Best Buy: No Longer Advertising Street Date TV Shows (1 Viewer)

[Mark Talmadge]

Imagine my surprise when I walked into Best Buy and discovered that they didn't get in any copies of Rockford Files Season 6 or that Emergency Season 5 was full retail and that their stores wouldn't honor their website prices. So, I walked out of their store without buying anything.

Also, since they no longer list these street date releases in their circular, they don't issue rainchecks. I have to say that Best Buy has saved me a lot of money and this is one of the reasons why Circuit City has went under as well.

Best Buy used to honor their website prices and no they no longer do? I would be very wary as I don't intend on ordering through their website because of the independent mail delivery service that they use.

 

[Robert13]

It really surprises me to hear this because stores seem to be driving themselves into the ground instead of trying to drum up business. Best Buy has honored the online price for me in the past and if they stop doing this now, then they will probably hurt their sales even more. Not a good time to be slacking in retail.

 

[TravisR]

I know this thread is here just so people can bitch and moan about Best Buy but I just got something price matched with their website on Sunday so I don't think they've changed any price matching policy.

 

[RickER]

I have NEVER gotten them to price match their web site. Also, its a crapshoot if you will see a catalog TV or movie title stocked in store. New release or not.

Come on, you think they will have Rockford season 6 in the circular?

I have noticed that DVD is no longer a loss leader. Such is life. Thats why i usually buy TV on DVD when its on sale. Deals can be had, even at Best Buy

 

[mylan]

I went in to get printer cartridges since the store is only five miles away. Their web site advertised buy one get one 25% off and they matched that no questions asked.
I think Rockford Files and Emergency are so obscure as to not warrant advertisement and since they will likely not generate the same volume sales as with a title such as The Dark Knight they cannot sale price these sets. I'm not knocking either of these shows as I used to watch both of them while they were on, I'm just saying...

 

[irishsooner]

i work for best buy and rather than lose a sell we can match our website most times. what matters is what employee you deal with and his or her supervisor. really! are you going to turn away a loyal customer over 2-5 dollars especially if that customer has a premium rewards card. contact our corporate office in minnesota for store policies because you can get 4 different stories here in tulsa. also these 2 dvd titles are not loss leaders because of their obscurity. also why we only get 3-5 copies at our store. basically obscure compared to LOST or HEROES. also we might not advertise if the dvd company does not match or contribute to advertising dollars to help sell their product. remember also sometimes the dvds get lost back in the warehouse or comes in late or gets mixed in with next weeks releases. i know some of you have to have the lowest price but i want to work also. there is a difference between ordering online with no overhead versus a store that has lots of overhead and low margins on plenty of our products along with labor bad or good. at least my store has me, because of my age and knowledge i can run around circles most or all the media employees in town!!!

 

[Ethan Riley]

Just yesterday I went to BB and they honored an online promotion--no questions asked. One thing you might keep in mind is that at Best Buy, they do not necessarily put out "sale" signs for every single item that is on sale. I looked at the website--it says Emergency season 5 is on sale for $27.99. If you take the item to the checkout and have them scan it, it would probably ring up at $27.99. Mark it doesn't sound like you actually tried to buy those dvds; just saw the price stickers and left. Try again!

 

[RickER]

Robert has always looked out for me in the big Best Buy here in Tulsa. But the cash register drones ( you know the type...they are to busy talking to their bud to even say hi to you) wont belive you half the time when something is on sale in store, and it rings up the normal price much less go through the trouble of price matching the web site. The few times i tried, they said no, a few times i saw another try they said no. In my case its always been 3 or 4 bucks, so i never fought for it. But, if it was $20, $100, or more...id fight for the good price.

I once wrote BB corporate to ask why they dont stock a few catalog titles. Give up 50 of the 1000 copies of High School Musical 3, for a little space to hold the movies us "old" guys like. I think i was looking for the 2 disc Patton that had come out the week before. None in stock, and was an online only order, if you wanted it from BB. Anyway, corporate sent me a thanks for your feedback...blah, blah, blah. Its just the way it is, buy Rockford season 6 someplace else. They have to sell mainstream...and we are not it.

I like BB, and shop there often, but if they dont have what i want, or its $50 in store, and $35 on Amazon...hey, its good to know you have options.

