Best Buy to reformat their DVD department... (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

My Best Buy has already separated out its Music (concert/video/etc) from Musical (films). Now the Musical section is almost reduced to nothing. :frowning:

 

[Sean Moon]

Thank you Cees for posting about badmouthing and stereotyping the employees of mass chains. I happen to fall into one of those mass chain employees and it bothers me greatly when people go off on tangents and call all of us morons and incapable of doing a good job. I am finally glad that an adminastrator stepped up and said something about it, so maybe this topic can get back on track.

Categorizing departments is the smartest way to do things. It is MUCH easier to maintain in the long run, and it also helps myself and countless others shop. Hell, my home collection is categorized and alpha. When I go shopping or looking for a movie to watch, I am usually in a certain mood. If I am in the mood for a mindless action flick, I know where to go and dont have to wade through countless movies not of interest to me to find it. And as for some people not being able to find the category something is in, simply ask at the store, simple as that. But it will be a good thing when Best Buy recategorizes, that way there is a little more diversity in sections, so when others are in certain moods, it helps find stuff easier.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Here is a case where I agree with Circuit City's designation of a movie. The Thin Red Line is not an 'action' movie, in my opinion. It requires too much thought to be that.

Another good example would be All Quiet Along the Western Front, a war movie (an anti-war movie, like The Thin Red Line, to be more precise), but clearly not an 'action' movie.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Fair enough, Paul. Could very well be my ignorance. Thin Red Line is a blind buy for me.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Well, BB didn't actually sell Musicland per se, they gave it away for free

 

[Steve Y]

"Misfiling" is not a cut-and-dry process. Sometimes the chain gets the genre wrong and a comedy gets put in drama just because the people on the cover are smiling. (this kind of top-brass ignorance happens all the time) It's important to remember that much of the time, customers themselves mis-file titles and the stores neglect to provide resources for re-oganization.

I prefer sub-categorization... it clears the aisles and trims down the amount of titles I have to look through. For those of you who aren't good at finding a movie's category, computers at most locations list the inventory.

Chain stores should hire people full-time to reorganize the shelves on a daily basis (right after closing or before opening). I have seen Best Buy stores that are wonderfully organized. They are a joy to browse.

My local BB is a mess. It takes forever for some new releases to make it to the shelves (occasionally as much as a week after release date for smaller titles). I've seen many customers pick up titles and then strew them in unrelated categories. And then no one bothers, or is asked as part of their job, to put them back. (I don't work at BB; I just go there a lot)

It is unfair to always blame the employees. How are they to know that Joe Q. Public crammed the only copy of "A Very Muppet Christmas" into sci-fi/horror ten minutes before someone came in and asked for it? It's a nightmare for employees to try to explain to irate customers why it's in the computer but not on the shelf.

s

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Quoting myself from a previous post...
That might be true, but I certainly hope not. For the record I should say that most of the employees I have dealt with are indeed very polite. They're just ultimately not as helpful as I would like.

 

[Clinton McClure]

No browsing for me, thank you. I do my homework before I go to Best Buy so I know what I want before I ever leave the house. This eliminates any impulse-buying and I can get in and out rather quickly. I, for one, would like it all to be in alpha order so I wouldn't waste my time looking through 7 or 8 genres for a particular title. Or better yet... customers should be given a timesheet as we walk in (especially at Circuit City) and we all get paid to waste our time looking through their unorganized mess. :wink:

 

[Ben_@]

I think, by and large, that the system that these retailers use is very effective, and the expansion of the DVD section is a good idea. I think the idea of moving all music DVDs into the music section is interesting. Does this mean that the music DVDs will be filed with the artists' CDs?

Some consternation from avid collectors has to be expected. Of course Best Buy employees wouldn't know about many of the titles released each week. The majority of customers will want to know if they have any Daredevil fullscreens still in stock *shudder*. Best Buy does not specialize in movies, and they don't require it of their employees.

 

[Jodee]

Actually, Musicland's new owners are still "renting" use of the warehouse from Best Buy. I think the purchase agreement stipulated something like a 2 year agreement for use of the facility.

I'm not sure that the only reason Best Buy bought Musicland was for the warehouse. Initially, they were going to merge all the Best Buy and Musicland buyers and corporate staff. But they merged the warehouse ops first. By the time they decided to sell off Musicland, they had already merged and integrated the warehouse so they definitely wanted to keep that.

 

[Jason Seaver]

What's so wrong with impulse-buying?

 

[Phil Carter]

Spending more money than you wanted to, because you saw lots of movies that you didn't remember or didn't know you wanted.

cheers,
Phil

 

[Will_B]

If you dont want to browse, you can order online and then just go to the pickup area, right? I'm not sure, as I've never done that.

At my Best Buy, I mean the one I visit most, each version of Lawrence of Arabia is in a different section. The single disc version is usually in ACTION, the original collectors edition tends to be in DRAMA, and the Superbit, well I don't know, I think it moves around.

But if they are keeping sections, I for one am glad they are finally seperating the science fiction from the horror! I've always found it unpleasant to have to see the covers of slasher movies while I am looking for science fiction.

 

[JustinCleveland]

I still prefer the Harry sorting method from "3rd Rock From The Sun"

1. Good movies

2. Bad movies

3. Movies I haven't seen.

 

[Greg*go]

I think Harry's idea is the best yet.

Scott, I also roam the shelves of the Red Lion BB, it's good stuff. And when I ask them about a location of something I don't get upset because they have that computer terminal right there that tells them if they have it in stock, and which genre it's located in.

 

[John Berggren]

I'm not botherred by this because I don't think any titles will go away, just the section. They'll be integrated elsewhere. I like having a musical section, but with the distinct lack of recent musicals, it probably can't sustain it. Perhaps if Phantom does well at Christmas, it'll appear again.

 

[Shawn_Sek]

with the extra room, i hope they decide to get back to stocking more of the non-mainstream non-blockbuster DVDs, and ON RELEASE DAY. they lost so much business from me, and im sure others, who couldnt get films like Ichi The Killer, Suicide Club, Nick Cave GIITH, or the Don Knotts collection on opening day, or opening week, it took about a month for these to show up.

im kinda surprised theyre fixing up their DVD section, for the past few months (at the stores i go to) the BB employees would just say "use the website" for everything you ask for. directing traffic out of the stores and online almost an a "dont even bother coming in" fashion.

 

[Nick T Robot]

I would like all CDs, SACDs, DVD-Audios, and Music DVDs to be in one section. That way you just look for the artist you like and then find all products they put out.

Actual Musicals (Movies with plot and singing as opposed to DVDs of Musicians, like Collections of Video's or a Concert) should be separate, as they are actually films.

 

[Chuck L]

While I really like this idea (and something that I have wanted for sometime)this one thing is still my biggest complaint on BB:

I really wish that they would get better at getting product on the streetdate instead of the following Friday or several weeks thereafter. Too many times I have gone into them looking for a title, that when I can't find it, they say that they will get it in 'two weeks' and sometimes even longer.

That is why business goes elsewhere.

 

[RISUG]

Originally posted by Malcom R

Um.....