Best Buy ad: Our people are better than Wal-Mart's | Technically Incorrect - CNET News Err... I doubt the bar for electronics knowledge for Wal-mart workers is very high. Discuss.
The difference between Walmart and Best Buy in our area is that the Best Buy people will help you (I'm assuming because they get commission) and the Walmart people will avoid you if possible (I'm assuming they don't). I don't think the knowledge bar is very high in either case.
Our local Best Buy sometimes gets really great employees, I'm guessing recent Engineering grads who are there until they get a Real Job. Then again, it also gets folks who can't tell the difference between an external DVD drive and a toaster. Fortunately, it seems to be more of the former.
Best Buy sells end runs. That's products manufactured at the end of a production run, when the dies are wearing out, and the quality is dropping to near-unacceptable levels. Thus name-brand products from Best Buy are lower quality than the same name brand from a store like Sears. Walmart sells cheap plastic crap built under slave-labor conditions in China and demands rock-bottom prices so they can keep their retail prices low, but this also keeps quality low. Walmart also treats their employees like crap. I would expect more knowledgeable and more helpful employees at Best Buy. I will not shop at either store.
Are you sure about that? I don't buy at BB that often, but have compared prices there and found they have quite a few of the current models which were not at the end of their product cycle. Some of their TVs might have different model #'s to get around price matching but are identical. I've checked on Apple, Nikon, Bose, Dell, HDDVD and BD players, phones, appliances, etc. and they were all the latest models with the same warranties as anywhere else.
An end run does not mean that the model is about to be discontinued. It means the end of a production run, before they re-tool for a fresh run. The products will have the same specs, the same warranty, and a lower price. And typically if the product fails within 30 days they will exchange it no questions asked. But the units produced at the end of a production run will have poorer tolerances as the dies are wearing out, and you're more likely to have trouble later on. As Click & Clack say: It's the stingy man who pays the most.
