Best Buy Reward Zone, I don't understand the benefit (1 Viewer)

[Luis S]

Wow! Such debate over such a simple thing Its like this,IMHO:

1) You spend $125 dollars to get back $5. Now correct me if Im wrong but an awful lot of Best Buys products(Dvd's and software in particular) can be found lower priced elsewhere. It is not impossible to turn a $125 BB purchases into a $100 dollar purchase somewhere else.No commitment to some club,nothing. Just shop around and you'll save alot more than being a member of the reward zone.

2) after 90 days your coupons are no good. So you would have to spend an ungodly amount of money to get any real rewards back,all within 90days! Now if you spend that much money at BB more power to ya but the fact that I just cant keep accumulating these rewards for at LEAST a year kinda bugs me.

Basically, unless you area doesn't have many choices as far as shopping goes its really not a good deal at all. You'd be far better off shopping around. You'd save more money that way. I KNOW BB doesn't have the cheapest prices around. Thats a fact. Why so much debate? On the other hand BB employees are expected to push this junk so at the very least your helping someone keep his or her job.


Luis S

 

[Jeff Kleist]

BB does pricematch, and they frequently are the lowest when it comes to games and DVDs

 

[Leila Dougan]

So you would have to spend an ungodly amount of money to get any real rewards back,all within 90days!

Well first, I do. I spend $200 a month at BB. That may be an ungodly amount for you, though, and I can undertand that. Secondly, your puchases do NOT have to be made within 90 days. If it takes you 10 months to accumulate $125, that's cool, you still get your $5 coupon. THEN, you have 90 days to spend your coupon.

If you buy just ONE high-end item at BB, the card will help you. Buy just a $2000 laptop, or an HDTV, or a washing machine/dryer set, or a refridgerator, and you'll save money. Even if you never use the card again. And the deal is even better if you don't pay for your card in the first place.

 

[Carlo_M]

Luis, see Jeff's post. The only lower deal consistently is to play the "Internet Shopping Game" from which I have retired (took advantage of the Reel.com Coupon Days from the late 90's).

With so many "floaters" happening, I like having a B&M store to return stuff to, rather than shipping it back and dealing online. I have plenty of options living in Los Angeles, Frys, CC, Target, etc. The only place not here in West LA is WalMart, and Fry's is a bit of a drive. I have never, never had a problem pricematching at my local Best Buy. And I do this quite often. Plus I can put a price on instant gratification. Ordering online, if you don't use rush shipping (which negates the cost savings) usually requires me to wait between a week or two to receive the product. I don't like preordering weeks in advance because I like to get word of how a transfer/DVD is before I buy.

Wow! Such debate over such a simple thing

Actually it is very simple, as well as what the debate is all about. It boils down to this and I'll number it again for clarity:

1. This program isn't ideal for casual BB shoppers.
2. Some of these casual shoppers (see posts in this thread) seem to have this idea that us regular-to-heavy shoppers are either deluding ourselves or shopping at BB in order to justify the rewards thing (we aren't).
3. These people can't seem to understand that our (the regular-to-heavy shoppers) don't have the same shopping habits that they do!
4. Opportunity costs - I spend very little time now "hunting for the best deal." I consult Dave L's Weekly Roundup (thank the heavens for him!) and that's it. Low price not at BB? Simple: pricematch.

While others love the Thrill of the Hunt (surveying all online etailers for the lowest possible price), to me I'd rather spend my time doing other things. Quality time with my girlfriend, guitar playing, movie watching, hanging out with my friends, sports. That's my prerogative (as it is for those who love bargain hunting).

One size does not fit all.

Is it so hard to understand that if you shop a lot at BB then it works for you, if you don't then it works against you?

 

[Luis S]

Leila,



Again, there are places around me that will absolutely squash any price BB has, on a normal basis not even including advertised prices.You may not have that option however in which case I understand.And the card should be free in the first place for everyone IMHO....


Now lets say for arguments sake new release DVD's and game are able to be price matched. Fine, so be it. How about older catalog stuff then? Jack ryan trilogy? BTTF? Godfather? Any Criterion movie? Your gonna tell me you have an ad for those? I dont think so. The movies I just mentioned can be found WAY cheaper elsewhere. I can "get back" $10-$20 easily by shopping around for them. Now lets say hardware. Excluding everything that you can price match you can still save tons on receivers,computer hardware,and home appliances just by looking around.

Carlo,

When I say shopping around I dont necessarily mean on the internet either. I have the good fortune of having many places to choose from,some of you may not. In which case the Reward Zone may work for you just fine.I myself RARELY use the internet for purchases. Either way RZ isnt a good deal but its not absolutely terrible either. Its just given the amount of people they want to buy this thing, they should work on a few details to make it worthwhile to EVERYONE. Not just shopping obsessed freaks like some of you here.

