Your intrepid researchers ventured out to the newly opened Best Buy store at Lakeside today. We returned with a good value Dell Inspiron 10v netbook (£60 saving on Dell online price today and we could walk out of the store with it) and an OK value LG portable external drive (but up to £15 cheaper elsewhere). The annual sub to Geek Squad was thrown in, and the netbook “optimized” for free – i.e. adware removed and, as we found, the restore disk created for us (normally this costs another £30). So overall a good outing, probably saving us around 20% overall.
Not sure they really will like us turning up with two rather sick computers to evaluate tho.. and the Dell headset and mike input seems a bit dodgy (vital if using Skype other than in a private place) so that might need checking too
But does Best Buy live up to its advertised promises?
- “You can look forward to a new level of advice and support”
Well we got approached rather too frequently in store. Not quite the “new level” we wanted. It felt a bit alien and they had not been trained to take “no” for an answer. They did not seem to be much more informed or independent than competitor stores, even with the apparent months of training they had had.
We also wonder if Best Buy will maintain this high (and expensive) level of staffing on the shop floor, especially when most did not seem to be noticeably more knowledgeable than their equivalents in nearby PCW, Currys or, indeed, the local Tesco which has a small but enthusiastic team nowadays.
- “A new way to buy technology has arrived”
Well it’s another dull barn of a store like most PCWs/Currys/Comet – but with higher ceilings. Located in what was a fairly hideous former branch of Courts (but in a very visible location), they have done a fair job of re-modelling it externally.
Parking access is a nightmare at present (gridlock trying to get out at lunchtime). Although the location is very visible on the entrance to Lakeside from the M25 and to locals, it is in a really tricky location by Decathlon, in a corner of the whole development which is less open and attractive than much of the rest.
Also, apart from the excellent opening deals – especially the Toshiba 32″ FSTV at £180- or just over £400 if bought with the HD Freeview, HDMI cable, DVD and stand – the prices other than the opening weekend specials were pretty unexciting. Indeed the product we had originally gone in to look at was £20 more expensive than the best deal we had found before hand (at Argos – which also has a superstore in walking distance).
At check out, producing a VAT receipt required a manager who was hard to locate (no in-store radios, generally necessary in a UK store of this size)- quite surprising given the high staff:customer ratio.
And, while signage seemed good, PC and netbook accessories were quite a way from the main boxes.
Good things:
- Geek Squad folks who seemed to know their stuff
- Stock located adjacent to displays
- Reasonable live displays (although quite limited on the special offers – if you are flogging digital cameras at £50 a pop you need more than one live demo)
- An OK range – but not noticeably bigger than other nearby competitors, and not that competitive vs online.
Before writing this blog we discovered that the bestbuy.uk.co site has crashed.. something else to learn – the UK market is very price sensitive and people want to see what the range and price is like before flogging round the M25 or along the A13 on a Bank Holiday weekend. A bit different from the US.
Will it change the retail landscape for these products – hmm – not that sure – we’ll keep an eye on it. After all, we still need that new router….
