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Best Buy selling Apple Products

I hope when people make statements that this is going to be focused in California and Illinois that they don't just mean Chicago area Best Buys. I'm one of those guys further south that gets tired of Chicago essentially being consider Illinois. :rolleyes:

One comment I'll make is that I think Apple has a great idea in getting into Best Buy but it can't possibly be due to their computer line. Why do I say that? Well why now? The iMac doesn't stack up well to the PC's they sell and the G5 costs too much when compared.

Best Buy is only interested in getting people in the door and out with products. They're not truly concerned with the user experience. That might upset those employees who work there that hang out on these forums but that is the general perception.

My guess is(could be right, could be wrong) is that it's the itunes store that is garnering the interest. Has any of the employees uncovered if Apple might have some sort of kiosk setup in or near the music section?

This might also go hand-in-hand with the rumors that Apple is working on a "low-cost" ipod. Such a device would fit perfectly with Best Buy sales.

For what it's worth if this really is due to built up hype and demand of the G5 then don't expect Apple to remain in BB for even a year. :(
 
Re: Why California and Illinois?

Originally posted by LinuxGigolo
Why is this going to occur first in California and Illinois? The 2 states have a combined 17 Apple Stores.
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I couldn't agree with you more... I know in Chicago alone there are 3 Apple stores now... they're the closest Apple store to where I live (Iowa)... the thought of all the Best Buys in Chicago selling Apple products too makes me sick to my stomach when I think of the Best Buy that is a 10 minute drive from my place in Iowa... I would assume that Apple would "use" the Best Buy spaces until they could put up their own stores in more places... I actually don't even get why there are 3 Apple stores in Chicago either... but I'm not marketing type person either I suppose... I would just think one Apple store would suffice...
 
I'm also in Downstate Illinois. I really hope the BB here in Bloomington begins selling Macs. The local Mac vendor is fantastic, I've bought an iMac and a few other odds and ends from him, but he doesn't carry much software or accessories. It would be nice to have a place to look at Powerbook cases before I plunk down 100bux on one.

As for bad BB experiences, I guess I've been lucky. The one here in town is fantastic. These guys pretty much know me by name, I'm in there at least once a week buying movies, games, or stuff for my PCs (yeah, still have one for gaming and another as a cheap server, but it runs Linux).

They do try to sell the warranties, but I've never had them become annoyingly aggressive about it.

It makes me miss Florida. In Florida, most extended service warranties are illegal and those that aren't are heavily regulated.
 
Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
(And if any Best Buy employees respond with "We don't sell according to spiffs," I'd have to say that this policy obviously hasn't yet reached the Dallas area.)
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I'd just like to make a clarification to a number of posts in this forum, as a Best Buy employee myself. Best Buy employees do NOT receive any kind of commission or "spiffs" for selling certain items or selling you Service plans or anything else that they may offer. I believe that Best Buy years and years ago when first starting up were commissioned based, but it hasn't been that way for at least a decade.

And I'd like to point out that, yes, plenty of Best Buy employees do not know the ins and outs of each product, admittedly quite a few people in the company know absolutely nothing about what they sell. I myself end up doing quite a bit of research on my products in my off hours because there is not always sufficient training. But like someone posted earlier, Best Buy is not meant to be a place where the high-end user can get all of their answers, Best Buy is geared towards the general consumer. You want specific detailed knowledge about certain components that don't interest the general consumer, go to a high-end store. I am not saying that you shouldn't be able to find out this information at a Best Buy, because I believe you should. I do my best to know everything I can about each product I sell, but then again I started in high-end specialty sales long before Best Buy so perhaps I just have a different mindset than a lot of BB employees do.
But then again, put this into perspective. You go to a high-end store, you learn everything you need to know, you pay full retail. You go to a Best Buy or similar store, you might learn some, but you pay quite a bit less. And in doing so, the store pays their employees a lot less. An average Best Buy employee does not get paid that much higher than minimum wage, especially considering the amount of work that's needed to do their job [and yes, please, I know there's slackers, but they don't last long on average either].

