I am a former Best Buy Corporate Loss Prevention Manager who started out selling TV's and moved my way up. When I was a sales associate, extended warranties were a new item and were dollars apiece instead of the much more higher prices they have accelerated to throughout the years.
Back then, each store competed in it's own district as well as throughout the entire company for incentives and comps.
Extended warranties were pushed because a individual might win a gift certificate or CD if they award the top seller for the day or maybe the store might win a pizza party if they beat a certain goal set by corporate.
Same goes for product. Maybe Sony is running a contest for Best Buy employees that will give them a free Playstation if they sell the most of a particular 32' T.V. Over a few months time. So what that means is that although Best Buy employees do not reap a draw reward or commission, they are encouraged to push or sell a particular brand, model, etc. Over another.
The real key is to be as knowledgeable about what you are interested in purchasing before you enter Best Buy or at least bring a friend or family member to help you stay focused during your shopping experience.
I've seen maybe a particular Panasonic model TV that has been rated the best by independent groups like Consumer Reports be intentionally sidetracked by an employee that would rather encourage a consumer to purchase a much less dependable brand in order to fulfill this employees goal to make a certain contest goal.
Best Buy largest problem is poor management. Best Buy continues to grow at such a rate that the individuals who become managers of a store or neither prepared for the responsibility or immature in their social dealings with the consumer.
This means that when I left Best Buy two years ago, they were at their lowest for manager and employee retention and overall employee theft.
Little study was placed into scheduling and with a new floor plan implemented throughout the U.S. You'll find your largest problem at a Best Buy will be to find someone to help you.
Although Best Buy employees are paid rather low compared to other retail positions, employees are offered benefits that remain attractive to young employees who seek health coverage. Because of this offering, employees that acquire heath coverage through Best Buy are really looked at as making $35 an hour so it's simple to understand that Best Buy across the board has decreased new hires and cut back and overall hours meaning that you will notice the direct effect of these measures in your local Best Buy. Remember, it's what keeps the shareholders happy; not the consumer.
This is never more evident in Best Buy's latest acquisitions. Some of you may be aware and some won't that Best Buy now owns all of Musicland Inc., which may be familiar names such as Media Play, On-Cue, Sam Goody, and of course Musicland stores.
Best Buy also recently purchased the previously Canadian owned and operated Future Stores, which used to be the Best Buy equal vent in the Canadian providences.
So be careful if you do not want your money going to Best Buy because they now have more of a reach then ever before.
When I was made Loss Prevention Manager at a higher level in Best Buy, we got word of the possible acquisition of Musicland Stores and begun to meet with their LP executives and management. Best Buys largest problem to date id it's own employees who are responsible for over $30 million dollars in charges every year for internal theft and criminal acts. This was a startling number we worked against everyday at Best Buy but when we met with Musicland and begun the merge of information, it was absolutely startling how large the number of charges made against internal theft were at Musicland stores.
One of the reasons Musicland was looking to sell its company was because the company had been latterly crippled by employee theft over twenty years time and was never able to curb the problem and make back enough profit to start over. Best Buy knew this before acquiring Musicland Stores but would rather eat and absorb the problem in order to own and have even more of a share of every local U.S. Entertainment market.
I honestly left because of the stress of the two company's merging because I literally was flying or driving day in and day out to another Best Buy, Media Play, or Musicland store uncovering some evidence of a large theft ring or large discrepancies in cycle counts that only meant loss of merchandise.
For all the merchandise Best Buy sells each year, you'd be surprised on how much product is on the street, in pawnshops, or used media stores that came directly out of Best Buy back doors and employee torsos'.
Larry
Dearborn, Michigan
0 comments