcams for mac, he went on his whole rant about how macs suck and Best Buy isn't "mac friendly in case I couldn't tell."

This termination kills something that was never there, but should have been.

 

[Steven1621]

it would be very difficult to train staff at every best buy to understand apple products. with the continued expansion of the apple stores, there should be a fairly large presense still.

 

[jade]

I've heard the pilot is ovr. Best Buy and Apple are very bull headed...and when that happens partnerships never work out. Best Buy didn't make it a priority to get the associates up to speed on Apple products, and the relationship did not progress enough to make real headway in the best buy stores. Best Buy's also have very poor inventory management, especially when it came to Apple products.

 

[Dahl]

I think it's best for Apple to stop working with BB, if they can't do a proper job promoting the products. From the posts here, it sounds like the BB staff does more harm than good.

 

[docpsycho]

Its about the $$ ya' all

BB guy: "Um. I don't know anything about the Macs. But there's not as many programs and stuff for them and a lot of things just don't work with them."

Even though they are not on commission... they are out to get your cash!!! The sales chumps are almost threatend to sell all the accessories tha you may or may not need.

at the store that I frequent... only one of the copmuter guys has a mac... and he has to ask me how to use it.

Best Buy has never put any monies toward real training and the computer guys have only seen the apple(real apple dude) only once in the 7 months the product line has been there.

2nd item its high end stuff in the ghettoland of customers and product. A $199 home theater system with dvd..... it is nothing but JUNK.

Also the tech services are not allowed to touch them. Including adding memory or even Installing software!!!

 

[mproud]

Worst Buy

Best Buy is the Microsoft of electronics megastores.

They don't clean up the aisles, the employees don't know jack, and its quantity over quality.

Apple can do better. Yes, ideally, if Best Buy carried all of Apple's things... but Apple is unique, in a league of its own. Besides, people are buying their computers less and less from physical stores these days, and more from online web sites, and to a lesser degree, by telephone.

 

[rdowns]

Best Buy is the Microsoft of electronics megastores.

They don't clean up the aisles, the employees don't know jack, and its quantity over quality.

Apple can do better. Yes, ideally, if Best Buy carried all of Apple's things... but Apple is unique, in a league of its own. Besides, people are buying their computers less and less from physical stores these days, and more from online web sites, and to a lesser degree, by telephone.

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Sure, lots buy online or via 800 numbers but I'd bet a far higher percentage are still bought at retail, especially first time buyers and switchers.

Apple needs to lure first time buyers and switchers to gain market share. You can't do that if your products are not where people buy them. Unless these people can see, feel and play with them, they are far less likely to purchase them.

Take all the fallacies about Macs (can't connect to Internet, no software etc.). How can these be refuted unless the buyer can actually see the Mac connect to the Internet or see the tons of available software? Maybe I'm cynical, but a sales rep on the phone or a web site has the credibiilty of the used car salesperson kicking the tires to a first time buyer or switcher.

Apple needs more retail shelf space. 75 Apple stores are nice and so is CompUSA but not enough. They need shalf space at another national chain, be it Best Buy, Circuit City or some other.

You are correct, Apple is in a league of its own. Sadly, that league is way too small.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I am trying to get a job at a Best Buy location in Coon Rapids, MN. I was talking to one of the guys by the PCs and asked if they were planning on getting Macs in at any point. He said he knew they WERE getting them in. This indicates the pilot program was a success because there is another store in the area that already has Macs, and he said they were in talks to bring Macs into all stores.

Good news for me.

Good news for you on the job front as long as you aren't older then 30. It appears in the Northern Virginia area that there is a pattern of discrimination on floor workers that are over 30. In fact I know of at least 3 over 50's that never got a call back even for holiday help.

 

[guyute]

I'd be interested to find out how much Best Buy (and/or the employees, I don't know if they get a commission) gets off a PC sale versus a Mac sale. Since Macs are generally a bit more expensive, I would have thought they'd be trying to play up the qualities of the Macs. But maybe it works out differently insofar as how much the retailer gets out of the deal.

I don't know, I just can't figure why Best Buy's people are so intent on selling Windows PCs even to people who come in with an inclination toward a Mac. If Macs were given a fair treatment by the sales people, I think a lot more would be puchased.

Best Buy clearly makes more on even the one of the cheapest pc, even if you look at the margin on the tower/cpu alone. When you addd the monitor in its even more unbalanced. A $700 mac lcd may yeild 10% when an equivalent priced (name your brand) monitor yeilds 20%+.

This even gets more unbalanced when you add service and support. You need to figure that every winpc sold needs to have 4+ years of education and support. This education and support is where the money is really made. When a winpc user receives a virus and is charged $120 for removal + $50 for norton + any upgrades because the machine is obsolete you have to sell the cash cow.

I manage the local bby pc area and have a few of my employees mac knowledgable. If someone asks us we tell exactly the difference. I myself explain that i spend all day fixing everbody's pc problems and don't want to go home and have to fix my own so I use a mac. This thing runs......

 

[KREX725]

I'd be interested to find out how much Best Buy (and/or the employees, I don't know if they get a commission) gets off a PC sale versus a Mac sale. Since Macs are generally a bit more expensive, I would have thought they'd be trying to play up the qualities of the Macs. But maybe it works out differently insofar as how much the retailer gets out of the deal.

