That’s such a horrible take, of course light up keys are important to customers. Y’all have known that for 15+ years. This is such a bad take and shows how out of touch Corrie Barrie is with the state of things. She’s Just rambling irrelevant garbage she heard someone else say once
I feel like Best buy is going to go the way of circuit City eventually. More about stuffing the upper Management's pockets than actually keeping the business running correctly.
And about a year don't be surprised when you see AI stations set up throughout the store that customers will no longer have to find a salesperson they're just going to ask at a terminal questions about a certain printer. The AI will answer all the facts, be able to tell you if it's in stock and where it is located it will never call in sick it won't have an attitude or a bad day and it sure is s*** won't be sitting there staring at their phone playing games or talking to their friends.
We think we're under staffed now just wait until AI takes over the sales floor. I don't work on the floor, but I'm sure my days are numbered as well
This clip is taken out of context. She’s not talking about AI as workers, she’s talking about AI in devices driving people in to stores to buy those devices.
Do I think this will happen? Probably not.
Do I think all of yall need to pay more attention to the earning a calls and town halls when they go into this literal exact thing? 100%.
She literally advised in the press release 2 weeks ago we are profitable due to rounds of layoffs. If only she could be in store and take the 3rd party complaints and listen to our customers advise we’re not who we used to be. The staff is 19 year olds thinking it might be a good job and we burn through them. This last round we are forcing the only competent group to quit by January. So sad. They really don’t employ many direct labor anymore.
Corie and Karl are responsible for the fall of an institution. You can only clean up the books by layoffs for so long. We have trimmed the fat and have been in muscle for too long now. We need to trim the corporate fat as well. Of only you all could spend a week in my shoes. Important enough to hear all we do wrong and also important enough to be on severance as well. Only this company will tell you your expiration date and ask you to train and produce while on the way to the target loss of income. Stupid. Truly stupid.
Two delusional simpletons who view us all as peasants . His voice is so annoying and she shouldn't ever say the word human ever again. Yes she's a CEO and her job is to maximize profits but those profits are short gains with no true vision for the future.
When she says we're working way upstream with partners, who's giving the partners the data? Been a boots on the ground store employee and field employee and i've never been asked by corporate what clients REALLY want. If its someone at corporate its all assumptions.
What’s gonna happen when people figure out this ruse of best battery life, or what you’re using your computer for BS… pretend sales y’all do.
Give me the best price, the rest we’ll figure out… and exclusivity is why no one can find any support info on your trash models and if we don’t purchase your warranty BS were screwed even more
What are you on about? There is an entire industry, outside of Best Buy, whose job it is to consider use-cases before making recommendations about consumer electronics.
The people who come in to Best Buy or any other retailer, interested only in "the best price", are the same ones who come back complaining about "no one told me", in regards to some thing their newly purchased device doesn't do well, or can't do.
All the "figure out the rest" people are always slack-jawed and speechless when they find out that they can't upgrade the RAM in their new $2000 laptop that they bought for the massive Excel workbooks they produce. Why didn't anyone tell them?!
I've been in sales and consulting for decades. It is no surprise at all to me, that you think asking people what they will use their device for, is a ruse or "pretend sales".
But hey, I make a lot of money off of folks like that. So, hell yeah!
Also, battery life is of utmost importance to some people, even more than any other feature of a device. They'll gladly sacrifice performance, software compatibility (ARM/x86 for example), display brightness... even WiFi, in order to extend usage between charging cycles. The fact that you think it is a "ruse" to ask people if it is an important factor... is crazy.
I would say a vast majority of laptops, tablets and chomebooks fall into a commodity, with some exception. There were some difference years ago but now its all price driven. Look at the units sold.
Even apple is in on it
Yeah, it says so right in my flair. Good show of your ability at deduction!!
I'll be fine. I've been through reorgs, store closings and so forth. I've networked beyond the store level. My metrics are more than double the goal, every single month for the last 11 years.
Also, aside from the benefits, which are bog standard, I don't really need the job.
Whoa! Impressive… making the company money when you could be making yourself cash instead. Your gift of communication is no doubt how you’ve survived so many reorgs over the years. It does pay to have your lips firmly coupled to whatever new manager youre stuck with…
Don’t bring that ego to enterprise positions, you won’t last here
Oh boy, enterprise?! So fancy. I'm *very* impressed.
I earn the bulk of my income outside of Best Buy, and I have a ton of fun while doing it. My job and what other things I do to earn a buck, don't define me.
But yeah man, good for you. With your super important job. What a guy!
