It seems that we're still not through the worst of the current economy woes, folks. According to Gizmodo, retail chain Best Buy will lay off a lot of staff, beginning tomorrow. The news has come from two independent sources, calling the lay offs both "huge" and "massive". The company will apparently be targeting "Salaried management positions (GMs, Sales Managers, Operation managers, etc,) will be looked at being cut...It's a nation-wide [cutback] to further reduce overhead, and the stores have already been prepped for it, but announcements will happen tomorrow. Many cuts are being given the opportunity to drop to $12/hr, but maintain a position," according to Gizmodo's sources.
Store managers were told the sad news today, and the event will take action tomorrow. If you're a Best Buy employee, you'd better leave your happy face at home tomorrow.
I do too... I know what it's like to lose my job because of a mass retail layoff (Circuit City).
And the worse part from my experience - very rarely do they get rid of the people that need to be gotten rid of. The end up getting rid of the really smart and talented sales people (like yourself) because you're more expensive to keep than a pimply faced teenager who has no idea.
Just you wait, a few months down the track customers will start complaining because the staff are useless and they'll lose even more sales.
Lots of companies come to mind who get rid of their talent and keep the mediocre.
Fortunately, I'm not a Best Buy employee, but I also feel bad for all of them.
CC had it comming to them. Best buy could pull out of it. If not, then say good buy to the electronic store. (I mean REAL ones, not these mom and pop shops or cheep o radio shack)
Their will always be amazon newegg tiger etc.
I feel for the employees but Best buy has it coming as much as CC did their is no reason to have prices that high
I feel for the employees but Best buy has it coming as much as CC did their is no reason to have prices that high
I think what Chris meant was brick and mortar stores. There will always be online stuff but it would seriously suck if there was no way of picking up hardware TODAY instead of needing to ship it overnight. Online stores are great...until you have a need for it NOW. Thankfully I have a Microcenter that is up the road from me so there are still options.....for now.
Agreed. Firing means that the employee has done something wrong and thus they have been dismissed. Lay off means they've lost their job through no fault of their own.
layoff is they no longer can afford you
layoff is they no longer can afford you
Very true, my mistake there, sorry about that.
I know how much this situation sucks First hand.
I wish them the best of luck.
Maybe you could get them a job at McDonalds with you..?
I find it funny how some people say that there is no good customer service. Just because they can't get something on discount because we can't go any lower with the price, or they don't follow the return policy, and they try to return it 2 weeks after the return polcy date. Then they throw a tamper tantrum in the store because they can't return it, doesn't mean that is not good customer service.
Heck, this is the reason why all of theses stores in the first place are laying off workers, and going out of business. If it wasn't for us employee's who work in retail, customers wouldn't know what to do with themsleves. The employees are the ones who stock, and put out everything. Customers wouldn't be able to find anything, because the employees are the one who stocks things, and get the store cleaned and ready.
A lot of stores do have good customer service including Best Buy, but some customers just don't see that because they are too busy trying to cheat the system.
This is sad news to hear and I hope it doesn't happen but it looks like it might. Good luck to all of the Best Buy employees I hope all goes well.
not just that, but may be their store has crappy service, so they assume all the stores have crappy service. They dont think out side the bix
Heck, this is the reason why all of theses stores in the first place are laying off workers, and going out of business.
You solved the world wide economic crisis! the reason for mass layoffs is because of customers trying to return merchandise! Good job!
Oh yeah, online sales aren't outgrowing brick and mortar retail sales at all. We definitely need minimum wage high school kids who "stocks things, and get the store cleaned and ready" so customers will "know what to do with themselves"
Oh please. it's a rarity to find someone who actually knows what in the hell they're talking about in one of these stores. And when the layoff happens there will be even less.
Sad indeed.
Heck, this is the reason why all of theses stores in the first place are laying off workers, and going out of business.
You solved the world wide economic crisis! the reason for mass layoffs is because of customers trying to return merchandise! Good job!
Oh yeah, online sales aren't outgrowing brick and mortar retail sales at all. We definitely need minimum wage high school kids who "stocks things, and get the store cleaned and ready" so customers will "know what to do with themselves"
Oh please. it's a rarity to find someone who actually knows what in the hell they're talking about in one of these stores. And when the layoff happens there will be even less.
Sad indeed.
Gosh can you tell me what the weather is like all the way up there?
It doesn't matter how much you hate the store or love shopping online or whatever, but this is bad. It's bad for the employees losing their jobs, it's bad for their families, it's bad.
But I suppose when you lose your dishwashing job in 2 months because all these people have no income left to go out to eat with perhaps you'll understand.
i am thinking of a domino effect.
while i am happy for you to have a new job, i have been trying since august of last year. i am older w/no degree. i am back in school and 3 classes away from my degree. every interview has been...we need a qualified person with a degree. I have 15 years in pc setup, networking and 3 years dba. unbelievable. i know network telephoning, isdn and ip video conferencing, highly experienced in windows and much much more. I think its because i am 41. employer's are afraid that they will have to pay me more... i think.
