Apple Pulling iPad 2 from Best Buy?

[Thunderhawks]

It's about time. Best Buy does not deserve the time of day - their employees are low, their service stinks, and their whole philosophy is unethical. Looks like it's starting to come back to haunt them now...

I don't think faulting the employees is fair.
They have a job, the company tells them what to do how and they do it.

Not everybody questions things when they have and need a job.

That being said, my personal experience is that so far I have always known more than their employees, which is of course easy because I have researched everything I can find about what I am going to buy.
They have to know info about all of the products.

Their prices always seem high, especially for cables. Best Buy does remind me a lot of the old style car dealer salesmen. An uneasy feeling of somebody trying to take advantage of you. Creepy.

So, as others do, but only when I am in the neighborhood, I might do a quick look around about what's new, but I will buy where it's BEST for me

 

[Yankee617]

I heard galaxy tab is better than Ipad. Is it true??

Yes. Go buy yourself a galaxy tab (and leave the iPads to us).

 

[bearcatrp]

Apple should have NEVER allowed BB to sell any apple products. The store in St cloud Minnesota don't know crap about apple products when asked about details of a particular Mac product. They still push PC products. Apple needs to put a apple employee in these stores who know the product and will sell it properly.
As for holding back selling the iPads, glad they got caught. Hope apple pulls all there products, but doubt it will happen.

 

[dbales]

I worked at my local Best Buy for four years when going through college/grad school.

What might have happened is that BB employees made their quota of getting extended service plans on the iPad for the day. The Sales Manager might not have wanted to dip into further inventory until the next day so as to not skew his numbers.

When I was working there, I LITERALLY saw our Sales Manager turn customers away from buying a high-end HD camcorder because the couple weren't going to buy the PSP (Product Service Plan).

Back when Plasma HDTVs were an arm and a leg, I saw our Sales Manager stop a lady from buying a $3,000 plasma because she didn't want the extended service plan.

Happens ALLLLLLL the time at Best Buy's across the country.

 

[cohibadad]

Best Buy has always used :Apple: products to attract customers in and then try to get them to buy a PC alternative with larger margins. They're just getting caught. And if it's all true no way :Apple: is played for the fool. I would expect Best Buy to get the black ball.

 

[cljmac]

Bestbuy has over 1200 locations....

Apple doesn't have 300. There are alot of Bestbuy fanboys. Bestbuy sells millions of dollars of apple product every week to apple switchers. Some best buys aren't the best but wha do u expect from college kids that have no vested interest in the company. And the 18-24 year olds that live with mommy and playing WOW 8 hours a day that work there r the ones u r complaining about. It's plain and simple..... Retail is a sales world, the faster you sell something the faster you get more to sell tomorrow, Bestbuy is not trying to hold product to sell tomorrow. If your Bestbuy is doing something that....boo on them, but it is not a corporate thing, it's at that location. So until we find out what is going on and who is doing it, chill.

 

[finalcut]

Obviously you know little about retail and accounting.

Still hoping you explain him so I can know myself.

 

[ericinboston]

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. The rumor is that BB will no longer be able to sell iPads.

Let's say that rumor is true...

This is yet another Apple control problem like they've had since Day 1. Apple doesn't play well (an understatement) with businesses or even their distributors/sales channels.

A good percentage of people will buy the iPad directly from Apple...but will likely have to buy online since there isn't an Apple store every 30 miles like there are Best Buys or Walmarts or Targets. Many people will want to go in and check it out first.

Anyway, I personally hate BB so I don't really care. But I think Apple is beginning to show it's control-freak ugly head again like they did in the late 80s through the mid 90s. As Apple goes down this path again (app approvals/control, retail store approvals, non-Flash, etc) it just pushes more people, little by little, to other competitors due to all the side-effects of the control-freak problem. For example, if folks walk in expecting to buy an iPad at BB and they don't carry them...they will see other tablets there. The consumer's only choice at this point is to go back home, order online, wait X days/weeks, and pray that when they crack the seal on the iPad box that they love it.

 

[Koufax80]

Best Buy has been doing this crap forever. They hold the stock in the back and unless they're sure the customer wants to purchase all kind of accessories, they tell them they're out of stock. I worked there when the Wii came out and we were instructed that we were "out" unless they wanted to buy controllers, extended warranty, etc...

 

[FriarNurgle]

Like we really needed another reason not to visit a Best Buy.

 

[Yankee617]

I am also a work at BB. I can tell you how it works for me. If we are getting shipments, its being kept from the associates (at least in my store). My store is small and if they were some where in plain sight, we'd see them. Plus I'm pretty close to a lot of inventory guys. The Daily Quota thing doesn't make much sense, because in the end, its a month end budget that we have to meet. If we miss by 2K one day, but are over by 5K the next, it doesn't really matter. Sure the managers want to hit every day, but it doesn't really make that much sense.

