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Archive for Retail

Another downer on Best Buy, the Father’s Day dilemma.

June 23, 2012 Retail No comments

I read this article about how this lady was out with her son on Father’s Day and noticed that all of the women were shopping every where but Best Buy, and why?

Read her article for more details. In the short of it all, once again, Best Buy makes worst for their customers and are not helpful to them at all.

According to the article, lack of context / connection / simplicity are basically the main factors that women don’t want to shop there, even for their husbands or fathers or that guy in their life.

Best Buy and their employees are good about announcing and stating the facts that people can read (specs) but they are not good about connecting with the customers to break down how pretty something looks or how smoothly something runs.

For a camera, instead of reading the specs that the customer already read to themselves, how about telling how nice the camera shoots photos up close or what special filter the lenses have. For computers, share what programs look wonderful on the screen – if it’s photo specific or a computer for writers or gamers. Those things…those things that help SELL the item.

As Dan and I were having a discussion at lunch over this, specs don’t matter any more, they want details…and that’s a huge reason why Apple wins over their customers because they have it.

Most Best Buy employees are like retail employees, most aren’t in it for the career and most are only in it for the money. So, they point to or make a point to mention what the customer already knows (ie: what they can read), instead of taking the extra step to find out specific things about the item to make a sale.

Two suggestions mentioned in the article, I don’t really agree with.

This may be sexist, but, I do not think that Best Buy needs to cater to just women or just men. It’s a man’s thing – that new ole technology – tvs, gaming, computers, etc. Yes, I am a woman and I like technology to a certain point that I want something cute that works, or something that works and is cute, y’know?

Sure, you want to add feminine to the menu at Best Buy? When the lady wants to buy a computer, add a pink USB drive and pink computer cover. Or, a pink phone case for her phone. Or, whatever color they want. But I think they already have a small selection – so it’s pretty moot talking about it.

But I do agree that they need to really clean it up with all of the return policies and prices and everything else wrong with Best Buy.

“Protecting themselves from customers” – it’s a dead giveaway that due to high loss prevention numbers, we allllll know that people steal and it’s a bad, bad, bad idea NOT to protect your company models/items. Why wouldn’t you want to try to save your stuff from being stolen?

This is anywhere, pretty much, that the employees DO focus too much on trying to catch people who are stealing (or who aren’t but everyone is apparent suspect) and not truly caring enough to help someone. I get annoyed so much every time walk around every single corner and get an employee asking ,’you finding everything okay??????’ It’s like, ‘yes, five of you have been here asking that same thing. Please let me shop. Help me when I actually need to be helped.’

But it all goes back to how Best Buy is failing and things won’t be fixed.

Do you think that RadioShack could make a come back?

June 22, 2012 Economy, General Business, Retail No comments

I was checking my normal program for reading the every day updated business/marketing/economy news and came across this blog post.

It’s basically saying that if Radio Shack turns its head away from what they’ve become to go back to the roots of their beginning – like selling parts and nothing but parts – then they could turn this whole game around.

I can’t remember the last time I went into a Radio Shack. But, I can tell you the last time I saw one and went back to that same place weeks later only to see they’ve closed up shop.

Radio Shack lost its vibe when it started selling computers and phones and other electronics that Best Buy and Comp USA and several other big box electronic retailers sold. Price was another thing. If I remember correctly, Radio Shack’s prices weren’t right with what it should’ve been or less than what it should’ve been.

The article says that Radio Shack really needs to focus on their main customers which are the hobbyists who need parts.

I don’t really think of parts when I hear Radio Shack, I just see a retailer that’s waaaay past its prime. Unfortunately.

There’s already a ‘good enough’ parts retailer and it’s online; Tiger Direct, New Egg, Amazon… and so on. You can also find cheap things on eBay. The only thing I can think of are the people who don’t believe in ordering stuff online and there’s local places around to find parts.

I don’t know. It’s just like anything else. Looking for the best price for clothes? Go somewhere cheap like the thrift store or store when they’re having sales. Best price for jewelry? Same. Best price for electronics? Look online, look at big box retailers or smaller businesses. Best price for parts or hard to finds? Thrift stores, eBay. Y’know.

