Why Doesn't Best Buy Get Any Respect?


Best Buy should be dead and buried. It was predicted the end was nigh years ago.

But Best Buy is still here and doing quite well, thank you. The stock price is rising and they’ve beat analysts’ financial estimates for 22 quarters. In a row. Christmas sales were up 9%. The biggest gain since 2003.

Does this mean brick and mortar is back? Kinda. But it really means, human beings are back.

No question, Best Buy has re-imagined their stores, updated their offerings and gotten competitive on price. You don’t have to be a marketing genius to know that could never be enough. So they did something very interesting, they moved into your house.

Best Buy In-Home Advisors bring the store to you and Geek Squad makes it all work. So instead of ordering all these gadgets, having them show up and being frustrated because you can’t make them work, Best Buy does all that for you.

They’ve stretched that from routers and sound systems to refrigerators and TVs. To be honest, I really want a Bluetooth-enabled oven, but I’m not putting it in.

So why the bump at Christmas? I have a theory. Millions of people buy wonderful tech gifts for their aging parents and grandparents. “This will be great, Nana, you can video chat with the kids.” While Nana loves the idea of video chatting with her grandkids, there’s zero chance Nana is going to be able to get that working even with you on the phone trying to help.

The graying of America and the connecting of America are intersecting in the exact space where Best Buy has set up. And people are happy to pay for the service.

What can we learn from this? It’s not about selling stuff, but selling experiences. All the promises in the world are useless if the user gets frustrated and returns the product. The deft application of actual humans to make things work – and maybe deliver a side order of empathy – is still a recipe for success.

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