Best Buy Outlet Stores

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Alpha8472
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Best Buy Outlet Stores

Post by Alpha8472 »

Best Buy is opening 4 new Outlet stores: Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and Manassas. Three are existing Best Buy stores and the Houston one will be a relocation to one that is 3 times the size.

There will be more open box and clearance items. There will be a Geek Squad and for the first time people will be able to shop the Outlet stores online for pick up at the store.

This gives old electronics a new life and reduces waste.
Romr123
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Re: Best Buy Outlet Stores

Post by Romr123 »

We went to the one in the Inland Empire (Moreno Valley)...just like every other outlet store, endless lines of refrigerators/ranges/washers/dryers etc. Only interesting thing I noticed was that they use electronic price tags (which means that pricing isn't terribly fixed and can vary). They did say that online availability was pretty accurate (and seemed to be--they showed a few one-off esoteric brands (doubtless from Pacific Sales) in their selection and that seemed to be what was available.
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Re: Best Buy Outlet Stores

Post by ClownLoach »

From my decade or so in electronics there has been a scam for many years where people will buy a TV, put a mark on the back somewhere or just write down the serial number, then return it to the store and say nothing is wrong with it but they changed their mind. They show up a few days later, find the same TV at an "open box discount" and try to rebuy it for hundreds of dollars less. Sometimes they would aggressively negotiate additional discounts because they knew the store was always held accountable for keeping the open box inventory level down and they would usually get their way if they accepted a extended warranty (then they'd drive to the next store a city over and return that warranty!). Every now and then I would catch someone doing this and politely ask how they liked the TV they bought a few days ago, and they would make a few brief comments then suddenly find a need to leave the store. But this was a much bigger deal than you might think - and the margin on electronics is very low. They lose money on the TV and make it up with high profit cables, installation services, and of course extended warranties. Without that holy trinity there would not be any standalone electronics stores because there isn't anything to make a profit on. Computers were even less profitable and models had a life span of weeks before a replacement model arrived, versus TVs that would generally be replaced by a new model only once a year. And the manufacturers would penalize the store if they did an RTV of non defective products.

Best Buy caught on to this problem with open box cheaters years ago and started having their delivery drivers recirculate the returns. So if you returned your TV in West LA it could wind up in Torrance. Basically they shut down the scam.

This takes it to a new level and is a really brilliant idea. Now the regular stores don't get stuck with any open boxes lying around the building impeding profits. Store is easier to operate and easier for the customers to shop without open boxes clogging the walkways. And then for the bargain shopper they can look online and see if deals are to be had - if so they can just drive up to the outlet store just like they do with clothing now.

I do believe there are more of these coming that aren't announced yet. The Lake Forest Best Buy seems to already be converting to mostly open box clearance and it is otherwise a redundant location. It's next to a Restoration Hardware outlet, so it would make sense to rebrand that one as their Orange County area outlet store.
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Re: Best Buy Outlet Stores

Post by Romr123 »

That's an ingenious solution to that problem--reduces clutter and channel conflict at the retail store while leveraging empty boxes in empty strips (the Moreno Valley strip is dire, dire, dire).
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