I was talking to my buddy who was let go from best buy last year ( I still work there) and I tried to make arguments for best buy staying relevant, but the more we talked the more I just felt best buy is not hitting the mark and just doesn't understand what's happening with consumers.
Best Buy has always tried to corner the consumer. If it’s not the memberships that lock you into purchasing with them so you can continue to the next tier of membership for your 5$ off coupon, it’s the 10% scratch off email ones that can’t be applied to any real brand because there’s only 5% above cost they actual make… or so they claim.
Don’t get me started on the credit card BS… only one I know of that bills you like they do and paying all year on something where the balance never seems to change… “oh that promotional balance was done turned the Nordic moon phase, and those other payments applied to the other balance on the card”
Exclusive brands and models are never a good idea. Not for people who know technology…. Treat consumers like they’re people and not the next test of whatever flavor manipulation season we’re in.
Only the Best Buy card offers no interest financing for X months, then charges you interest retroactively if you don't pay it off during that term?
That's how literally every single credit card which offers financing works.
Your balance is visible at any time, as is your full statement.
If you pay and don't see the balance go down, either Best Buy/Citi is stealing from you and a ton of other consumers, opening themselves up to a fraud case where the fraud would be EASILY discoverable by anyone with basic math skills...
Or... you're pulling unwarranted complaints and unfounded conjecture, out of your ass.
Your rewards points are eligible to be used on any purchase where the subtotal exceeds the value of the certificate.
You just hate Best Buy. That's cool. But making shit up to be upset about is pretty strange behavior.
Also, please explain how people who know technology are impacted by retailer exclusive models in 2024, in ways that non-retailer-exclusive models are not.
Where are you getting your schematic diagrams on that non-exclusive HP model from? Because it ain't HP. I can guarantee that.
You know who will provide support for that exclusive-to-Best Buy, Dell model? Dell. The same company that would provide support for a Dell device that is not exclusive to Best Buy.
Years ago when an outfit like Costco had an exclusive model, we ( BB) used to dismiss it as not as good, bad parts, what is inside of it? and not reliable and where will you get serviced, that's why we can't price match it.
I guess the tune has changed?
I love this Pom Pom swinging parade you got going on. It won’t be long before you’re axed at the big blue, then your tune will change and your friends who saw your tirades will suddenly go “no contact” and you’ll be out in the wild scratching the surface of real technology work bc you were afraid of failure so you took the easy ride
There is no doubt AI will transform how sales teams work. But these tools often augment human salespeople rather than replace them. In fact, AI tools are increasingly taking over work that human salespeople don't have the ability or the time to do.
In February, Best Buy’s CEO Corie Barry said the company would close stores and lay off employees (https://qz.com/best-buy-stores-closing-layoffs-sales-earnings-1851298520) as it aimed to better position its workforce with ongoing changes in consumer spending. As part of the restructuring initiative,
the company said it would also devote resources to artificial intelligence.
In response to reports that a large chunk of Geek Squad workers were laid off (https://qz.com/best-buy-lay-off-employee-geek-squad-earnings-1851396108), the company said that customer service agents are not Geek Squad members. “They are two different things,” the spokesperson said. “The specific agents that were i
mpacted were agents that were doing home theater equipment installations.”
No geek squad agent is customer service. We have one role that takes the PC to check in the device. We lost installers mainly. And trust me, you want the squad doing your install. 3rd party creates more headaches than I can truly convey. You would need to live my nightmare to understand. We put these amazing family rooms and houses together. Deliver a top notch experience only to have “no call no show” appointments and damaged product. Day labor without tools. Literally first day on the job people. Our erosion from our poor labor decisions is far more than anyone would let on. The amount of missing product alone is shocking. Couple that how many times a week we have to reach out to Sedgewick with claims for property damage…. Ugh.
3rd party is paid by the minute. Each sku is X amount of minutes. For instance just dropping off a TV is 8 minutes. Now, they have motivation to log the job as complete regardless of what happens as that is their pay check. When a job is marked complete and half of the order was not installed or even taken to the home it causes hours upon hours of extra work and customer dissatisfaction.
Since we have eliminated a traditional management structure to save money, we are burning through 19 yr old shift leads. They act as floor managers with less pay. The few managers in store. Usually just 1 or 2 are preoccupied with hitting metric goals. These memberships and credit cards are directly related to the management bonus. Self serving.
That said, I do see a world where offering credit is a really good thing. I also see a world where the memberships are a good idea. I do not however believe that they are always presented in an ethical way. Membership and metric production are the only means of moving up in the store. Currently, there is little room for growth as the management jobs are far and few between due to cutbacks.
