Re: Blockbuster offers to buy Circuit City

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Let's not forget to mention their piss poor inventory, exorbitant prices and incompetently designed website. Have you ever tried to search for something on that thing? Or find anything on sale in the store?

Agreed! I think Fry's Electronics is the worst of the bunch, if you can even call it a website. Most of them don't even function on a real-time databse. Take Best Buy for example, you can check store availability on any item and then order your item for store pickup. the problem is, the site will tell you the item is not available, but when you go there you'll find they have a dozen of the items you want on the shelf. Of course, the Best Buy Drone will tell you the site is actually two-days behind what gets moved. Then I say what's the point of in-store pickup if the site doesn't operate on "real time"? What a freakin' joke!

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I think Fry's Electronics is the worst of the bunch, if you can even call it a website. Most of them don't even function on a real-time databse.

Hehe, no Fry's out this way. Sometimes I think we're lucky...

Jason, stuck in the "Mid-West"

Tim,

We do have "Best Buy" stores here, but, I lump them in with Wal*mart and the furniture store that sells electronics. You find nothing but a bunch of snot-nosed 16 year old kids working as sales people, that only know what they read on the boxes about the products, and you have to tear them away from their "dude" conversations with their friends, to get any service!

When we had "Ultimate Electronics" stores here, yeah, they were over priced, but, their sales associates looked and acted professionally, and WORKED their butts off for your patronage. I once had a sales guy at Ultimate spend an entire hour with me, demonstrating the speakers I was interested in, as well as some other products. I didn't feel like he was steering me towards any one product, and he rattled off statistics about each one, when I asked for them.

If my choices are: Pay less at Store (A) with fence posts for sales people, that would rather lopp off an apendage than lift a finger to help you, or pay a little more at Store (B), and get first rate service, knowledge, respect, help when you need it, and a sense that they want you to come back to their store, I'll take the latter.



- Josh

[Post edited by Nachtkriechen on Apr 15, 2008]

And Wal-Mart shall buy Best Buy. I hate WAl-Mart.

Josh,

I understand what you're saying -- service can go a long way for the dollar. I have a friend that worked at Ultimate Electronics and he explained they had to go through a two-month training program on all the prodcuts in the store. You had to pass the training before you could be let loose on the sales floor. Even then you were assisted by a senior staff memeber before you went on your own. If only this were the case for other retail chains.

Even in grocery shopping I'm willing to pay more just for better service. Where I live, out in the boondocks, we only have a Fry's Market Place and a Super Wal*mart for grocery shopping. Of course, you can get groceries cheaper at Wal*mart but the catch is the checkers are as slow as molasses (takes me 30 minutes to shop and an hour to get cheked out). I do most my grocery shopping at the Fry's Market Place because the checkers are super fast and they know I want to get out of the mad house as fast as I got in. It just goes to show you good service can be worth the price.



[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Apr 15, 2008]

Tim,

Something my wife and I noticed about Wal*mart, is you get what you pay for, where food is concerned. I hope this doesn't come off as snobbish, but, we've bought food there a few times, and with the exception of the tried and true "preserved" brands, their parishable goods, were HORRID!

We have a supermarket called "Harmons" here, that is amazing! Great service, fast, friendly, courteous, knowledgable, and food selection out the wazoo! They do have higher prices, but, for certain things, we think it's worth it.

If everything is going to go the way of Wal*marts, count me out.



- Josh

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If everything is going to go the way of Wal*marts, count me out.

I'm with you there! the Wal*mart meat department BLOWS (no pun intended)!

I'll admit they have good prices on canned and non-parishable items, but for common things like bread, meats, dairy, etc. their prices and product are not worth the bother. Sure, I can get a great deal on frozen pizza, but I like to do real cooking, so Wal*mart doesn't cut it. And I'm a chef-aholic! Food channel, Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, you name it and I'm there! I try to learn as many new dishes as I can, so a good market place is always the better deal for the chef inside you.

There's a BIG Target Gardenland-something-or-another going up 2-miles from my house. It should be completed by the end of the year, but I don't expect it to be any better than Wal*mart. However, they're building it directly across the street from one of the biggest Wal*mart's in the nation. Talk about getting up in your competitors face! lol

Walmart and people that shop there support American job loss. You arent saving a damn thing by shopping at Walmart.

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Walmart and people that shop there support American job loss. You arent saving a damn thing by shopping at Walmart.

I agree Bladerunner, and Wal*mart is not the only guilty retailer killing the mom & pop shops. Include Target, Home Depot and Lowes on that list of contributors that are killing small business. Even member places like Costco and Sam's Club can do a lot of damage to the little guy, and it's a shame that most people are suckered into convienence rather than supporting common places of business. It doesn't end there, as I've been a musician all my life and have watched big music stores, like Guitar Center, drive little local music stores out of business. It's really a sad state of affairs that doesn't look like it will get any better for the small business owner.

Did I hear the Food Channel? Love it!
- Giada is hot, hot, hot!!
- Especially sexy in HD!

And congratulations to Giada and her husband, on the recent (March 29, 2008) birth of their first child, a girl.











From Wikipedia...

Giada De Laurentiis graduated from Marymount High School and holds a bachelor's degree in social anthropology from UCLA (1996). In 2003, she married Todd Thompson, a fashion designer for Anthropologie. The two had been dating since 1991. The couple had their first child, a girl, named Jade Marie De Laurentiis Thompson on March 29, 2008. De Laurentiis was named number 96 on AskMen.com's list of "The Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008."

-JIMI (the Voodoo Child)

[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Apr 16, 2008]