My Time Working at Best Buy

Best Buy’s History & Main Characters: Best Buy is Minneapolis-based and is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. Throughout Best Buy's 37-year history, the company has maintained the tradition of making life fun and easy for customers and employees, while providing a significant return to partners and investors. It has 80,000 employees and over 550 stores in the U.S., in addition to the brands Best Buy Canada, Future Shop and Magnolia Hi-Fi. Their leadership is led by Dick Schulze, Founder and Chairman, Brad Anderson, Vice Chairman and CEO, Al Lenzmeier, President and COO, and Darren Jackson, Executive Vice

When Amazon was able to move into office space, a bell would ring in the office every time someone would make a purchase. Everyone would gather around to see if it was someone that they knew.

Best Buy Co., Inc. is a multinational company in the United States and it deals, with consumer electronics, and accounts 19% of the business. The company also operates in Mexico, Puerto Rico, China, and Canada. Some of the subsidiaries of the company include CinemaNow, Geek Squad, Pacific Sales, and Magnolia Audio Video and operates in both Future Shop label, and Best Buy in Canada. Best Buy Co. Inc and its subsidiaries operate more than 1,150 stores internationally and domestically. The company also operates more than 100 “ZoomShops” or Buy Express Automated retail Stores, operated by the Zoom Systems, in both malls and airports in the entire country of the U.S. The company is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, U.S (Scott,

Best Buy Co., Inc. is the largest electronics retailer in United States with international presence in Mexico, Canada and China. Best Buy Co., Inc. is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota and currently operates more than one thousand brick & mortar stores. Founded in 1966 as “Sound of Music”, Best Buy Co., Inc. evolved from a small regional audio specialty store to a multinational consumer electronics retail chain within a short span of time. The company’s current name “Best Buy” was adopted in 1983 with an aim to emphasize a greater consumer electronics branding. Best Buy Co., Inc. went public in 1987 when it got listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The type of jargon that I know is pretty much like the short story example. During my high school career I spent a little of my time working at Sonic Drive-In. In my time working here, I picked up the normal fast food jargon, although, most people will easily pick up on this as well. Some of the jargon we used was shortened words such as cb-cheeseburger, ff-French fries, md-mountain dew, and rb-rootbeer. If I used these terms outside of work, around my friends, they would more than likely not know what I meant until explained. When trying to learn these abbreviations, like Edgar, I was very confused. The first few weeks on the job were very stressful due to the lack of experience I have had. Thankfully, I had great co-workers that took the time out of their day to help me.

“We believed from the start that if we brought the customer quality merchandise at the right price and offered excellent service, we could change retailing in the United States. Today, we are the model of what retailing should be.” – Bernie Marcus

Best Buy is a multinational retailer of consumer electronics, computing and mobile phone products, entertainment products, appliances, and related services. The company operates retail stores and call centers and conducts online retail operations under a variety of brand names such as Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, The Carphone Warehouse, Five Star, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and The Phone House (Bestbuy.com, 4). The domestic segment consists of all operations within the United States, while the international segment includes all operations in Canada, Europe, Mexico, and China. The Best Buy 's success is contingent on the market 's demand for electronics. The company 's strategy is to provide good customer service combined with lower prices (news.cnet.com). Best Buy 's success is directly related to economic conditions, the cost of goods, and other things like fuel prices. The company 's strategy depends upon the ability to offer customers a broad selection of name-brand products; therefore, leading its success to depend upon satisfactory supplier relationships (Bestbuy.com, 8). Best Buy, as it is included in the retail segment, is a seasonal store. Their stronger quarter is the fourth quarter, which they can contribute to the holiday season for their success.

Best Buy Co., Inc. is currently the world’s largest retailer for consumer electronics. The company has 1,400 brick and mortar stores and is a popular online retailer as well. The stores serve as display room for various online retailers. Best Buy consumers can purchase electronic products such as mobile, corded and cordless phones, televisions, cameras, personal computers, laptops, appliances and more (David & F.R., 2015). Today’s society relies on convenience and technology, forcing companies to implement new ideas and projects in an effort to maintain their ability to compete with other companies. For continued success the company must look at the internal and external issues the company may face as well as their competitors and their best practices that are contributing to their success.