Best Buy employees do not get a commission. When I was with the company when they originally carried Mac ('94-'97), the markup wasn't much. I doubt they could sell them for anything less than what you see in MacMall or the other Mac specialty catalogs.

It is also very true that BB relies more on the sales of their warranties (which can be great if they're replacing the machine but horrible if their repair center gets a hold of it--they destroyed the front cover of my Performa 6220CD years ago).

Many other accessories will of course work on PC or Mac now with USB so I don't know why their current employees would be so clueless about that. Most of the time, it's right there on the packaging.

 

[ToddW]

I don't know if that's necessarily true. Sure, lots buy online or via 800 numbers but I'd bet a far higher percentage are still bought at retail, especially first time buyers and switchers.

Apple needs to lure first time buyers and switchers to gain market share. You can't do that if your products are not where people buy them. Unless these people can see, feel and play with them, they are far less likely to purchase them.

Take all the fallacies about Macs (can't connect to Internet, no software etc.). How can these be refuted unless the buyer can actually see the Mac connect to the Internet or see the tons of available software? Maybe I'm cynical, but a sales rep on the phone or a web site has the credibiilty of the used car salesperson kicking the tires to a first time buyer or switcher.

Apple needs more retail shelf space. 75 Apple stores are nice and so is CompUSA but not enough. They need shalf space at another national chain, be it Best Buy, Circuit City or some other.

You are correct, Apple is in a league of its own. Sadly, that league is way too small.

I agree to some extent, however, Fry's do carry apple products and quite a bit, more so than CompUSA. Apple's best bet IMHO is to open more retail stores. Bring the apple experience to the public.

 

[cr2sh]

Best Buy couldn't be much worse than CompUSA. Generally, every worker in the computer areas is just an order taker anyway. Micro Center is probably the only chain store selling computers where the people working there actually know computers.

My local CompUSA has a Apple Rep who is knowledgable enough.. I mean don't get me wrong, the guys a prick, but for Joe Shmoe questions.. he's gold baby. gold.

As for MicroCenter.. yes, the mac section is better run, more informative.. but don't let them fool you. They're all idiots up there too!

As far as the BB goes.. yeh, I'd love to see stuff in store. If I can buy mac stuff at target, best buy, and my apple store... that'd be great. Pilots end.. that's what they do. If this one ended because of poor sales, I'm quite sure it was due to the poor salesmenship of BB.

 

[ffakr]

Why PC's get more respect at retail outlets

I've heard that one of the main reasons why PCs get more respect from sales staff is that the PC vendors are very competitive in offering perks to sales people. Why would someone bother to push a Mac over an HP if HP is giving a kickback to salespeople who hawk their products.

 

[Koodauw]

I am trying to get a job at a Best Buy location in Coon Rapids, MN. I was talking to one of the guys by the PCs and asked if they were planning on getting Macs in at any point. He said he knew they WERE getting them in. This indicates the pilot program was a success because there is another store in the area that already has Macs, and he said they were in talks to bring Macs into all stores.

Good news for me.

OH just wait my friend, you will soon discover that no job at Best Buy is a good job.

 

[bousozoku]

My local CompUSA has a Apple Rep who is knowledgable enough.. I mean don't get me wrong, the guys a prick, but for Joe Shmoe questions.. he's gold baby. gold.

As for MicroCenter.. yes, the mac section is better run, more informative.. but don't let them fool you. They're all idiots up there too!

As far as the BB goes.. yeh, I'd love to see stuff in store. If I can buy mac stuff at target, best buy, and my apple store... that'd be great. Pilots end.. that's what they do. If this one ended because of poor sales, I'm quite sure it was due to the poor salesmenship of BB.

Sure, the Apple person had better be smarter about Apple products than the CompUSA people. If they weren't, why put them there? In Orlando, they're better than some of the people working at the Apple Store.

The Philadelphia area Micro Center was quite good. It's unfortunate that the Ohio stores would be worse but things happen. The store outside Philly was a shining example against the competition. (One report about the Philadelphia CompUSA included a statement from a salesperson where he said that the Macintosh he was showing even had a level cache.)

Apple Stores are great but they're put in places where the rich go to shop. I don't shop in the Cartier or Tiffany's stores in the mall and neither do most of the people Apple need to court.

 

[ToddW]

Apple Stores are great but they're put in places where the rich go to shop. I don't shop in the Cartier or Tiffany's stores in the mall and neither do most of the people Apple need to court.

My point exactly.

 

[Foxer]

Where is the pilot program running? Anywhere near Wisconsin? I was hoping to my my G5 there, when the Rev B come out, so that I could get points in the BB rewards program. Not much, but it translates to something like 4 or 5 percent back in store credit. Since no one else ever offers an incentive that I'm interested in, this always seemed to be the way to go. Plus, if my cinema display had a dead pixel, I think I would have a better chance bullying the high school girls at BB and getting a new unit than I would from the elitist pretty boys at the local Apple store.

(I don't like the staff at our Apple store, in case you couldn't tell. They couldn't sell a snickers to a starving man. They'd just tell the man about how beautiful the snicker's GUI is and never bother to show the ease of use and practicality of the candy inn question.)