As for the $100 pre-sale, my store stopped it at about 10 people, so its not like we did that to a ton of people, and about a week ago, 6 of them got their iPad, so our "list" is almost empty.

Also, having the iPad, definitely brings foot traffic in to potentially make money elsewhere, but in the end, if we sell 20,000 iPads (and nothing else), the store just lost money.

If you were a BB exec with the power to capture a few thousand iPads,
sell them on Ebay at $100 above list price (each), and still show them
as sold at full list price... you'd have the opportunity to pocket a few
hundred thousand dollars.

 

[alent1234]

i know even less - enlighten me pls .........

they make money on the accessories, not the ipad

my 64GB white wifi was $762 including tax

that's
$700 gross to retailer after paying the taxes
$675 or so after the credit card fees

then best buy has to pay apple for the ipad, shipping costs and all the overhead

to make up for that they sell cases like the one i bought for $60. probably cost $1 to make and they probably pay no more than $5 for it. that's where all the profit comes from. the big ticket stuff is sold at breakeven or loss

i bought mine at target and these idiots had no smart covers so they probably lost money that first day. best buy is not about losing money

 

[01civicman]

lol @ holding inventory so the "right" person buys this. Some of you sound a little paranoid. I'm not going to outright say that some stores don't do this. But I've been there for a couple of years now and not once have I not sold something because somebody didn't want anything with it. You people are saying that we are going to take the chance and hold onto an item for somebody that may never exist?

Lets take the business side again:

I can sell something to somebody RIGHT NOW for 2K

Or I can hold onto for the CHANCE to sell it to somebody else for 3K.

 

[Rm.237]

And I'm telling you that it doesn't matter if you are 15K over one day and 15K light the other day. At the end of the month, its even.

That's a point a DM would make. The point your manager tries to make. The point your supervisor tries to make. The point everyone tries to make is hitting that day. Period! Managers don't walk around with a monthly report in their hand everyday. They walk around with that days budget and department goals. Period!

Let's say I'm the Supervisor. All morning long I would get the budget and that days goals repeated to me over and over and over. Then later I may hear where I am at month to date in my department. Then guess what happens? It's right back to where I'm at today and what we are gonna close at.

I see what you're saying and it makes perfect sense. But to go on that alone is to not understand the mentality of retail.

**EDIT** And look. I understand that a store manager understands where hi/her store is at for the month. But hearing about and hitting that monthly pales in comparison to hearing about that daily.

 

[angrylawyer]

I work at Best Buy, and I can tell you this "rumor" is not true.

First, we do not have daily quotas on iPad sales, although we do have overall budget goals as any company would. iPads had no impact on this.

From my experience, we had daily goals that counted towards our weekly goals. So my goal was $500/day, but if I sold $1,000 in 1 day, then I'd be set for two days. So there's no reason to stop when you've met your quota for the day since any 'overage' means the following day will just be easier to meet.

There were a couple times where I would meet my daily goal on 1 customer, but I wouldn't stop selling, that'd be silly. My manager really only looked at the weekly goals, but sometimes he might look at a bad day and be like, "what happened?" but I'd just point him to a good day and he'd be fine. He seemed to understand you'd have bad and good days, but as long as they averaged out right he was happy, at least it showed you were offering all the stuff.

God I hated that job .

 

[01civicman]

If you were a BB exec with the power to capture a few thousand iPads,
sell them on Ebay at $100 above list price (each), and still show them
as sold at full list price... you'd have the opportunity to pocket a few
hundred thousand dollars.

You are claiming that the high up people probably already making several hundred thousand a year to a million or so are doing this?

 

[Koufax80]

lol @ holding inventory so the "right" person buys this. Some of you sound a little paranoid. I'm not going to outright say that some stores don't do this. But I've been there for a couple of years now and not once have I not sold something because somebody didn't want anything with it. You people are saying that we are going to take the chance and hold onto an item for somebody that may never exist?

Lets take the business side again:

I can sell something to somebody RIGHT NOW for 2K

Or I can hold onto for the CHANCE to sell it to somebody else for 3K.

Looks like someone drank the blue kool-aid... It's not selling the same product for more, it's selling the same product to someone that is going to buy additional accessories and increase margin for the store. Just because you work there doesn't mean you have to be stupid.

 

[applefan289]

I don't think faulting the employees is fair.
They have a job, the company tells them what to do how and they do it.

Not everybody questions things when they have and need a job.

That being said, my personal experience is that so far I have always known more than their employees, which is of course easy because I have researched everything I can find about what I am going to buy.
They have to know info about all of the products.

I know, I used to work at Best Buy. But, while I was there, it was highly unethical, and of course you can't blame the employee - but sometimes the employees were the ones who were unethical.

Other employees, a lot of times, told me to sell computers that were optimized ONLY, even though we had a boat load of the ones that weren't optimized (the supervisor told me that as well). That's one out of a million things that were unethical. The whole atmosphere was just a lack of care in all regards. I sometimes felt like if my arm was sliced off and I fell from a ladder, I would just lay there with no one coming to the rescue (of course that wouldn't happen, but I had imagined it considering the atmosphere there).