So, you can turn for non-productive jobs (business field).
You can turn as consultant (is hard and usually you will need a couple of good contacts).
You can turn indie.
And there are several other thinks a over 40 year old former it staff can do.
Its funny, in New Zealand the employers are tripping over each other trying to employ older workers because they are more reliable and know what a good days work is. I can think of atleast 5 companies whose employee demographic has changed considerably in the last several years.
The kids I see today are generally a bunch of lazy clock-watching punks who will work twice as hard at avoiding work than they do actually working.
They also can't spell and have atrocious grammar. ;-)
The kids I see today are generally a bunch of lazy clock-watching punks who will work twice as hard at avoiding work than they do actually working.
They also can't spell and have atrocious grammar. ;-)
I worked as a manager and trying to explain to kids about who pays their wage (not their employer - but the customers who come through the door) is next to impossible. They think that all they need to do is turn up, breath oxygen and they'll get paid on Wednesday.
Just as a side note; I tried to get a job in IT but its basically split between two camps; those who are lazy and push the responsibility to incompetent recruitment companies or those who have obscure IT job advertisements in news papers. An example of an obscure job advertisement which had a PO BOX with no phone number or company name. If you're having difficulty hiring people - is your advertisement 'lacking in details'.
Can we really trust Gizmodo? The tech site ran by 20 some on year old men who never had a girl friend (or boyfriend
Just think I applied there back in January, and a number of times before. I hope Target doesn;t go (my current employer)
I doubt Target will go - they sell middle of the road products at reasonable prices. They'll remain because they're a necessity; people will always need clothes, shoes, homeware etc. Computer gizmo's are hardly an important part of life.
Prices down here are fair. But we dont have a sales tax in my state
This and change some of their shady business practices. For instance my sister in law bought a laptop and that didnt include any media, they wanted to charge her $40 just to make recovery cd/dvds for it. She brought the laptop to me and I made the dvds for her. The other thing is when selling the tvs they try to get you to buy those over price monster cables when a $5 hdmi cable will do the same thing. They even do that with stuff like usb cables. Selling them for $40 when you buy them for like $10 online. If they want to save their employees then get rid of some of those higher ups thats where the money is going to keep their salaries.
Well first off BB doesn't really have any say as to if a laptop ships with restore CD's or not. They aren't Dell, Gateway, Sony, etc. If you have problems with that take it up with them. Secondly if you took it in to BB Geek Squad will charge you to work on the system...this ain't an Apple store.
Sorry but you are expecting services that BB, CC, Microcenter, CompUSA, et al would not provide for free anyways...
what people need to keep in mind is that Best Buy is and will be a profitable company, these cuts are just to make sure the company continues to be a profitable company and lasts many years in the future. sadly from a corporate stand point, these make sense. They have no real national competition now so there's no need for the huge amount of employees they have. My heart goes out to those who will lose their jobs.
CEOs are evaluated using a single formula :incomes - expensive. Cutting jobs is the same to be well evaluate because you are reducing the expensive right now (but you are hurting futures incomes, of course it is not part of the evaluation).
Good catch! :p
Pay will be cut for those with supervisor positions and higher but they have 11 months of bestbuy paying the difference.
Pay will be cut for those with supervisor positions and higher but they have 11 months of bestbuy paying the difference.
And why should anyone choose to believe soomeone who just joined today and says this? Can you back this statement up with any statements or facts...maybe any BB memos?
He's right, now believe me because I've been here for a while. I was just at a meeting and they are eliminating positions, but not jobs (think lateral shifts).
Um, I hate to break it to you, but thats the typical BS they feed to people before laying large amounts of them off...
So unless you work at the upper corporate level and not at an actual store I hate to tell you this, but whatever information your receiving is slimmed down to scare you the least.
This is HR 101 stuff, you don't tell a bunch of employees they are going to be laid off, all that does is decimate morale. First you jumble things around, move positions, talk about lateral shifts and client service "restructuring"
Then once you have the new positions in place you decide which ones will be going "bye bye" en masse.
I am a manager at a pretty large corporation, trust me, nothing good has EVER come from a "lateral shift". If you hear that term it means SOMEONE is losing thier job if not plenty of "someones"
For example in a best buy there are several departments that have 2 managers which sometimes id 50% of that departments staff. For example some mini departments are: Appliances, Car Audio, Cameras, and Cell Phones.
In the case of this round of redos many of these departments are being merged. In all cases the 1st tier management called Seniors which really never has been needed will be removed. All seniors will not be fired but made back into sales associates. In the case of Department Supervisors for every merged group one will be term' or offered to stay on at a non-management position.
There will be more cuts at district and regional levels but I am not sure what that will be.
At this very moment nation wide all stores and offices are having meetings to announce the changes.
Also this restructuring is about getting back into the profit pocket not back into profit. Simply we make profit and have been but not in the range we have projected. To maintain that you cut some fat. BBY will be here for a long time and is not any way like circuit city.
Most companies have way too many of the ******* anyway.
Take my work for example....I have 8 bosses (I'm living in Office Space).