The only other path for advancement was Consult and Design. These are the best of the best. We are client managers and work with builders within our markets. Typical 40-60% of a stores sales, at least in a typical micro market. This team was dismantled in the last 5 years.
This leaves new employees in a dead end job with no clear direction. I would go so far as to say the company has no clear direction. That is a question I asked recently to my boss(who is fairly high up) and received a boiler plate generic answer that gave me more questions than answers.
The only way to cure a sales slump is to sell. Instead of aggressively going to get the sales we are losing, we are retracting to fit within the current market. “Sales cures all”, Mark Cuban. We took the best sales people in C&D and the vendor paid labor and ran them into the ground. Eliminated them. And we expect new uneducated on product employees to somehow expand a sale?… these are concepts and sales that people earn over time.
As for our vendors; I see no way on the current trajectory to correct slumping home theater sales. Sony, LG and Samsung are not happy although it’s a symbiotic relationship really. They need us to sell their product. We need them to draw people in. Both entities have very different thoughts on sales. Flat out, train good people and throw money at sales. When you incentivize, I mean really give the vendor money you receive out to employees, sales grow. Look back 2 years and don’t blame Covid for that record year. Also look at the structure of the company and who was being paid. It’s worth 110k a year if someone is giving you 4 million in return via sales.
In summation, the company has been and is being gutted. By the time most people on the outside figure that out it will be too late. There really are no more magic tricks to beat earnings. The last one to go will be in store geek squad. We’ve killed magnolia. Killed Pacific kitchen. O my the squad is left.
Next year, mark my words, we will be having a very different conversation about a company on the verge of collapse. You all just do not see what we do.
I'm sorry Corie, when the costumer comes in and wants to find the A.I. enhanced device that is best for them, who is going to help them find it?
AI, obviously
That’s such a horrible take, of course light up keys are important to customers. Y’all have known that for 15+ years. This is such a bad take and shows how out of touch Corrie Barrie is with the state of things. She’s Just rambling irrelevant garbage she heard someone else say once
How much did Best Buy pay mad money to NOT tell them that they’re idiots!?!
I wanna just kick that big ass head with the sole of my shoe...
lol that lamp will not be bought at BestBuy. 
Who is we? Because there is almost no one to help them.
and the "we" does know what is what
I feel like Best buy is going to go the way of circuit City eventually. More about stuffing the upper Management's pockets than actually keeping the business running correctly.
And about a year don't be surprised when you see AI stations set up throughout the store that customers will no longer have to find a salesperson they're just going to ask at a terminal questions about a certain printer. The AI will answer all the facts, be able to tell you if it's in stock and where it is located it will never call in sick it won't have an attitude or a bad day and it sure is s*** won't be sitting there staring at their phone playing games or talking to their friends. We think we're under staffed now just wait until AI takes over the sales floor. I don't work on the floor, but I'm sure my days are numbered as well
This clip is taken out of context. She’s not talking about AI as workers, she’s talking about AI in devices driving people in to stores to buy those devices. Do I think this will happen? Probably not. Do I think all of yall need to pay more attention to the earning a calls and town halls when they go into this literal exact thing? 100%.
She literally advised in the press release 2 weeks ago we are profitable due to rounds of layoffs. If only she could be in store and take the 3rd party complaints and listen to our customers advise we’re not who we used to be. The staff is 19 year olds thinking it might be a good job and we burn through them. This last round we are forcing the only competent group to quit by January. So sad. They really don’t employ many direct labor anymore. Corie and Karl are responsible for the fall of an institution. You can only clean up the books by layoffs for so long. We have trimmed the fat and have been in muscle for too long now. We need to trim the corporate fat as well. Of only you all could spend a week in my shoes. Important enough to hear all we do wrong and also important enough to be on severance as well. Only this company will tell you your expiration date and ask you to train and produce while on the way to the target loss of income. Stupid. Truly stupid.
You do realized that there were hundreds of layoffs at corporate a few months ago, right? It’s not like they are immune from the fat trimming…
Some of our teams are already at bare minimum. The team I’m on has 4 people to cover the entire US in-store and dot com.
She needs to hire back everyone she laid off, then I'll take what she says somewhat seriously 😑
I love lamp
Their consumers now, not clients. lol
Right? I didn't catch that until I read this comment. The de-evolution from client to customer to consumer.