Best Buy started in Minnesota in 1966 as Sound of Music, Inc. and began as an audio components retailer, but with the introduction of the videocassette recorder in the early 1980’s it expanded into video products. In 1983 Sound of Music officially changed their name to Best Buy and began using mass-merchandising techniques, which included offering a wide variety of products under a “superstore” concept. In 1989, Best Buy changed their retailing methods by introducing a self-service, noncommissioned, discount-style store designed to give customers a variety of consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment products, appliances and

The consumer electronics giant, Best Buy, was first established in 1966 with a single location and a staff of three in St. Paul, Minnesota, selling audio equipment targeted at 18-25 year old males. Initially Sound of Music/Best Buy grew through acquisition, expanding to nine locations in the Twin Cities area by 1978. The name, Best Buy, and expanded product line, ranging from audio and video equipment to large appliances, were a result of a “best buy” sale of damaged inventory at bargain prices in 1981. In the mid-1980s, Best Buy launched superstores similar to those of their main competitor, Circuit City and expanded by 15 stores between 1985-86. In 1989, Best Buy launched itself as a

Today Best Buy has more than 1,900 stores and is the industry leader, ahead of its primary competitors; Wal-Mart, Amazon, Apple Stores, and Target; in providing consumer electronics in the United States. Despite its position in the consumer electronics space by 2012 a review of Best Buy found that nearly all indicators pointed to signs of poor financial health; Earnings per Share (EPS) were down, same store sales were down, and the stock price had fallen substantially. Ultimately, the Best Buy board decided to fire CEO Brian Dunn for his failure to recognize and react to the external forces threatening Best Buy, primarily threats from low cost online retailers such as Amazon. The new CEO, Hubert Joly, immediately went about setting a new strategic plan entitled “Renew Blue” in late 2012. As of this writing the Renew Blue strategy is still underway.

I went home the weekend of October 8 and 9th. On Sunday October 9th my mom and I went to Walmart. I was hoping that she would buy me tea so I did not have to buy it myself. However, the Walmart in Wadsworth, Ohio, my home town, was completely out of 12 packs of Lipton Citrus Green Iced Tea. There was no kiosk for them and there were none of that flavor in the aisle. At this Walmart, where they should have been was surrounded by other types of Lipton, Pure Life, and Snapple teas. On Monday October 10th, I went to Walmart in Ashland because I failed to purchase tea in Wadsworth. They had it, but were also surprisingly low stocked. My theory is this product is a star in the summer time, but in the fall and winter months it is more of a cash cow.

In 2000, the company decided to launch a website, BestBuy.com. There, customers could shop from the privacy of their homes without ever dealing with sales representatives. The site was a

Internationally, Best Buy has different product lines located in nine European countries. The Carphone Warehouse and The Phone House stores employ sales associates that provide independent advice on the best service and hardware suited to each customer. Their goal is to have the customer leave the store with a fully active phone and a service contract.

It makes sense for Best Buy to worry more about Wal-Mart, which is getting more involved in electronics retailing, and less about Circuit City. The competitors are a diverse lot today, and for them to continue to grow they're going to have to get much better at everything they do and define themselves in clear ways. Best Buy's plan is to revamp its stores according to the types of customers they serve. A strategy previously mentioned, customer centricity, focuses on targeting five prototypical customers, all of whom have been given names: "Jill," a busy suburban mom; "Buzz," a focused, active younger male; "Ray," a family man who likes his technology practical; "BB4B" (short for Best Buy for Business), a small professional employer; and "Barry," an affluent professional male who's likely to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater system. Their most current focus is on a "Jill" based store, the soccer mom who has money to spend but typically hasn't a clue of where or how to find products in the store. According to the data Best Buy has collected, Jill shops a few times a year, usually twice at an electronics store, but she usually spends a significant amount.