anyone watch the CNBC special on them from tonight? Some interesting points but the CEO doesn't believe that price shopping with smartphones poses a threat to them. I don't believe it. I'm going to be shorting them.

I also worked at best buy 4 years ago as a salesman and the peopl I worked with were so inept it baffled my mind. I was a senior at high school and the people I worked with couldn't even approach someone to help them sell a camera. It was astounding. I don't see why anyone needs to go to BestBuy today.

What price do you value them at?

Old people who don't shop online but have money to spend.

I made the mistake of underestimating how many baby boomers there are with money.

Right, that's who it is, just non-technical & old people who don't know any better (and buy the product protection ripoff insurance). I buy a few things from them here and there too, because they're much more convenient for me than the closest cheap computer store, which is a 20 minute drive, and I don't always want to wait to have stuff shipped.

Anyhow, I was looking at BBY stock today, because they showed up when I was doing a screen for big cap companies using Greenblatt's 'magic formula'. They showed up in the top 50 companies valued at 2.00B or higher (but not in the top 30) according to that screen.

I don't actually know offhand how many companies there are 2.00B or higher, so I'm not sure what percentile that puts them in, but it does seem to suggest they're more on the cheap side than anything right now.

Totally agree with this.

The average consumer is pretty clueless when talking about electronics. All you have to do is stand in the TV section of Best Buy and listen to customers try to work out what's going on. The "Wow, this TV has a 15,000,000:1 contrast ratio must be amazing" comments dictate how average people spend their money.

Best Buy's biggest problem recently has been trying to recover from all the free shipping they offered over the holidays. That obviously proved to be very -EV.

I made the mistake of underestimating how many baby boomers there are with money pre 2008 when half of them got wiped back to food stamps.

Best Buy = Dog

Also don't underestimate how many baby boomers are starting to use Amazon.

They adopt technology, it's just WAY slower than younger demographics.


I agree they are a dog, just a matter of how long it's drawn out.

I worked at Best buy as well an the reason why the people are so inept is that they will literally hire anyone who is willing to work for minimum wage and no commission.

I quit 3 days later after I realized how much of a ridiculous job it would be.

Lucky for me I don't need there ******ed pay with terrible shifts. Most retail rookies end up at best buy because it gives them experience to eventually go and work in a commission based environment.

Never will I ever again work at best but or any non commission based retail job and I suggest the same for anyone else.

You're better off standing outside of the store with a change jar.

I think the entire concept of selling cutting-edge electronics to old people in person is tremendously flawed.

Sure back in the early 2000's it was cool to have a computer, and an mp3 player, but with the incredible selection of different electronics available and constantly changing (you can literally get a cell phone that is a computer, mp3 player, camera, video camera, etc.) going in to find the right thing at BestBuy means the sales people at BestBuy need to be better than typical 8/hr retail donks, and they are not. Best Buy sales employees are probably some of the worst and least technological employees there are, especially around the holiday time.

You are telling me that if someone sees a cool ad for a new Ipad, computer, etc. They are going to think "hmm lets go to BestBuy and check it out" before thinking "let me google that, o look there it is, o look i can buy it right here, o wait i can compare it to 4 other companies right now"

bestbuy is dead.

Never buy their 'Product Service Plan' or 'PSP'.

It covers nothing and when an associate tries to sell you one they claim it covers virtually everything.

The truth is that it also contains a 50% profit margin.

Best buy has to be one of the worst establishments. I bought a MacBook from them since the Apple Store was sold out and there was a free iPod touch promotion that was ending so I was limited in my purchasing time.

HUGE MISTAKE!

I bought the extended warranty at 50% off since I know how to haggle bestbuy employees since I worked there before. If you bundle a few items they are allowed to offer discounts FYI.

So a year goes by and my machine is having issues. I take said machine to bestbuy and they claim the warranty does not cover my issue and I would have to pay $150 and wait 2 days. At this point I am still covered by apple warranty so I said F U stupid 16 yr old bestbuy slave and I went to the Apple genius Bar.

