Best Buy??

[YukonCor55]

I stopped into Best Buy last night to look at Televisions and noticed a big room in the back of the store labeled "Musical Instruments." Thinking that maybe they were getting into the low end stuff like Wal-Mart tried a few years back I decided to take a look and get a laugh. Well the joke was on me! Guitars and Basses: Fenders, Gibsons, Martins, Ovations, Taylors. Amps: Marshall, Ampeg, Fender, Line 6. Thankfully...NO RICS!! What's going on?? It looks like Best Buy just out "big boxed" the big box music stores! Sales folks didn't seem to be very knowledgable about their products and I didn't think the prices were anything to rave about. Also, I guess you can't haggle with Best Buy on prices so for now I it looks like Sam Ash and GC are OK, but this has gotta make 'em nervous. I'm kind of surprised that the the major manufacturers would go for this given the volume of sales that their mainstay "big guys" have provided them over the years. I guess you gotta love the free market system!

[collin]

I personally don't think it's such a bad thing. I think it's far worse that places like Walmart and Target stock guitars, but only stock totally unplayable rubbish.

At least Best Buy is doing it right. Quality name brand stuff. There's plenty of towns in the country where they don't have a mom/pop music store, and certainly no guitar center so if Best Buy gets them strumming on a decent guitar, then i'm all for it.

It's sad that the salespeople don't know what they are selling....but Guitar Center is the biggest music store chain in the world, and their salespeople barely know what a Stratocaster is, so Best Buy should do fine! They're a big box store, but no more guilty than GC, Sam Ash etc.....and are more in the vein of old school appliance stores, where you could buy vinyl records and guitar amplifiers right next to GE refridgerators. Kinda cool.

[btomlinson]

The one in Langhorne had a AC30 combo for $839.00. I think it was new. It makes a trip to Best Buy more interesting.

[nukebass]

I think it's great to add more stores selling stuff. It increases the competition. Now we'll have to wait and see if the market can actually support another music store.

[lennon211]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=386866

I'd brought this one up a while back...seems reactions are rather mixed...

[collin]

I think it's great to add more stores selling stuff. It increases the competition. Now we'll have to wait and see if the market can actually support another music store.

yeah, no kidding!

In fact, I think the instrument sales will slow down big for BB (if it hasn't already), because it's hard enough for an electronics/appliance/music store to stay afloat right now- Circuit City chain having just gone out of business etc (though that would leave the market almost entirely to Best Buy here in the west at least..)

[firstbassman]

I'd brought this one up a while back...seems reactions are rather mixed...

Yes, sorry to say, this is extremely old news.

[stringsncords]

WOOOOOOOW! The Fender American Standard Tele that I purchased new last year for $800 is a whopping $1,419.99 at Best Buy. I can't imagine an educated consumer buying anything from BB if these prices are typical. It's a shame that expensive musical instruments are now being sold out of a big box store; maybe they'll decide that it's not a good idea after all, and give the instruments back to where they rightfully belong - music stores!

[jps]

Bob, part of that mucho increase is due to a huge price increase from Fender recently.

[stringsncords]

Hey Jeff, Upon further review...YOU'RE RIGHT! AMS and MF are VERY CLOSE to BB's price for this guitar. Wow - that's some hefty price increase!
It just makes Ricks seem like more of a bargain.
Thanks, Bob

[IHeartRics]

Very interesting, but I tend to prefer nosing around the indepentent stores that have old, cool, used stuff.

[jps]

Very interesting, but I tend to prefer nosing around the indepentent stores that have old, cool, used stuff.

Like Heights Guitars!

[cassius987]

I thought they were doing this in partnership with MF or GC.

Personally the staff there are dumb enough to work at GC (if not worse) so it wouldn't surprise me. I went in there the other day and casually asked if they had a Zoom H4. "No way bra, we don't stock that kind of stuff." "Well, there's one right next to your head," I point out. Sure enough he turns around and there it is. It was overpriced but I don't think I would have bought it from them anyway.

[dog]

The real problem with giant retailers is the lack of training their employees have. They hire someone who knows nothing and then put them in which ever department needs a warm body right then. Certainly Best Buy is no different. I would certainly buy gear from BB or anyone else who has the best price. However, I always keep my questions to myself, and if asked "are you finding everything you need", I always say "yes", even if I'm not. I think that the days of knowledgeable sales folks are over. In order for instrument retailers to have sales people who know what they are talking about would require them to hire musicians.

[wayang]

And there are real problems for musicians selling instruments for a retailer...

Years ago, I worked for the number one local art supply store. I was the 'draftsman' on the crew, and worked the Architectural counter. We had amazingly talented, knowledgeable folks on staff...painters, sculptors, graphic types, airbrush experts...the whole spectrum. The first thing that begins to get on your nerves in that kind of situation is customers half your age coming in with wads of money to throw around and no idea what they're doing...they prod you with a million questions, and then they're out the door to finish their project with 'free' knowledge that you had to come by the hard way. Then comes the day, after much time spent looking at all that great gear and examining your paltry paycheck, when you realize that the only way you're going to be able to afford any of that stuff is to bite the bullet and go back to having a 'real' job...we all had that moment at one point or another, and none of us works there anymore...

Best Buy would not only have to hire musicians, but would need pay them a decent wage as well...I'll spend my precious time waiting for something that's a little more likely to occur, like "World Peace"...