 

[bmasters9]

By "mainstream," I was wondering, are you referring to those who usually purchase current movies and series?

 

[RickER]

Yep. I love Rockford, and Emergency! too. But those shows dont bring people into the store to buy. It seems to me, that many of these titles only get store space when something bigger, that the store wants to carry, comes out. I can hear them say, yea, we will cut you a deal on title X, but in turn we need you to carry the lesser title Y for us.

You gotta know, i am all about the 40 year old shows, but not everything has the name Star Trek.

 

[irishsooner]

yep lack of great old catalogue titles and re-releases that are anniversary sets.
have to carry 20 copies of "NICK FURY" you know!!!! main stream is getting 30-500 copies of a title. really would like to see most of the tv shows come in regular dvd cases like mannix, or love boat because then you have more room for multiple seasons. way its going the simpsons will take up entire 4 foot section of space after season 20 or 30 comes out!!!!!!!!

by the way simspons would be mainstream.

 

[Curtis F]

I've never really paid attention to their website prices, but almost everytime I've picked up a new release DVD at Best Buy (TV or movie), it always winds up being discounted at the register by at least a couple bucks whether there is a sale price sticker on it or not. I don't know if it matches website prices, but it usually is less than the displayed price. I often leave the store pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper it wound up being.

 

[bmasters9]

I'm generally into a lot of the older series myself. I don't know what it is about that place, but Best Buy usually is, to me, a great source of the older series. I've purchased quite a few releases of older series there, from "Hill Street Blues" to (most recently) "Dallas"; I've even purchased a couple of the releases of "I Love Lucy." The "Lucy" ones, though, were only purchased out of a sense of curiosity, simply because I wanted to see what made that series the classic that it is. While I will admit that it has its place in television history, I don't think that I've been interested enough to continue purchasing beyond the two that I've purchased.

By the way, has the Best Buy outlet in Tulsa, OK had as much of a selection of series for you as the one in Greenville, SC has had for me?

 

[Dave Jessup]

Guess my post on another thread Tuesday might have been more relevant to this thread:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/3495456-post35.html

Addendum: my local BB received five copies of Emergency s5. When Marcia went in half an hour after opening, there were two copies left. (One was left when she left, of course.) Later in the day as we went in for our price-matching adventure - there were none to be had.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

For the person who said that Best Buy doesn't advertised lesser known titles, that's incorrect. Best Buy used to advertise new releases on older stores such as I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, Rockford Files, Emergency, All in the Family.

I think this is just their way of trying to cut down on the number of rainchecks that they issue and this is a crying shame for this company. Over the past two years, I have drastically cut back on the amount of money that I spend in their store whereas I used to spend thousands of dollars per year. I think I'll try again tomorrow to see if I can get that website price on Emergency, but somehow, I doubt it. The employees at the local store here in Flint are pretty much rude and stingy and go by the corporate rulebook "our website and our store are two different entities."

 

[Trevtpir]

Mark, I'm from Michigan, Bay City in fact. I go to the Saginaw store quite a bit and have never had a problem with anything.

 

[RickER]

The big BB in town has a huge TV section. Not to mention the FOX and HBO sections. Its better than Wal-Mart or Target any day of the week! But if you have your heart set to get (favorite old show) Season 3 Vol. 2 on release day, and for as cheap as Amazon..well..you may be disappointed.

 

[Corey3rd]

I've never had a problem with them price matching the website - although that usually means taking it to the customer service counter so they can look it up on the website.

also don't the studios pay to have their DVD sets featured in the circular?

 

[Greg_S_H]

I saw all seasons of Stargate Atlantis for $19.95 on BB's website recently, so I went in to buy them. They were marked $44.xx in the store, and when I had an employee run it, that was the price in their computer. Since I wanted three seasons, that's $60 vs. $132. Extremely significant. I didn't even try to get the website price when I was there, so I don't know if they would have done it. I went home and bought a season as an "in store pickup," so I got it for $19.95 + tax (no shipping charges, obviously). Kind of a dumb hoop to have to jump through, but who knows? Maybe they would have honored the website price right there.

 

[TravisR]

At least, the catalog titles or smaller new releases have to.