The genius bar not only fixed my issue free of charge but they did so in less than 30 minutes. Approximately 47.5 hours less than what bestbuy estimated who had 0 customers at there geek squad vs apple who had a store jam packed with people.

Cliffs: F U BestBuy

YES this is what they'll do, because it's easier to have someone recommend a product rather than research it yourself. LMGTFY exists because people refuse to do literally 5 seconds of research, much less compare the technical specs and prices for 10+ minutes.

Pro's for best buy:

• Instant gratification; getting the product now instead of tomorrow
• Peace of mind protection with insurance
• Credit
• Order online and in-store pickup
• Helpful salespeople
• Service options

This list does prey on all of a fishs' weaknesses, but the majority of people in the world are and always will be fish.

I'm not long best buy, but right now I don't see Target/Amazon picking up their slack. Insurance and service options alone, while obviously hugely -EV for the consumer, are definitely reasons people will still go with them.

I vote with the majority and say best buy is not going to be around by let's say 2020.

The closed circuit cities in my area got replaced with HH Gregg stores which I had never heard of previously. They seem to have taken CC's old model which involves more knowledgeable staff that is obviously on commission. This is really the only thing I see working, if anything, as a B&M tech store in the long term since there are still quite a few people who value service.

Meh. If I was BBUY, this is what I'd do.

Go into the major metro hubs and keep 1-2 of your biggest/best located stores open. Use them to sell the merchandise that old people want to see before they buy. Pay the employees of those stores a little more, and make them the more knowledgeable people. The idea that you MUST go commission based seems flawed to me, there's plenty of people out there who don't like that approach.

In the areas in between the major stores, have smaller stores where people can see popular products and/or work with the online website for returns/shipping.

Obviously BBUY is in trouble given their current outlook. They expanded ****ing everywhere, and most of those stores are half empty all the time. Plus electronics have a tiny ass markup so their entire ability to keep those stores open are based off service plans and ridiculously marked up accessories. But if they can limit their stores a litttle and make sure the people who come into the store are properly serviced, they'll morph into something that has a chance of surviving.

I worked at BBUY in high school as well. I didn't hate it like you guys did, but I did kind of think it was a bit cultish. As long as you didn't fall for their jedi mind trick games about service plans it was a pretty badass job and I made way more than minimum wage(for a HS kid anyway). But the one thing that always caught me by surprise was how small the markup was on most stuff. The employee discount at the time was cost + 5%. 2K computers would give you 50 bucks off. Big screen TV's maybe 100. The markup was microscopic on everything. Although 50$ service plans on car speakers could be purchased for like 4$, lol. This was in 2000, before Amazon really came into the fold. I can't imagine how small the margins are now.

I was just having a similar conversation recently. The only reason I still shop at Best Buy is because of x-mas gift cards. (the people that are smart give cash or Amazon now.) I'm fairly certain they'll be bankrupt in 4-5 years and I don't expect the brand to live past 2020.

The only real reason you would want to shop in a store nowadays is to get real feedback and help from the people that work there. Unfortunately Best Buy sucks in this department. I've not had a good conversation with an employee there in almost 6 years. No one in the video games dept seems to play a lot of games anymore. No one in the computer department has a gaming rig and can recommend gfx cards or a gaming mouse.

They also seem terrible at picking out customers to talk to. They waste 20+ minutes having ******ed conversations with people that may/may not buy something, but ignore me that has 2 products in my hands wanting to ask a quick question. F this, both products back on the shelf and I'm out the door.

You should short best buy and coach baby boomers to shop with their smartphones.
You could charge like 5k an hour (they got the money) and make money on your short position.
You could even coach them so that they can coach other people how to shop with their smartphones.

My favorite trick Best Buy likes to pull is to try and sell you 60$ - 120$ HDMI cables. This is such a joke, it's not even funny. If everything were equal besides the HDMI cable, would someone be able to notice? As long as it's high speed or w/e for some applications.

WORST BUY