It’s just too hard to turn an older ex-well-known company back around to be something in a really, really bad economy that’s trying to recover.

There’s too many places to buy things from, there’s too many places that are the same and not unique at all. It’s devastating to those who built the company but it’s just a factor in retail life.

What do you think?

JCPenney and their ‘no more sales’ tactic.

June 10, 2012 General Business, Retail One comment

Think back to the ages of catalogs in the mail. Which ones did you get? Perhaps out of the few that you received, you got JCPenney, right? Not only that but you also received coupons or at least some sort of newspaper insert to introduce the next sale that was going on — and that, is still going on nowadays.

Now, I’m usually up on all of this kind of thing but had no idea what this retailer was trying to do (only because I live in a box now that I’m really busy).

JCPenney tried taking away all sales by doing ‘best price’ for a month.

Now, could you imagine? Could you imagine if you were the big box retailer who always sent coupons and ads in the paper/mail to advertise sales – and then – it suddenly stopped? Wouldn’t you think the store had packed up and left?

What were they thinking? For a company who relies on that kind of business through mail inserts advertising sales, that was such a stupid move.

Not to mention, the new CEO is from Apple, which holds a much different standard. There are straight up prices, no sales, and only sales when something is needing to be pushed out the door before the new Apple product arrives.

Instead of looking at the big picture, the new CEO decided to step in without really thinking. People rely on sales being advertised so that they can go to the store and get items on sale. With no advertisement, who would be dropping by? Perhaps the few people in the mall who swoops in and back out? As you read in the article linked above, traffic in the store dropped.

I would put JCPenney in the same category as Sears. They have been around probably about the same time, both put out catalogs, both carry some sense of the same brand and so on. Not only on the store front would I compare JCPenney to Sears but I would do some comparing about how they are so close to failing.

What’s so unique about JCPenney and Sears? Not too long ago, I did a write up about how Sears is going down the drain.

Price write up has been something that is being talked about a lot these days. For me, buying clothes is like a dodgeball game, I try to dodge every single high price and don’t buy anything unless it’s ridiculously on sale. For people who work in retail, you know what’s going on – do you want to fall into that hole?

Bottom line: JCPenney is a bit outdated for these days. Now we have all kinds of speciality stores, cheaper places to shop, thrift stores, and better big box stores.

I’m just waiting for JCPenney to close, just like Sears.

What’s your opinion on the new way that JCPenney tried to do things?

Sears and Best Buy: The Beginning Downfall of their Corporations

March 31, 2012 Economy, Retail 2 comments

As I was looking through the LinkedIn articles I had on my iPhone app, I saw THIS article and became interested enough in writing about it.

Basically what the article is saying that Sears is becoming more like Best Buy – a retailer whose been around for a while – and now is in trouble (or, should say, has been for a while) in this shaky economy.

Back a few years ago, in my retailing career, I used to work inside Sears’ Lands End. Let’s just say straight out – I hated Sears. Our Sears was always portrayed the same way – hot, very hot, and slightly uninviting. It was where the “older” crowd went. Sears was the place where the crowd walked through to get to the other side of the mall but never to really stop around and look. It wasn’t hip enough for 2/3rds of the mall goers.

Remember Montgomery Wards? This will be Sears in a couple of years. In my opinion, Sears isn’t making it as a large box store any more. They lack fashion and focus and they just can’t keep up with today’s market.

Now, I must say I haven’t been in a Sears in a while and haven’t even looked online to see what they have to offer — but I am saying this from experienced. As suggested in the article linked above, they should find focus in on their tool and housewares departments. Often when I think about Sears, I think about appliances, so?

Best Buy. Oh boy, Best Buy. Okay, so I admit we go to Best Buy to look around and possibly get something if it’s… NOT *any where else* if we need it like asap or if we come across a great, quick deal.