Of course, I always tried to listen to what my supervisor said, but the rules changed there daily.

And also, after working there, I can tell you that it's impossible to know all the info of all the products. A year into working there, some weird customers walked up to me and asked me about things I didn't even know existed or I didn't know what it was...it's not because I was not on the ball...it's because there's too many products to learn (unless they actually train you).

To conclude, my point is that Best Buy is no good...the word "slop" comes to mind.

 

[robEstyles]

As a former Best Buy slave this sounds completely legit. I was a media Sup and we would have weekly and monthly goals. Meeting these goals meant either bonuses or just not getting written up for not meeting your goals.

So lets say I have a weekly goal of selling 50 ipads. I have 100 ipads. Once I sell 50 ipads I have meant my goal for the week. Anything I sell over 50 for that week I don't get credit for for the following week. It is in my best interest to hold onto the other 50 and then sell them the following week.

Its making sales numbers too. I actually did this (and yes you can hate me for it) during videogame launches. Specifically the 360. Not the initial launch but the months after it. If I have a weekly sales quota and there is a hot system out if I sell all of them in the first week I blow out my numbers for that week. But now I have none to sell for the remaining 3 weeks.

Assuming I get a new shipment every month. So Week 1 numbers off the charts week 2,3,4 are no where near as high as week 1. So now I get yelled at for "you had such great week 1 numbers what happen" and logic doesn't set in to upper management who can't comprehend that its because you had a hot item. So now you get yelled at. So instead of blowing it all out in one week you ration them and sell them through the month.

Its common practice at Best Buy at least it was when I was there.

 

[01civicman]

That's a point a DM would make. The point your manager tries to make. The point your supervisor tries to make. The point everyone tries to make is hitting that day. Period! Managers don't walk around with a monthly report in their hand everyday. They walk around with that days budget and department goals. Period!

Let's say I'm the Supervisor. All morning long I would get the budget and that days goals repeated to me over and over and over. Then later I may hear where I am at month to date in my department. Then guess what happens? It's right back to where I'm at today and what we are gonna close at.

I see what you're saying and it makes perfect sense. But to go on that alone is to not understand the mentality of retail.

No it doesn't, because if you have the chance today to go 130% for the day, you do it. You don't take the chance that you might hit 100% tomorrow.

If I do 100% today and then stop, what if i'm only @ 70% the next. 12 iPads aren't going to hit that. You sell the best you can the day you are working. You don't ever take the chance that tomorrow will be better.

 

[01civicman]

Looks like someone drank the blue kool-aid... It's not selling the same product for more, it's selling the same product to someone that is going to buy additional accessories and increase margin for the store. Just because you work there doesn't mean you have to be stupid.

It doesn't matter if I work there or not. You are taking the chance that that person walks in. What if they don't ever? Then you never sold the product.

 

[zorinlynx]

Best Buy's management are a bunch of bigots too...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/targ...butions-minnesota-candidate/story?id=11270194

I'd avoid this company overall.

A while back when I bought my TV there, they seemed so disappointed when I refused to buy any accessories. They tried to push HDMI cables, to which I said "sorry I can get them at bluejean for a tenth the price". They tried to push their service plan, to which I said no. I've never seen employees so disappointed about making a $2000 sale. I'm guessing they must have VERY slim margins on their electronics.

 

[Koufax80]

It doesn't matter if I work there or not. You are taking the chance that that person walks in. What if they don't ever? Then you never sold the product.

Is it really a gamble assuming someone will buy an iPad??? I think it's clear demand is far greater than supply right now. I hope you're happy working there b/c it doesn't appear you'll be going too far in life...

 

[Rm.237]

No it doesn't, because if you have the chance today to go 130% for the day, you do it. You don't take the chance that you might hit 100% tomorrow.

If I do 100% today and then stop, what if i'm only @ 70% the next. 12 iPads aren't going to hit that. You sell the best you can the day you are working. You don't ever take the chance that tomorrow will be better.

Yes you do. I understand all stores are different but I've played this game or been around far too long. You can do all the math you like but the points I'm making are exactly the reason why Apple is doing what they are doing. PERIOD. Good for Apple.

Side note: You are either being very naive or you just haven't been in the game that long.

 

[Dinø]

So funny that very few understand why Besy Buy is doing this. By consistently having iPads available every day, shoppers will go there with high hopes, but end up purchasing something else, and maybe come back again the next day.

They did the exact same thing with Wiis back in the day. In fact, they would trickle them out throughout the day, so that buyers wouldn't think that if they didn't come in first thing in the morning, they;d already missed their chance at the latest shipment.

If they get weekly shipments from Apple, and sell them all on the first day, Apple isn't going to send them more the next week. Come on people, wise up! iPads are a guaranteed, but fixed quantity, so the game is to get you to buy all the other stuff instead.