Oh, great... Best Buy!

[mattsmusiccenter]

Best Buy's MI Stores: This Is Not a Test
As first reported in MMR , in late 2005 Best Buy quietly dipped its toe in the waters with a test market of six MI "stores within a store." It now seems the tests have succeeded, and now with great fanfare, the chain is rolling out a pair in the Chicago area, with more reportedly on the way.
The Naperville (Ill.) Sun reported Tuesday that blues legend and Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame inductee Buddy Guy will perform at Best Buy's Downers Grove store this Saturday, and Grammy winner Jim Peterik will perform at the Aurora location on Sunday.



"We are trying some new things in different product categories that we've only dabbled in before," Best Buy's Jennifer Rudin said in 2005. "You'll see guitars and amps aren't new--we've had those products for years. But now we're offering more brand names that our customers will more likely recognize, and at higher price points." High-end products from Fender, Gibson, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Line 6, Drum Workshop, Shure, and Zildjian will be featured. One thing that has changed from the tests is that both of these new Chicago operations will be offering lessons and doing in-store repairs.

So serious is Best Buy about its expansion into MI that going forward, all new Best Buys will be configured around and emphasize the store-within-a-store format.

[Ace]

Fortunately I've always worked at vintage music stores, and it's a whole different market than the Best Buy crowd. This of course sucks as for independent dealers who carry new products.

[thetroy]

Weird. I wonder which stores they did, because the 2 I've been in near me do not look any different than they did 5 years ago (except for the huge guitar hero and rock band displays...).

[Vass]

WTF? Very interesting. I don't follow their company, but I would think that BB would not be able to undercut say a Guitar Center on high end instruments, so what's the point? CG is everywhere.

I bet at the very beginning though there will be some knock your balls off deals, as BB tries to knock out GC.

Hmmm now that I think a bit more....BB has 923 locations domestically. GC has what, 300 or so maybe? Wonder how concerned Bain is?

Vass

[Axewielder]

Just wait till the first pimple-faced kid with no intention to buy cranks a choppy version of Crazy Train through a Marshall and scares all of the seniors out of the nearby big screen TV department.

[petedz]

They have no clue what they're getting themselves into. This is just funny.

[mattsmusiccenter]

The funniest thing is that GC opened alot of their stores right next to Best Buy's due to their high level of traffic. Oops! This will be major competition for GC.

[mattsmusiccenter]

I disagree, Best Buy has a better grip on their customer demographics than anyone out there. They know exactly who shops at their stores, what their customers will buy and what they won't buy. Best Buy know's very well what they're doing and they'll probably be extremely good at it.

They have no clue what they're getting themselves into. This is just funny.

[petedz]

I disagree, Best Buy has a better grip on their customer demographics than anyone out there. They know exactly who shops at their stores, what their customers will buy and what they won't buy. Best Buy know's very well what they're doing and they'll probably be extremely good at it.

Since you're a successful businessman in the industry, your insight is undoubtedly a better indicator than my guesswork. Personally, I still think it'll be a train wreck. I live close to at least one of the Chicago locations mentioned, so I'll check it out for laughs.

[mattsmusiccenter]

Let us know what it's like in there. I've seen pics of the test stores in CA and they're pretty impressive.

[Spivonious]

So instead of selling crappy First Act guitars, they're going to sell crappy Squier guitars. I highly doubt this will give any competition to Guitar Center. It might even make Guitar Center focus a little more on the high-end.

Just wait till the first pimple-faced kid with no intention to buy cranks a choppy version of Crazy Train through a Marshall and scares all of the seniors out of the nearby big screen TV department.

Since the article mentions a "store within a store" concept, I imagine that it will be heavily soundproofed.

I don't know, in the end it just means more competition, which means better prices for us!

[mattsmusiccenter]

Not Squires... you'll see higher end stuff by Peavey, Gibson, G&L, Line 6, Fender, Marshall, Crate, Mackie, Martin, etc... I wouldn't be surprised to see Jackson too. Alot of the big manufacturers are going to be in there.

I've been following this story for 2 years, I'm telling you... they're gonna give GC and alot of other guys serious competition if they roll this out on a big scale.

[xxxcreaturexxx]

So do you think they will be offering their additional warranty with the music instruments like they do everything else?

[mattsmusiccenter]

Considering extended warranties are a huge profit center for them, I'd say absolutely.

[Newc]

I don't know, in the end it just means more competition, which means better prices for us!

Not so fast: the one important factor of chain stores is that they tend to kill similar businesses nearby.

This could put a lot of music stores out of business, just like WalMart has put many independent stores out by doing something similar.

Once that happens, BB is not going cut anyone a deal. Everything they sell will be tagged at full MSRP, with maybe $100 off a damaged demo model once in a while.

$100 off a $3000 price tag is a joke.