And getting tired of hearing about Service plans and MSN and everything else in sales presentations? Please, talk to a manager. Let them know that you do not care to hear any of this. Goodness knows I just like to discuss the product, not everything else on earth. Managers make BB employees push these extras to basically keep their jobs and in turn (The managers) end up getting the paybacks for selling those. Not us. And just to clarify further, not even managers get spiffs for selling certain products so that is completely a non-issue. I was never informed nor anyone else I know of at Best Buy to sell a certain product over the other.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by raeingoth
I'd just like to make a clarification to a number of posts in this forum, as a Best Buy employee myself. Best Buy employees do NOT receive any kind of commission or "spiffs" for selling certain items or selling you Service plans or anything else that they may offer. I believe that Best Buy years and years ago when first starting up were commissioned based, but it hasn't been that way for at least a decade.
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I'm sure you mean that sincerely, but it's kinda like when the local police say repeatedly, "Nah, we don't have speeding ticket quotas" but you surely do see 'em hiding in the bushes a WHOLE lot more in the last seven days of the month. :)

Specifically: when, at the height of the Christmas season (2001 -- certainly not a decade ago), one sees three BB employees hanging around a specific set of products and clearly pushing them much harder than seeming equivalents -- e.g., Epson printers over competitors' makes -- one may be forgiven for thinking spiffs are alive and well at Best Buy.

OTOH, perhaps they were Epson employees wearing the BB uniform with BB's approval. (Seriously. After all, one assumes the Apple-specific rep will wear normal BB clothing, too.) There are a number of possible explanations, admittedly.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
After all, one assumes the Apple-specific rep will wear normal BB clothing, too.
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I doubt they will, I am not sure about other parts of the country but in MN at the CompUSA I go to the Apple Rep is alwyas wearing a black Apple Polo shirt, nothing like the CompUSA uniforms.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
I'm sure you mean that sincerely, but it's kinda like when the local police say repeatedly, "Nah, we don't have speeding ticket quotas" but you surely do see 'em hiding in the bushes a WHOLE lot more in the last seven days of the month. :)

Specifically: when, at the height of the Christmas season (2001 -- certainly not a decade ago), one sees three BB employees hanging around a specific set of products and clearly pushing them much harder than seeming equivalents -- e.g., Epson printers over competitors' makes -- one may be forgiven for thinking spiffs are alive and well at Best Buy.

OTOH, perhaps they were Epson employees wearing the BB uniform with BB's approval. (Seriously. After all, one assumes the Apple-specific rep will wear normal BB clothing, too.) There are a number of possible explanations, admittedly.
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That is among the more assinine and childish assumptions I've ever heard made here. Why are we supposed to listen to a word you say when you've obviously got no intention of doing the same for anyone else?
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
I'm sure you mean that sincerely, but it's kinda like when the local police say repeatedly, "Nah, we don't have speeding ticket quotas" but you surely do see 'em hiding in the bushes a WHOLE lot more in the last seven days of the month. :)
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And as my post stated we are required to push these things to keep our jobs, there are quotas that the managers demand, but the non-manager BB employee does not get anything for selling you a service plan or whatever.


Specifically: when, at the height of the Christmas season (2001 -- certainly not a decade ago), one sees three BB employees hanging around a specific set of products and clearly pushing them much harder than seeming equivalents -- e.g., Epson printers over competitors' makes -- one may be forgiven for thinking spiffs are alive and well at Best Buy.
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Certainly most employees have brand preferences, why anyone would ever have a brand preference for Epson is completely beyond me though. Now I have never worked in the computer department but every once in a while they may have a company-wide contest though I've never seen one to push a specific brand.


OTOH, perhaps they were Epson employees wearing the BB uniform with BB's approval. (Seriously. After all, one assumes the Apple-specific rep will wear normal BB clothing, too.) There are a number of possible explanations, admittedly.
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Outside reps never dress in BB uniform, they are required to wear their own respective company's uniform. Regardless, the Epson rep at your store may be in good with the General Manager, I do not deny that there are corrupt stores in the company.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by raeingoth
And as my post stated we are required to push these things to keep our jobs, there are quotas that the managers demand, but the non-manager BB employee does not get anything for selling you a service plan or whatever.

Certainly most employees have brand preferences, why anyone would ever have a brand preference for Epson is completely beyond me though. Now I have never worked in the computer department but every once in a while they may have a company-wide contest though I've never seen one to push a specific brand.

Outside reps never dress in BB uniform, they are required to wear their own respective company's uniform. Regardless, the Epson rep at your store may be in good with the General Manager, I do not deny that there are corrupt stores in the company.
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All duly noted, and definitely food for thought. Thanks again. And, please be assured that I didn't intend to impugn your personal integrity; however, if it seemed as if I were doing so, I apologize. I particularly appreciate your NOT stooping to childish namecalling, as did the "demi-god." (If that's what "demi-gods" are allowed to do here on this moderated forum, I clearly have wasted my time in the last year at what, until today, I had found to be an enlightening and usually civilized Web site. I'll miss it.)
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
All duly noted, and definitely food for thought. Thanks again. And, please be assured that I didn't intend to impugn your personal integrity; however, if it seemed as if I were doing so, I apologize.
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You're welcome, and no worries I didn't see it as any sort of offense. I just wanted to clear up some misconceptions that are out there. Regardless I do not love my company or plan to stay with them for any long length of time, but where I do not have a chance to clear up certain misconceptions I get all the time while at work, I can at least hope to clear some up in an open forum like this.
 
the plans

Extended Warranties or Replacement Plans pretty much make or break a retail store's profits these days.