Agreed?

Luis S

 

[Carlo_M]

Either way RZ isnt a good deal but its not absolutely terrible either. Its just given the amount of people they want to buy this thing, they should work on a few details to make it worthwhile to EVERYONE. Not just shopping obsessed freaks like some of you here.

You can't please all of the people all of the time. They are in the business to make money, and they are trying to reward those who buy frequently with this program. Why should they go out of their way to reward the customer who drops $15 every month on them? It costs them money to run this program.

And I know you put that winky thing on the obsessed freaks comment but I still have to respond: I may spend a lot at Best Buy. But how much do I spend for DVDs/CDs etc. elsewhere? Nearly zero. So I'm not an obsessed freak, I've just found one place where I can do most of my electronics purchasing at the lowest price, which is also nearest to my house, which also takes the least amount of time (as far as surveying prices). So actually I'm very efficient. And now I'm getting 4% back from the store. For purchases I was already making.

Story over. It doesn't work for you. It works for some of us. BB is rewarding the person like me, who spends over a hundred a month at their store. And why shouldn't they? If I were running a store, I would pay the most attention to my regulars.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

To use your example, Luis, the week it came out, the Jack Ryan box set was cheapest at Best Buy per David Lambert's essential Weekly Roundup (well, of the stores that are around here, anyway--no Suncoasts, etc.). So I bought it there. Had the Reward Zone been in effect then, I would have gotten the points. There are usually--OK almost always--at least 2 or 3 discs in a week that I want to acquire that are cheapest at BB. But if a catalog title isn't cheapest at BB, I'm not going to spend more just to get the points. There's no requirement in the Reward Zone rules that you have to be stupid or that you are limited to buying from Best Buy. Besides, BB rarely gets older titles in on a timely basis anyway so those purchases usually end up being online for anyone who's paying attention. I don't bother with price-matching at BB either since there's always a huge line at their grossly inefficient customer service desk. If it's not cheapest there or within pennies of the best price, I don't buy it there. End of story.

So I can not change my spending habits (which I'm sure you regard as hopelessly excessive, fine, thank you FYO) one whit and still do fine under the terms of this card. You can't, because you don't shop at BB that much. That's OK too. There's no defensiveness to it. Why is this so hard?

 

[DaveGTP]

Basically, unless you area doesn't have many choices as far as shopping goes its really not a good deal at all. You'd be far better off shopping around. You'd save more money that way.

Again, not true. I will repeat my earlier example: BB carries most anime @ $22.99. The absolute cheapest online price for Pioneer anime is almost always $21.XX from DeepDiscountDVD. And that's $21.XX shipped free via USPS Media mail (generally 4-7 days ship time).

I will get B5 Season 3 for $66.50 + tax = approx. $70 under Suncoast's Replay card program. The cheapest deal online for it is $61-65 from a couple of very poorly rated online etailers, and it will take quite a while to ship at the cheapest shipping. $9 (about 12%, admittedly) is not worth the chance of getting the wrong item, poor return service, damaged goods, etc, from these second-rate Etailers, nor is it worth the delay.

On the other hand, I will NOT just buy things at a significantly higher price to get points. I am an engineering student, I can do the math and figure out the effective price.

Another example is the aforementioned videogames. Games are ALWAYS $50 upon release, and are NOT cheaper anywhere else. EVER. Seriously. And some don't drop in price for months. The BB card would save you a couple of bucks on the price, which is great!

SO, to sum up, for a wise consumer that actually buys DVDs that are not Walmart-blockbusters, OR videogames, OR video game peripherals, OR computer games (also rarely discounted at first), OR perhaps computer hardware on a good after-rebate deal - this is a good program. If you buy none of this stuff, then why are you interested in Best Buy at all?? Sorry, but it seems pretty clear to me.

 

[Ron-P]

Another great example is shopping with the parents, they pay and I get the points. Just racked up 23,500 points from their purchase today.


Peace Out~

 

[Leila Dougan]

Luis,

Carlo, Mark and Dave did a fine job of expressing my sentiment. Thanks, guys! Like I said, I spend at least a hundred dollars there every month, usually from buying 2 DVDs a week. The DVDs I buy are pretty much ALL anime and as Dave pointed out, BB has some decent prices. I'd rather spend the extra dollar at BB then wait a week for it to arrive in the mail. And as a bonus, very frequently they release things before street date.

If the card isn't helpful to you, then don't get one. Pretend it doesn't exist and go about your shopping as usual. For those of us it works for, we have an option, and find it helpful.

I don't understand why we're arguing.

 

[MikeAlletto]

I don't understand why we're arguing.