Best Buy is a repetitive box store that will soon be obsolete. Their prices are way too high and the online retailers are often the competitors (regardless of what people think about this). Do you have a list of electronics to get or dvds or accessories? Well, look online first at Amazon or NewEgg – boom! You’ve found a much better deal about half off or more. Need a computer fixed? Yep. Don’t go to Best Buy’s rip-off Geek Squad, go to someone local for a lower cost or for free. Seriously. If you’ve been going to get your computer fixed (or simply looked at) by Best Buy, you’re soooo getting ripped off.

Prices within retail need to reflect the economy. You’re in competition with a whole lot more companies when people have to scrape by and decide on where to spend. What will YOU do Best Buy or Sears to get customers to walk in and spend their money in YOUR store?

Fix your outdatedness. Change. Make more changes. Turn your companies around because soon.. you probably won’t be around to do much more.

Pitchmen Enthusiast #1: Informative summaries, opinions and great links from Inc.com’s daily emails/blog entries

July 21, 2011 Economy, Entrepreneurship, Inc [dot] com, Marketing, Retail No comments

I don’t remember how I came about finding Inc.com but it must’ve been through Twitter, through someone’s RT. Last night, as I was up late and couldn’t sleep, I started going through all of the entries that were still in my RSS feed in my email.  Amazing, amazing, amazing writing and very informative and it doesn’t waste your time. They are spot-on. This is definitely the best information source if you own your own business or are an entrepreneurs, follow retail, follow news stories that have to do with tech, social networking and all kinds of marketing.

So, this will begin my FIRST edition of summarizing and noting the great links from INC.com. Now, some of these you might’ve already heard about because they are older by a few days, but I have some things to discuss. 

From July 11th:

Time productivity. As a writer, going by a time schedule is definitely needed for me, as I like to get lost in details and certain parts where I’m very interested. I have to pay attention to deadlines, planning is a definite for me. When I did NaNoWriMo, I HAD TO have a schedule. You have 30 days to write, you have to write certain amount of words per page in order to be done by the 30 days with 50,000 words. I over estimated myself, threw my whole life into this book and finished a few days early. As an entrepreneur or business owner, you are more likely to have the freedom of having the whole day to do things. Get up early, write a list of things to do, get them done and then you will feel so much better in the afternoon. You’ll have time to rest and probably get caught up wherever else you are needed.

We run into this problem: A woman was fired for refusing to dye her gray hair. We come to this one problem: image is everything. If you don’t look a certain way, are a certain size or have what the company’s ‘eye image’ is — you won’t be looked at twice. Unfortunately, this is a terrible, terrible way to play especially while the economy is the way that it is. I completely understand that if you are on TV for commercials, direct response, fitness, news or whatnot — you have to be a certain size. That’s known. But to fire someone over a certain hair color or because they dress their age? Terrible. By doing this, companies are really missing out on excellent workers — ones that are potentially NOT robots.

In the July 11th, Inc.com daily email, they write about  Employees Losing Their Identity. Have you ever been in this situation? I think that anyone who doesn’t love what they’re doing, their identity gets lost a little bit each day. This makes me think about my mistakes from the past. I was in college, getting ready to head into my third year, having had almost all of my classes behind me and a few away from my two year degree. I had an excellent two semesters then, I got a job working retail. I threw myself into my job and lost the focus of what I really wanted to do. I left college because I thought I wanted to do retail. Wrong. Four years later, I pull out of retail and become an administrative assistant / eBayer then… now, currently, I’ve been unemployed long enough and will take pretty much any job. But, with that, I’m not losing focus again. I want to be a writer, I want to find my way to an English degree so I can professionally write and better yet, do social media along with it. Then, I can finally join the wonderful direct response industry that I love so much… and WRITE COMMERCIALS FOR THEM.

Here are some other articles to read for good measure: 

Did you hear about the new patent laws?

This is just depressing. A chart about employment… and the downfall of.

Are your current business plans falling through? Take a look at this, five steps on why you need a new business plan.

The Downside of Traditions - While traditions are nice in a business, they are also holding your company back from staying in the times.

Has it really come down to this? Firing someone for eating leftovers? Are we desperate, ignorant or what?