First Lowe’s Disappeared–Now Best Buy Leaves Biddeford

It seems that Biddeford can’t catch a break.  No more than 6 months ago, Lowe’s closed up shop overnight and now Best Buy has announced it will be closing its store in mid-May.  Being one of the unlucky 50 stores chosen by the company is no surprise given that the area seems not to love its retailers.  While I don’t know really anything about the Biddeford economy, its seems that something wrong is going on down there.

Last Saturday on April 14, 2012, it was publically announced that this store was closing.  The store was closed for the day and a manager was out front of the store handing out coupons for $10 off a purchase (made on that Saturday only) at either the South Portland store or the Portsmouth New Hampshire store.  This is a slap in the face to customers as by the time that tolls and gas is figured into the cost of the trip to one of the other stores, it is no bargain at all!

According to the press release given by the company, all the employees will be given the opportunity to transfer to one of its other stores or receive a severance package.  To those stupid enough to want to transfer, I really wonder if they could get a job at another location as I don’t think any other location will be willing to hand out jobs just for the fun of it.  Thus, these employees will wind up in the end with nothing!  Since the store has been in the area for around 5 years, I doubt that any employee has worked for the store long enough to earn a decent severance and quite possibly may not get anything either. I see this as a lose-lose situation either way.

According to the press release given by the company, all the employees will be given the opportunity to transfer to one of its other stores or receive a severance package. To those stupid enough to want to transfer, I really wonder if they could get a job at another location as I don’t think any other location will be willing to hand out jobs just for the fun of it. Thus, these employees will wind up in the end with nothing! Since the store has been in the area for around 5 years, I doubt that any employee has worked for the store long enough to earn a decent severance and quite possibly may not get anything either. I see this as a lose-lose situation either way.

Overall, there is a much bigger issue here: Best Buy is dying and fast. They can only blame themselves for all their failure. They had the opportunity to take control of the electronics market after Circuit City disappeared, but instead destroyed that with a lot of bad missteps. Here’s how:

• Bad return policy - If you have a receipt, you still need a driver’s license for a return? This is the DUMBEST and WORST return policy of any company PERIOD! Let’s all say this together: IDENTITY THEFT! Storing credit card numbers AND driver’s license numbers together is not just bad – its illegal!! And we thought Staples was bad with what they do with credit cards, this is many times worse!
• Lack of floor employees – If you go into Best Buy on a Tuesday in the video department, you notice these oddly dressed people in fancy clothes putting up the stock and rearranging the shelf stock. Don’t even think about asking these people for help as they will not help you at all! The few people that are out around the floor are so stupid, I wonder why they were ever hired at all. Just an example, one of the employees directed me to use the other customer kiosk in the store when the one I was at had a “broken printer”. The interesting thing was that this other kiosk DID NOT have a printer attached to it! Come on Best Buy, know your equipment.  Eventually, I got the attention of another Best Buy employee who fixed the “broken” printer.  The only thing wrong with it was that it just needed the cable tightened in the back of the unit!  Very sad customer service!!
• Price match guarantee – Don’t even think about doing this as I found out – its not easy or quick.  I had a competitor’s flyer ad with me for an item I wanted to purchase in their store.  The price difference was only $5, but I had to wait while the cashier called the store to verify the price and make sure the item was in stock.  For the $5, it took a whopping 20 MINUTES to complete this transaction!!  Not worth the time to do that ever again!!  Of course this will mean loss of sales to Best Buy if they continue this harassing practice.  During my 20 minute transaction, at least 5 customers were lined up behind me looking very frustrated.  I am surprised that these customers didn’t walk out empty handed.  After this incident, I decided NEVER to do another price match ever again – apparently $5 is worth wasting 20 minutes of my time and the cashier’s time as well.
• Store remodel – Since the first of the year, the South Portland store made a significant remodel—and not to the good.  As an example, computer games are no longer over with the other computer software, but instead is located at the end of the DVD section.  The DVD section is divided up into 2 sections of shelving and half of one area has cds at its end and the other side has blu-ray discs at the end of the shelving area.  Other items that are messed up are having blank media located down by the repair center instead up with other computer accessories.  This store has gone through a transformation of being shopper-friendly to being shopper-hell!  Sad to say, I have shopped in other Best Buy stores in the past and they are equally as bad if not worse!  Ironically, Staples has fared much worse in the remodel category as I will explain in a future post.
• Product selection – Looking for a DVD that came out of 2 years ago? – don’t bother with Best Buy as it is apparent that they don’t carry anything that is very old.  The exception to this rule is the dirt cheap crap that nobody would ever want anyway.  I expect this from Walmart, not Best Buy.

Unless Best Buy fixes the above mentioned issues, they WILL be out of business much sooner than they think.  They really need to improve otherwise every customer will be ticked off and never shop there ever again.  Consider this a fair warning of the future.  Biddeford and the other 49 locations is just the beginning of the end!

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