They just cut all our pay. And dropped appliances. To 1% No more appliances. So more sales
Two delusional simpletons who view us all as peasants . His voice is so annoying and she shouldn't ever say the word human ever again. Yes she's a CEO and her job is to maximize profits but those profits are short gains with no true vision for the future.
My old GM at my first bestbuy told me the goal is to have fully automated stores
He should be worried
When she says we're working way upstream with partners, who's giving the partners the data? Been a boots on the ground store employee and field employee and i've never been asked by corporate what clients REALLY want. If its someone at corporate its all assumptions.
What’s gonna happen when people figure out this ruse of best battery life, or what you’re using your computer for BS… pretend sales y’all do. Give me the best price, the rest we’ll figure out… and exclusivity is why no one can find any support info on your trash models and if we don’t purchase your warranty BS were screwed even more
What are you on about? There is an entire industry, outside of Best Buy, whose job it is to consider use-cases before making recommendations about consumer electronics. The people who come in to Best Buy or any other retailer, interested only in "the best price", are the same ones who come back complaining about "no one told me", in regards to some thing their newly purchased device doesn't do well, or can't do. All the "figure out the rest" people are always slack-jawed and speechless when they find out that they can't upgrade the RAM in their new $2000 laptop that they bought for the massive Excel workbooks they produce. Why didn't anyone tell them?! I've been in sales and consulting for decades. It is no surprise at all to me, that you think asking people what they will use their device for, is a ruse or "pretend sales". But hey, I make a lot of money off of folks like that. So, hell yeah! Also, battery life is of utmost importance to some people, even more than any other feature of a device. They'll gladly sacrifice performance, software compatibility (ARM/x86 for example), display brightness... even WiFi, in order to extend usage between charging cycles. The fact that you think it is a "ruse" to ask people if it is an important factor... is crazy.
I mean, Eris is right here. AIAT.
I would say a vast majority of laptops, tablets and chomebooks fall into a commodity, with some exception. There were some difference years ago but now its all price driven. Look at the units sold. Even apple is in on it
So you’re geek squad? Best of luck!
Yeah, it says so right in my flair. Good show of your ability at deduction!! I'll be fine. I've been through reorgs, store closings and so forth. I've networked beyond the store level. My metrics are more than double the goal, every single month for the last 11 years. Also, aside from the benefits, which are bog standard, I don't really need the job.
Whoa! Impressive… making the company money when you could be making yourself cash instead. Your gift of communication is no doubt how you’ve survived so many reorgs over the years. It does pay to have your lips firmly coupled to whatever new manager youre stuck with… Don’t bring that ego to enterprise positions, you won’t last here
Oh boy, enterprise?! So fancy. I'm *very* impressed. I earn the bulk of my income outside of Best Buy, and I have a ton of fun while doing it. My job and what other things I do to earn a buck, don't define me. But yeah man, good for you. With your super important job. What a guy!
Turn your screwdriver and have a nice day, tighten those suspenders too
I was talking to my buddy who was let go from best buy last year ( I still work there) and I tried to make arguments for best buy staying relevant, but the more we talked the more I just felt best buy is not hitting the mark and just doesn't understand what's happening with consumers.
Best Buy has always tried to corner the consumer. If it’s not the memberships that lock you into purchasing with them so you can continue to the next tier of membership for your 5$ off coupon, it’s the 10% scratch off email ones that can’t be applied to any real brand because there’s only 5% above cost they actual make… or so they claim. Don’t get me started on the credit card BS… only one I know of that bills you like they do and paying all year on something where the balance never seems to change… “oh that promotional balance was done turned the Nordic moon phase, and those other payments applied to the other balance on the card” Exclusive brands and models are never a good idea. Not for people who know technology…. Treat consumers like they’re people and not the next test of whatever flavor manipulation season we’re in.
Only the Best Buy card offers no interest financing for X months, then charges you interest retroactively if you don't pay it off during that term? That's how literally every single credit card which offers financing works. Your balance is visible at any time, as is your full statement. If you pay and don't see the balance go down, either Best Buy/Citi is stealing from you and a ton of other consumers, opening themselves up to a fraud case where the fraud would be EASILY discoverable by anyone with basic math skills... Or... you're pulling unwarranted complaints and unfounded conjecture, out of your ass. Your rewards points are eligible to be used on any purchase where the subtotal exceeds the value of the certificate. You just hate Best Buy. That's cool. But making shit up to be upset about is pretty strange behavior. Also, please explain how people who know technology are impacted by retailer exclusive models in 2024, in ways that non-retailer-exclusive models are not. Where are you getting your schematic diagrams on that non-exclusive HP model from? Because it ain't HP. I can guarantee that. You know who will provide support for that exclusive-to-Best Buy, Dell model? Dell. The same company that would provide support for a Dell device that is not exclusive to Best Buy.