Employees are required to inform the customer about them. If a manager happens to overhear a closing sale and it isn't mentioned, that employee risks losing his job.

I know it's annoying when you are a customer, especially if it's on a cheaper item, but you would be amazed how many customers want these warranties (mainly due to the shoddy goods that are produced these days)! So just politely listen and say you aren't interested. It's just the way things are these days. In retail, money is made on things like cables, warranties and small items that you purchase and don't realize how much they are actually marked up. These stores have huge overhead costs, and somehow they have to be able to pay rent, employees salaries and shrinkage costs (among a lot of other things) just to keep the doors open.

I work as an Epson rep and I don't mind offering these plans to customers because when something goes wrong with the printer, they can get it fixed or replaced with no hassle. That means a lot less complaining about Epson and it's products for me. I usually buy these plans myself for products I buy where things can go wrong. I try to think of these plans as part of the cost of ownership. Not everybody feels this way, but I respect a person when they indicate they aren't interested.

Some of the young people they hire at these stores aren't as good at detecting when they've pushed a customer too far in regard to warranty extensions. But if you wanted a good selling experience, go to a more expensive store!

Everyone wants to pay the cheapest price for everything, so this is what we, the customers, have chosen: not too great service and really really cheap prices. As the saying goes: you get what you pay for (and service is part of that).

Also, for the person who mentioned this: Epson provides us with shirts with the Epson logo on them. We would never wear a Best Buy shirt, so I don't know what the person above is talking about.... any ASC (apple rep) will be provided with some kind of polo shirt that will identify them as Apple Employees.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx
All duly noted, and definitely food for thought. Thanks again. And, please be assured that I didn't intend to impugn your personal integrity; however, if it seemed as if I were doing so, I apologize. I particularly appreciate your NOT stooping to childish namecalling, as did the "demi-god." (If that's what "demi-gods" are allowed to do here on this moderated forum, I clearly have wasted my time in the last year at what, until today, I had found to be an enlightening and usually civilized Web site. I'll miss it.)
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Whoa. Slow the train down for a second. While I understand that you're probably more than a little upset at being called out, I don't understand how you can possibly feel as though I was out of line in my pointing out that you were not listening to what the other poster said. It's not like anything written in that particular post shows that you went out of your way to give even a shred of consideration to what was said before you decided to disagree. And please don't pretend for a moment that your faulty attempt at supporting logic (the whole speeding ticket analogy) is in any capacity a justification for abjectly bad argument. Finally, would you please point out the exact passage from my previous post that you took to be a personal attack. While I did go out of my way to rebuke your poorly constructed logic, I never said anything disparaging about you personally. Maybe you'll learn to tell the difference when you get a few more posts under your belt. In the mean time try not to piss in everyone else's corn flakes.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by wsteineker
While I understand that you're probably more than a little upset at being called out, I don't understand how you can possibly feel as though I was out of line in my pointing out that you were not listening to what the other poster said. It's not like anything written in that particular post shows that you went out of your way to give even a shred of consideration to what was said before you decided to disagree. And please don't pretend for a moment that your faulty attempt at supporting logic (the whole speeding ticket analogy) is in any capacity a justification for abjectly bad argument. Finally, would you please point out the exact passage from my previous post that you took to be a personal attack.
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A reasonable request. Specifically, you said:

That is among the more assinine and childish assumptions I've ever heard made here. Why are we supposed to listen to a word you say when you've obviously got no intention of doing the same for anyone else?
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... and, before Arn edited it out, you added, "A$$." (Except without the dollar signs. :)) But, hey, I've been called worse things and will be again. (I am a married man, after all.)

As you have since seen, even the Best Buy person to whom I was responding recognized that I was talking about the company, not about him/her personally. Speaking of which...

While I did go out of my way to rebuke your poorly constructed logic, I never said anything disparaging about you personally.
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Again: before Arn cleaned it up, you did. Unless you don't consider that a personally disparaging remark. I do, and apparently the moderator did, too. Finally...

Maybe you'll learn to tell the difference when you get a few more posts under your belt. In the mean time try not to piss in everyone else's corn flakes.
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("Piss in everyone else's corn flakes"?!? Oh, well...) FWIW (and it probably won't be much), I've been using the Internet and Usenet for nearly eight years, so I'm hardly a newbie to posts -- just a newbie to this particular forum, in which I've lurked for a year.

