Circuit City vs. Best Buy
I just recently went on a mini buying spree for some gadgets at the local Best Buy and Circuit City in Brentwood. I am really disappointed in the sad state that Circuit City is in compared to Best Buy. I guess their stock price reflects this. I am a little impartial to Circuit City since I worked there for 3 years and I couldn’t even get a seasonal job at Best Buy even though I had a college degree but that is not where my “love” for Circuit City started. It actually goes back to when I was in high school. I was like most young men and I wanted the best stereo on the block so I always went to Circuit City because they offered the Kenwood brand, my favorite head unit at the time, where Best Buy did not. Circuit City also easily allowed you to return a unit as “defective” and upgrade to the latest model when they were released if you had the extended warranty. Because of this, I had always shopped at Circuit City. Columbia, at the time I was a student, did not have a Best Buy so I continued to be a Circuit City fanboy. Once I was employed at CC, I found myself shopping more and more at Best Buy which is weird since I got an employee discount. For example, I was able to buy my first mp3 player, (a RIO Nitrus that had a 1.5GB flash drive; it was ahead of its time) at Best Buy for cheaper than CC.
It seems like CC employs a lean way of helping customers since you see about 3 times more employees at a Best Buy. This does help because I think the majority of the people who are going to stores like these instead of online retailers are the inexperienced customers who do need help. Just on my recent visit I noticed several problems at CC. For one, two of the three products I was looking at did not have a price tag on them. This is inexcusable since there are no people to help you there and tags are normal put out on Saturday since prices change every Sunday based on ads. Secondly, CC did not have the Rock Band 2 new guitar where Best Buy did. CC’s website still has the option to preorder it where BB had it since Monday. Did BB get an exclusive on this? I did not read this on any gadget sites.
Last but not least, Best Buy has a rewards program. It is always good to get money back plus random coupons. The only thing CC has going for them is that their website has been pretty good for several years. I always like the review option (they have been doing this forever) which is now standard on all sites, even Best Buy.
In the end, I do most of my shopping online but I am starting to sway more and more since I don’t have a secure way to get a package delivered. We will have to wait and see who wins when I buy a larger TV in the upcoming months.