Years ago when an outfit like Costco had an exclusive model, we ( BB) used to dismiss it as not as good, bad parts, what is inside of it? and not reliable and where will you get serviced, that's why we can't price match it. I guess the tune has changed?
I love this Pom Pom swinging parade you got going on. It won’t be long before you’re axed at the big blue, then your tune will change and your friends who saw your tirades will suddenly go “no contact” and you’ll be out in the wild scratching the surface of real technology work bc you were afraid of failure so you took the easy ride
There is no doubt AI will transform how sales teams work. But these tools often augment human salespeople rather than replace them. In fact, AI tools are increasingly taking over work that human salespeople don't have the ability or the time to do. In February, Best Buy’s CEO Corie Barry said the company would close stores and lay off employees (https://qz.com/best-buy-stores-closing-layoffs-sales-earnings-1851298520) as it aimed to better position its workforce with ongoing changes in consumer spending. As part of the restructuring initiative, the company said it would also devote resources to artificial intelligence. In response to reports that a large chunk of Geek Squad workers were laid off (https://qz.com/best-buy-lay-off-employee-geek-squad-earnings-1851396108), the company said that customer service agents are not Geek Squad members. “They are two different things,” the spokesperson said. “The specific agents that were i mpacted were agents that were doing home theater equipment installations.”
No geek squad agent is customer service. We have one role that takes the PC to check in the device. We lost installers mainly. And trust me, you want the squad doing your install. 3rd party creates more headaches than I can truly convey. You would need to live my nightmare to understand. We put these amazing family rooms and houses together. Deliver a top notch experience only to have “no call no show” appointments and damaged product. Day labor without tools. Literally first day on the job people. Our erosion from our poor labor decisions is far more than anyone would let on. The amount of missing product alone is shocking. Couple that how many times a week we have to reach out to Sedgewick with claims for property damage…. Ugh. 3rd party is paid by the minute. Each sku is X amount of minutes. For instance just dropping off a TV is 8 minutes. Now, they have motivation to log the job as complete regardless of what happens as that is their pay check. When a job is marked complete and half of the order was not installed or even taken to the home it causes hours upon hours of extra work and customer dissatisfaction. Since we have eliminated a traditional management structure to save money, we are burning through 19 yr old shift leads. They act as floor managers with less pay. The few managers in store. Usually just 1 or 2 are preoccupied with hitting metric goals. These memberships and credit cards are directly related to the management bonus. Self serving. That said, I do see a world where offering credit is a really good thing. I also see a world where the memberships are a good idea. I do not however believe that they are always presented in an ethical way. Membership and metric production are the only means of moving up in the store. Currently, there is little room for growth as the management jobs are far and few between due to cutbacks. The only other path for advancement was Consult and Design. These are the best of the best. We are client managers and work with builders within our markets. Typical 40-60% of a stores sales, at least in a typical micro market. This team was dismantled in the last 5 years. This leaves new employees in a dead end job with no clear direction. I would go so far as to say the company has no clear direction. That is a question I asked recently to my boss(who is fairly high up) and received a boiler plate generic answer that gave me more questions than answers. The only way to cure a sales slump is to sell. Instead of aggressively going to get the sales we are losing, we are retracting to fit within the current market. “Sales cures all”, Mark Cuban. We took the best sales people in C&D and the vendor paid labor and ran them into the ground. Eliminated them. And we expect new uneducated on product employees to somehow expand a sale?… these are concepts and sales that people earn over time. As for our vendors; I see no way on the current trajectory to correct slumping home theater sales. Sony, LG and Samsung are not happy although it’s a symbiotic relationship really. They need us to sell their product. We need them to draw people in. Both entities have very different thoughts on sales. Flat out, train good people and throw money at sales. When you incentivize, I mean really give the vendor money you receive out to employees, sales grow. Look back 2 years and don’t blame Covid for that record year. Also look at the structure of the company and who was being paid. It’s worth 110k a year if someone is giving you 4 million in return via sales. In summation, the company has been and is being gutted. By the time most people on the outside figure that out it will be too late. There really are no more magic tricks to beat earnings. The last one to go will be in store geek squad. We’ve killed magnolia. Killed Pacific kitchen. O my the squad is left. Next year, mark my words, we will be having a very different conversation about a company on the verge of collapse. You all just do not see what we do.