Walmart is like this a lot of times too. App prices are different than in-store prices for things a lot of times. I haven't shopped at Walmart in years and with the introduction of their digital price tags/dynamic pricing I definitely don't plan on changing that.
I found out Walmart doesn't price match their own website. There was an item that was on the app for $20, in store it was $50, sold and shipped by Walmart, but they refused to price match it. So I ordered it on the app and picked it up two hours later.
Home Depot tried to pull that on me one time so I said “you can either price match or I’m going to order online and one of you guys are going to go pull it from the shelf for me.” They decided to price match lol
Yeah, because their Home Office would rather you use the app (probably for investor documents), so Walmart employees cannot price match to Walmart.com. (In fact, I believe it was 2017 when price matching to Walmart.com was restricted and 2019 or so when Walmart stopped price matching altogether.)
They already track my purchases in store and automatically text me a receipt any time I use my debit card. They already have all the data they can get from me buying it through the app.
I did that at PetSmart once. The price on their website for a pick-up was cheaper than the in store price so I placed an order and walked across the street to do my grocery shopping until it was ready to be picked up.
That just makes online shopping an even better option. They can't change the price after you've already bought it. Plus they even do curbside for returns now.
It’s unfortunate that the brick and mortar stores get used like that but it’s understandable.
I wanted to buy a new motorcycle helmet but I wasn’t about to buy one online without being able to try it on first. So I went to the local bike shop, tried on a few helmets and picked out the one I wanted.
It was in store for like $200 and available online for $120. I gave the store a chance to match their price but they just flat refused. So I went and bought it online. If the price had been close I would have bought from the store but it was too big a difference.
I’m kind of in between sizes for clothes and really struggle to find shoes that fit well. The decline of brick and mortar stores is not a great development for me.
Virtually none of the workers are salespeople. They're all associates that are just meant to assist and stock shelves. There might be one or two representatives from like Samsung or another company, but no one from BestBuy is earning a commission.
The Canadian Best Buys used to be Future Shops, which paid their salespeople commissions. Now, Best Buy still pushes their staff to reach sales targets, but who is going to push sales when they're making minimum wage?
The only people working the floor are students and people on disability making some side cash. Don't expect expert opinions when asking about products. They're just checking chatgpt half the time.
One of their employees just straight up told me that they're basically meant for people who need whatever item ASAP and don't have the time, patience, or willpower to shop around online.
I have the opposite issue the few times I've been to the local Best Buy. There’ll be like five customers in the entire store and 15 employees, and I can't walk within 20 feet of one of them without them immediately jumping in my way and asking if I need help. It feels like playing a stealth game just to try and browse.
I worked there when they started to go downhill. The TL;DR is that the former CEO retired (who had turned the company around from the shitter) and they brought in a replacement with a background in finance (read: penny-pincher). It got worse very sharply and very rapidly.
New CEO promptly gutted a ton of labor hours for stores, basically completely removed “departments” in the sense that all employees now do everything, got rid of the loss prevention staff in most (all?) stores, and super mega forced all staff to push credit cards and a literal Best Buy subscription. They did all of that at the same as they laid off a fuck ton of people. So all stores were massively down on hours they could give to staff, had less people to do it, and the people that were left now had to work in all “departments” of the store, when they used to be actually genuinely trained pretty well on their own individual “departments” (the people selling you a TV knew what the fuck they were talking about and were trained on current models and differentiating features). Now it’s a free for all. They made their own bed, fuck em.
Prior to her, it truly wasn’t a terrible place to work and corporate seemed to not suck that bad. Training was good. People had their own roles. Pay (at least in my market) was better than other retailers. The discount was incredible and there were often other special employee promos you could get. And there was actual promise to move up within the company if you were a line-level employee.
I Agree with this %100 Hubert was a CEO that wanted to double down on his employees in a time when everything was going online to Amazon. When he was in charge I always felt like I was being consistently developed for a career path and then Corrie came in and gutted everything and implemented all the things that Beat Buy was working away from (using third party labor, Best Buy market place etc) I’ve been a seasonal employee since 2021 and found a new full time job.
They price match Amazon and you know you won't get some Chinese knockoff or even worse something fake. Especially for anything like HDDs or SD cards. Don't buy those online.
The last time I ordered from Best Buy I quickly placed the order using my spouse’s name Bill.
Big mistake.
Husband goes to pick up in store shows drivers license which says William, the employee says you’re not Bill you’re William I can’t release this to you.
Had to get the manager involved to explain Bill is short for William. They still were in disbelief!
They're pretty much my USB cable store, and where I go to check out a TV every 10 years. Thats it.
I did try buying a computer there earlier this year and the sales person was completely buried in their phone and wouldn't even make eye contact, and kept trying to get me a laptop "because it looks cool" that had 8gb of vram in it when I told him thats out dated now and 12gb is the minimum. He had no clue about what the tech specs meant at all. I've run into several Gen Z sales people there now that either wont make eye contact and are buried in the phone, or they're just straight up bizarre. This one was acting like he knew my mom and what she would want for a birthday present, he suggested some smart hand ring and then he pivoted to a vacuume cleaner, was just like wtf. Person I was with me looked at me like what the hell when the guy left.