I don't see anyone arguing. I see people expressing options on how to use the card to get the most value out of it.

 

[nolesrule]

At first, I thought the card was a bad idea. But I was in Best Buy yesterday to pick up a few things and realized that I was spending about $140 on DVDs and other stuff. So I decided to sign up.

After reading this thread, I did a little research in my own spending habits. In just over 7 months (as in during 2003), I have spent enough just on DVDs at Best Buy to get 7 of these $5 coupons. Doing a little more research, I realized I've spent enough there on various things to get close to 19 coupons, including some good deals on computer parts, peripherals, networking equipment and recordable media (and most of the computer stuff is a business expense), as well as a GameCube and some games (they had a coupon I could use on the system purchase, talk about rare). It only takes 2 coupons to break even.

Granted, I doubt I'll spend this much at Best Buy every year, but I know darn well I'll be spending more than $500 there annually.

 

[Luis S]

Sheesh,I think some of you are taking this as some kind of personal attack! Relax! Some of us are just trying to understand each others points, no need to get so touchy!

Carlo,



Exactly.....

Later,

Luis S

 

[Leila Dougan]

And who's arguing?

I certainly wasn't singling you out. The thread just seems a bit heated from ALL sides, my posts included. It was a comment on the general tone of the thead, not any person in particular.

Yes, we are expressing our opinions and for some of us in this thread, they are very near and dear to our hearts. It comes across as an argument with some defensiveness. My comment had nothing to do with you, or really anybody in particular.

 

[Luis S]

Leila,

Tell me about it! It was getting pretty hot in here! However there is very little reason for the negative tone this thread may have gotten. Were merely discussing shopping not politics or some other sensitve topic. Theres two very distinct sides to this discussion and both have valid points. Why some are making it personal I have no idea. No one here is trying to change the others view,just trying to understand it.

The only point I was trying to make was that while for a few of you the RZ may be helpful for the majority it is not, as most shoppers are very careful with their money and leary of any sles pitch given to them. Now this in itself wouldnt be a big deal if not for BB pushing the RZ on eveyone and charging a membership fee to boot. Its a nice idea but it needs some retooling in order for it to be as succesful as theyd like it to be. This is a point I thought we all could agree on.

And dont worry,I know you werent singling me out.No harm done so no biggie.Its silly to let these things affect you personally so I wont if you dont.Deal?

And on another note remember this thing is nationwide. Some markets are more successful pushing the RZ which affects all BB's. So in markets like where I live where people are real careful with there money theres a lot more preasure on employees. And to me thats unfair because itd be impossible to sell as many as say somewhere that BB is the only choice. Now if it were free to begin with more would sign up and employees wouldnt have to worry about pushing yet another product(besides PRP's,Service plans,EW and Sports illustrated subscriptions...) on customers in order to keep their job.

I guess my problem is that the idea while good could use a little tweaking to be fair to all, Im probably asking alot but hey I can dream...

Later,

Luis S

 

[Leila Dougan]

Luis,

Deal!

And I do agree with you that the card is merely a marketing ploy. While it does benefit us "crazy spenders" , it doesn't benefit the casual shopper. And BB knows that. Just like they push the extended warranties that are pure profit, they push the RZ cards because they are pure profit too. I'm guessing most people don't read the fine print and can't/don't calculate exactly how much they'd have to spend to just break even. The whole concept of points, especially a large number like 12,500, is just to confuse people and I really think most people don't spend the time to figure it all out.

And there, is where I think lies the success. For the person who doesn't usually spend a lot of money at BB I see one of two things happening:

1) The person shops there more than he/she normally would, just to accumulate points.

2) The person doesn't shop there more than he/she normally would and doesn't accumulate points.

It's a win-win situation for BB. In the first case, they make additional sales and thus additional profit. In the second case, they've made profit off the sale of the card (because the person doesn't ever break even). That's why they push it on everyone including the casual shopper, charge $10, and have crappy returns. I agree that to the consumers point of view, the system needs tweaking. But I'm sure once you factor in all the folks who don't know anything about how the RZ card works, corporate BB thinks the system is just fine as it is.

Now, for the people who DO read the fine print and calculate it out know that either you spend so much the crappy return is still worth it or don't spend enough to make it worthwhile. All the posters in this thread seem to fall into one of these categories and I'm assuming we've all read and understood the agreement.

I don't think any of us here are argueing about the crappy returns. 4% is very little and doesn't even cover sales tax. But like I've said before, in my situation it works. But I also acknowledge that for most folks it doesn't and if it wasn't for my obsession with anime, it wouldn't for me either.

 

[Luis S]

And with that Leila I think youve nailed it. Bravo! I couldnt have said it better myself. Youve just pretty much summed up all aspects of this discussion. So since I completely agree with you Im outta here, No need to repeat what youve said so well,see ya around!