Someone...please...kill...me.
if you pay attention, the lay offs are the Management
If you actually read the article you'll see it's not the office folk.
5) No changes to management have been announced yet.
Crazy right? My position was OUT right eliminated. I wasn't even management. I handled quality control from Best Buy for Business for mid level IT server setups. I also handled some of the high end Cisco setups, Exchange and site to site VPNs setups that we ran into.
Awhile back I interviewed with Best Buy for a management position. I sat in front of a "board" of members, which consisted of a Regional, District Manager, Store Manager, Operations Manager, and a couple other managers. Never before have I seen a staff who looks down on everyone else. They are very egotistical of themselves and "high and mighty". As they said to me "nobody can touch us". I walked out of the interview because their arrogance was ****ing me off.
But, it was only a matter of time that this happened. My company did the same back in January, although store management (which includes me) were not effected.
Everyone is losing their jobs, people are losing their pay, but are we seeing a decrease in product price? Nope. As the old saying says "the rich become richer and the poor become poorer".
Just my .02.
Uh, thats why they started McCafe, to kill Starbucks.
The worst experience was when my wife and I were shopping for our new HD tv and the sales rep was reading off the information cards below the tv! I've been to stores in NJ, VA, NC, KS, MO and they're all the same. If Best Buy goes under it will pave the way for a better company to emerge. For me this is excellent news.
The worst experience was when my wife and I were shopping for our new HD tv and the sales rep was reading off the information cards below the tv! I've been to stores in NJ, VA, NC, KS, MO and they're all the same. If Best Buy goes under it will pave the way for a better company to emerge. For me this is excellent news.
are you serious? a better company? the only company that will take their place is Wal-mart and god I hope you don't expect service from them. like it or not Best Buy is the best national electronics chain. Fry's and places like that may have better trained people but those chains are still mostly regional.
Having customer facing employees will do both customers and employees good. Not to toot my own horn, but I am a CA, knowing the technologies from every corner of my store, and I know a fair amount of technology that not everyone here can even touch. I'm not going to say I know everything, and if I don't know the answer, I don't BS my way through a sale. We are non-commissioned based, so I don't try to 'sell' but more 'educate' my customers.
Losing my position and being absorbed into a specific department, will only push me to cover code-blues and help out all the customers, it will only be a title to say I'm part of PCs and/or Home Theater.
And for the comparison to Wal-Mart with knowledge base, I resent this. This is so highly false I can't even stand it. We're trained and educated through our e-learnings and/or direct contact with the products and/or customers. Wal-Mart employees aren't trained on products and just to assist customers on getting the products. They have an 'electronics department', we are an electronics store.
And a comment toward prices. I have no control over it, but from the comparison to most competitors, it is a great drop. Online prices are nearly impossible to keep competitive with. They usually never have to worry about increasing prices, because they don't need to get the product to a place a customer can pick it up, and they can leave them in the warehouse. But what happens when you get a product that is defective, you have to send it back and hope they take care of you, you don't have any other means of contact and can't walk into a store to exchange it.
My rant is over.
I look forward to their liquidation sales, though. :p
You may "think" you're educating, but a great number of us find the dialog of employees to be a humorous adventure at first which rapidly becomes irritating. A great number of us seek out and look at manufactures' websites for detailed information before even stepping in the store.
As for the geek squad, I actually feel sorry for these guys. Most are children to the IT world, having the Kindergarten equivalent schooling of A+ certification. They have to deal with the insane prices and, like most IT folks, have zero selling skills. Yet, they are expected to sell and perform as as though they are an experienced one. Perhaps these poor folks can find "real" work, having been laid off.
I want to clarify a few stuff though - firstly, store "culture" varies from store to store, city to city - and I happened to work in a decent store where we really did put customers first in many cases (sometimes even when unwarranted, as let's face it, some customers are dumber than a tree trunk), and the whole Service Plan debate has been played out too many times to declare that any given argument is absolutely valid. I have myself gladly paid for service plans on some stuff I got, while on others i didn't even mention its availability to the customer because it was absurd to even offer it as an option... Retail staff are also customers the moment they step outside of their place of work, be it BB, or CC, etc., so we know how it feels to be lied to, ripped off, etc - so unless you go to a store and are unlucky to hook up with an idiot, rest assured that our daily goal is (was) not to lie to you. Furthermore, if you walk into any place of business and act like your poop don't stink and you know it all, well, in those cases you will be lied to and taken for a sweet ride - and whether you know it or not, you will be ripped off!!!! In those instances, I didn't think twice! What goes around comes around...so at the least, be respectful, and you'll be treated with respect.
Retail was not my career option, but it did pay good, and it was a fun job. The relationships there between staff is fantastic, and this is the only thing I will miss about it. This brings me to one last issue: I find it appalling that anyone would wish for someone to be out of a job...frankly, if you think that way, it clearly proves what kind of a person you are, and most likely you take pleasure in such things because you yourself are so low in the chain of success that you find yourself hoping that others may be as miserable as you are. in any event, good luck!
Last edited by Omnimodis on 23 Apr 2009 - 18:46
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