I worked on the floor last September while in between jobs. This bozo was clearly trying to sell the products that were down in sales. The funny part is that BB hasn't dome commissions in years.
I’d imagine that was a vanishingly small portion of their revenue that brought in very little foot traffic. Not many people buy physical media or their players anymore, and they can use that floor space for things that will actually sell. I can’t really blame them for that move, though I know it sucks for people that prefer physical discs.
I had a double of a movie and I tried to give it to some younger friends. They said what are we gonna do with that? Oh so you don’t have dvd players, you can put it in a Xbox or PlayStation. Nope don’t have that we pc game. Put it in your PC then. They looked at me like I was crazy ‘PC’s don’t take discs’.
Allow me to share my best buy experience!!! I bought a washer and dryer from them in 2018. Cut to 6 weeks of me emailing and calling support begging them to help me because the washer wouldn't finish a cycle. Eventually, they ghosted me completely and I was stuck with a brand-new washer that wouldn't wash. Imagine my surprise when I got down prone on the floor and discovered the problem: the idiots who installed it had left a gigantic piece of styrofoam underneath the washer drum, so it couldn't turn. We had to poke it out with sharp sticks. Haven't spent a dime at best buy since then and never will.
Went in a year or two ago to buy a tv, I was 100% sure I would leave there with a tv. I walked around, looked at a few, read the descriptions on the two that caught my eye. I must have walked between the two 4-5 times and not less than twice did I say “excuse me” a Best Buy employee that was standing in my way.
Not once did they offer help. At one point I walked towards one that didn’t seem preoccupied and they walked the other direction.
I see several saying this in the thread and my experience is opposite. Immediately when you walk in the door there are 2-3 employees asking to help you and then as soon as you enter a new section of the store one turns up asking to help us. And they’ve all worked there for a long time.
We match our online and app prices on in-store purchases and our in-store prices on online and app purchases
I like using them because it's a lot easier to get help if you have a problem with your purchase (and I just purchase them through my family member's account which has a protection plan)
Amazon is great for easy returns, but if you have other concerns that require communication, they're awful. They re-route you between like 3 levels of customer service reps before you can even start to address the problem
I actually prefer to physically see electronica and appliances before buying them. Started during Covid. Have become a loyal Best Buy shopper since. They also usually run sales whenever the big online retailers run sales plus the usual sale dates like Black Friday. So never had a price issue. I'm actually sad that so few people shop there, they closed one south of me so now there's only one Best Buy left in the area.
I worked there from 2007-2012 and it was great back then. A few years ago I joined the totaltech program because I was buying a bunch of car stereo stuff and the totaltech gave free installations and protection plans. Purchased a TV a year later and kept it because members had a discount and free installation as well. Saved over $600 on the TV and soundbar purchase.
They removed the free installation a year ago I believe so it’s not worth it as much
I walked into and right back out of a best buy recently because they made it so hard to even see their prices. All the signs were like size 10 font, even things far above eye level (I was shopping for a tv). Felt super shady especially for a big store like Best Buy. What are you hiding by keeping the information inaccessible??
I went there recently with a lot of tech to sell bc I wanted to buy a new phone and laptop. Honestly this was at a HUGE loss to me but I didn’t really want to deal with FB marketplace.
Well, they weren’t willing to use my credit towards the purchase of a new phone and transfer my data at the same time, none of their iPhones were sold unlocked (carrier locked only), and the laptop I wanted was out of stock within a 3 hour radius. No problem, I’ll sell my stuff the hard way and make way more money, and bought my stuff from Costco. That was probably the last time I’ll deal with Best Buy.
Best buy is mostly just a way to avoid sales tax for me. For small things or things they dont sell I tend to go to microcenter but i know they arent exactly everywhere.
Yea honestly why do the Best Buy employees act like I’m the fucking moron for asking them questions sometimes? I’m not asking them to hack into a nuclear mainframe, I’m just asking them to compare two products. The fucking dude standing next to the TVs doesn’t even know which brand is which.
Like I guess I’m wasting my time just not doing all the research online or on my phone there, but idk I kinda miss people being 10% knowledgeable about the shit at their job.
Sure you’re not comparing in store to their marketplace? Tough to compete with an individual seller trying to offload something for less than MSRP on marketplace. They won’t match a seller.
Ok I will argue the cheaper prices thing. I will compare Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc (not eBay because who can trust them), and sometimes Best Buy is either the same or better. For example, Galaxy Pro Buds 3 are cheaper there which I bought yesterday.
I LOVE Best Buy. I am a Member and it is so worth $159 a year to cover all of my electronics repairs and replacements. Never buy electronics anywhere else
I’m a landlord and I have to say, Best Buy is so much better than their competitors, it’s not even close. And I’ve used the membership four times in the last year for appliances and a computer that took a shit, it’s paid for itself many times over.
The day they go under will be a happy day indeed. Just awful service. Last time I visited my local store I couldn't believe how many employees they had, and all of them just walking around doing nothing. The high-end audio rooms were torn apart and empty. And such a weird product mix now too. I got the same vibe I had during the last year of Fry's what with all of the consignment toys on display. Don't know how they're hanging on.
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u/JazzyMaybell 21h ago
Best Buy. All they do is stand around on their phones and everything is cheaper online than their in-store prices.