Later,

Luis S

 

[Carlo_M]

I'll back off too. But Luis you have to understand that when we read your post it comes across like "it doesn't work for me, how in the heck can it work for you and if it does it's because you haven't searched for the best deal." like in this quote:

Again, there are places around me that will absolutely squash any price BB has, on a normal basis not even including advertised prices.You may not have that option however in which case I understand.And the card should be free in the first place for everyone IMHO....


Now lets say for arguments sake new release DVD's and game are able to be price matched. Fine, so be it. How about older catalog stuff then? Jack ryan trilogy? BTTF? Godfather? Any Criterion movie? Your gonna tell me you have an ad for those? I dont think so. The movies I just mentioned can be found WAY cheaper elsewhere. I can "get back" $10-$20 easily by shopping around for them. Now lets say hardware. Excluding everything that you can price match you can still save tons on receivers,computer hardware,and home appliances just by looking around.

See here's where you have to understand my shopping strategy (and my suspicion is that a lot of the RZ people do it the same way). I basically buy everything on release week, when one or more of the Big B&Ms (CC, BB or Target) is Loss Leading the item. So I don't have to buy too many old DVDs. If I do, like I just bought Cheers Season 1 for my dad's BDay, I looked at DVD Price Search and found it at Overstock for $10 cheaper than BB. I bought it there. I am not a slave to the RZ purchase. I will buy cheaper elsewhere if easily available. But the way I buy, on release week with loss-leader prices often leads me to Best Buy more often than not.

And for big electronics, I'm cozy with a dealer in East LA where I get stuff at very, very good pricing. However on something like the Pioneer 563A, which is $179 MSRP, the savings for me would be minimal because the profit margin of the item is small, and the dealer is about 40 miles away from me. So I'll pay the extra $$$ to not drive in LA traffic, and buy it at BB and use RZ. However when I bought my $1300 NAD T762 (which I paid considerably less than that) I go to the dealer (ignore the fact that BB doesn't carry NAD).

-----------------

Finally, you know what this reminds me of? I cut coupons on Sundays with my girlfriend, and Ralphs here in SoCal doubles them. Sure Ralph's ain't the cheapest around, but when you buy "Ralphs Club" selections (which are discounted) and couple that with the doubled coupons, you get a great deal! But at the same time, I don't buy things just because there are coupons for them (I hate Healthy Choice frozen dinners but routinely get $1 off coupons in the paper). And just because something isn't on sale doesn't mean I won't buy it. RZ is like coupons: if you buy a lot, but are still discriminating, you can make it work for you. But if you don't shop a lot, or if you are just buying because you have an RZ card (or coupon) and not being smart about it, then it can very much work against you.

I too agree that this is a marketing ploy by BB. But it's a ploy that if you work it, can end up being in your favor. That's what I'm doing!

 

[Luis S]

Carlo,

Was that an apology? I can see how my comments could have been grouped with previous posters however I made it VERY clear that I may be more fortunate than others in my shopping choices and that some of you may not. Nowhere did I try to imply that anybody wasn't shopping around. I was merely pointing out that if you have options, there are plenty of ways to save more elsewhere. But as I said some of you have no choice which is unfortunate but ok.

Nothing I said was meant to be condescending. They were just facts that apply to many but not all BB shoppers. For you the RZ works,for most however I think it could use some improving thats all.

And civility? No worries friend , like I said to Leila no biggie, I wont make it personal if you don't. The only thing I was trying to get you to agree with me on is that the RZ may be a good idea, but it needs some work in order to be worthwhile to everyone.

Moral of the story? We all have different priorities when we shop. For some its convenience others its the best prices. Though that wasn't the topic of discussion. The topic was whether or not the RZ was any good. Is it? Yes and no. It has potential but has quite a few hurdles to overcome before its accepted by everyone. In the meantime those that can use it to their advantage will and those who cant wont.Plain and simple. Life goes on. And that concludes my contribution to this thread.

Later,

Luis S

 

[DaveGTP]

It is a good deal for anyone that does a lot of DVD or videogame buying. It only takes 5 games a year @ $50 to break even. You'll find 90% gamers will buy at least $250 in games every year, and even more that probably spend over $1000 (not me, I'm poor). The HTF poll shows that 31% of the forum owns 50-150 DVDs, another 36% owns 150-500, and a whopping 9% of the forum owns 500-1000 DVDs. That's a lot of frickin movies !

Honestly, I feel almost like the whole thing is a little evil. Buy Suncoast/Mediaplay chain, sell a few years later, steal their methods, sell them, try to crush them with their own tactic. Oh well, more power to them.