Sorry, folks. This has absolutely nothing to do with Macs being sold at Best Buy, so I'll step aside and let you all move on to the good stuff. I just thought the person was entitled to an answer to his/her request.
 
I went in to Best Buy today and the Apples where there!!!!!, they had everything but the 17" powerbook as for what i could see. And I asked the guy about the service plan and he said they are selling apples protection plan not best buys. This best buy too is less than 20 min from an apple store too and a compusa, its the store in bloomingdale IL, they werent on the shelf yet but the boxes where on top.
 
Macs in Stock

Just wanted to let you guys know that the Best Buy in San Carlos, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) has a few Macs on display. Currently it seemed like they had the eMac, iMac, and the Powermac with the 17'' display. That is all I saw. It was actually a very unimpressive display. The computers were just sitting there on a shelf like any other desktop computers. No special Apple section or anything. I didn't see any sign of an Apple employee or an Apple software but I am sure the store is still in the process of setting everything up as the products had no specs and the prices were handwritten.
 
I really hope this all works out and is true because guess who just got hired to sell computers at best buy. You got it! ME I hope the employee discount applies to apples as well. I will let you guys know how it goes
 
Re: Re: Re: Not a good idea...

Originally posted by bwintx

The store employees will spend most of their time worrying about selling whatever they're getting spiffs on, (And if any Best Buy employees respond with "We don't sell according to spiffs," I'd have to say that this policy obviously hasn't yet reached the Dallas area.)

\
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this is to funny....I work for best buy and sure as hell would like to see a spiff on my paycheck!!!!!

the only "spiffs" goto 2 people... the general manager and the sales manager.... if the whole store performs...

the current scuttlebut (rumoritus) is that the machines are not being sold with any profit. Anal APPLE is testing the waters... and BB is not making any thing on them.:mad:
 
I think people should just take the time to refrain from making comments that could be construed as insulting to someone who works for one of these companies. For every horror story from Best Buy, I guarantee you there's a corresponding one from Circuit City and CompUSA (where they do get commission).

Every electronics store has some employees that don't know jack about the products they are supposed to be selling. If the employees don't or won't learn about them, then they should be removed, plain and simple. The local Best Buy does have quite a few teenagers working there - in the checkout lanes. There might be one or two working elsewhere, but the vast majority are cashiers.

The local CompUSA doesn't have any teenagers working there, but they have more than enough people who would sell you swampland in Arizona. I won't even get into a rant about that store, because I don't think people want to read a 12 paragraph post. :)

BUt at the same time, I can't take my experiences here and apply them to every single Best Buy or CompUSA in the nation, because I haven't been there. One store does not necessarily indicate the norm within a chain.

On a side note note, the LAST thing Apple needs to do is sell Apples through Wal-Mart. You're not going to get a lot of people who can afford the upper-end Apples walking into Wal-Mart's electronics section to buy an iBook or Powerbook. If your local Wal-Mart carries projection TVs, I bet they've sat there for months and months because they just don't sell well there.
 
"I guarantee you there's a corresponding one from Circuit City and CompUSA (where they do get commission)."

"The local CompUSA doesn't have any teenagers working there"
"BUt at the same time, I can't take my experiences here and apply them to every single Best Buy or CompUSA in the nation, because I haven't been there. One store does not necessarily indicate the norm within a chain."

On a side note note, the LAST thing Apple needs to do is sell Apples through Wal-Mart.
If your local Wal-Mart carries projection TVs, I bet they've sat there for months and months because they just don't sell well there. [/B]
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True I will admit there are variences across the nation. noting the one I'm quoting from is from Alaska, But in California it is invasion of the pimple coated freaks.

Also if anyone remembers the recent coup de'ta at Circut City, they also are a non commision enviroment. firing(technical--layoff) all commission and replaced by untrained hourly types.

3rd note wal mart does good on projections typs in the midwest where there is a shortage of CC & BB.
Steve jobs will not lowerhimself to those standards, besides Steve like the position of control, and if you look at wallyland they push thier suppliers around, Stevie baby ain't goin' there!!!
 
Macrumors said:
More reports indicate that previous rumors of Apple sales at Best Buy will materialize soon.

BestBuy will utilize fulltime Apple Reps to provide sales support for Apple items. The current plan is to deploy this plan to a select number of Best Buys, so not every store will carry the Apple products initially.

While the official launch date remains in August, some stores may start to sell Apple items as early as Monday.
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Best Buy recently bought the Canadian Big Box Electronics retailer Future Shop. Future Shop is a long standing Apple dealer obtained when they bought out one the earilest Apple Dealerships (they sold Apple II's) in Vancouver, Canada. Is this the source of their dealership agreement with Apple?
 
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