Best Buy Moving In
Brent Finnegan -- February 18th, 2010
The rumor floated on Twitter last week is confirmed in today’s Daily News-Record: Best Buy is coming to town. According to the story, it’s expected to open in May in the former Circuit City location in Harrisonburg Crossing.
The news comes at a time when there are lots of vacant commercial properties in the city. The alarm has been ringing over the effects of an impending commercial real estate collapse nationwide, and what that would do to local banks and local economies.
Best Buy moving in means one less empty storefront in the city’s biggest shopping center, but I don’t know what it means for existing businesses, like Crutchfield. Your analysis?
Tags: Economy, Harrisonburg Crossing, real estate
Crutchfield and Best Buy exist together in Charlottesville with barely any issues.
Best buy might have a slight edge on prices, but everything else…not so much. A friend regaled me once with a tale of her going in to buy a certain special edition DVD and no associate she asked could be bothered to find out/knew for sure if it was a blu-ray AND then they refused to honor the coupon/sale they had going on. Personally, if I go in there to browse, I’m accosted by about 10 associates in 5 minutes but if I’m actually there to purchase something, they’re nowhere to be found.
That’s not the only bad story I’ve heard about the blue box. I’ve not heard ANY about Crutchfield.
It helps that Crutchfield has the whole catalog sales going on as well, and as long as Crutchfield continues with good customer service, they will have NO PROBLEM competing.
Am I the only one that has experienced Crutchfield charging an extra $50-100 on everything they sell? I can do my own online research if it means saving a pile of money. They take MSRP seriously there, while most stores (CC & BB) charge a discounted rate. I will gladly take a Best Buy in Harrisonburg.
There have been two instances where I balked at the price at Crutchfield, and went on to buy what I was looking for from Amazon or New Egg. I bought my car stereo from them, they installed it, and it was worth it to me. But some of the other items are just too marked up.
I think there used to be a Best Buy in the Cloverleaf Shopping Center. I bought a vacuum cleaner there after a terrible experience at Walmart. (Long ago and it still works just fine)
I don’t think that was Best Buy. I think that was just Best (similar to Sears).
I agree with Drew to a point. If you have completed your own research, and the item is $50 less at Best Buy, there is no reason why you should not purchase it there. What annoys me is the person who goes to a local store, and asks for advice on buying an item, and then proceeds to buy it from a large retail store (or online) to save $10. To add insult to injury, after they purchase the item, they bring it back to the local store to have someone explain to them the proper way to use it. That said, I am still extremely happy that Best Buy is coming to town.
BEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Products
That was definitely Best Products, not Best Buy. That’s where I got the first two pieces of furniture I ever bought – at their going out of business sale. I still remember carting the dining room table boxes on my tiny Chevy Nova and unloading them myself. LOL
I bought my first “Cassette Deck” and “CD Player” there. It was a cool store (from a child’s perspective). I’m glad that Best Buy is coming but I still tend to shop Crutchfield for the very very sparce electronics I buy and Fat Cat Computer for parts.
I buy pretty much all electronics online, but I’m glad something will be filling that space.
I (vaguely) remember shopping at Best Products. If I’m not mistaken, you looked through the showroom, then did you give them the product number? You’d pay for the item, then pick up your order off the conveyor belt. Not sure what I bought there, but I think they had quite an assortment of things… in glass cases, maybe.
First, I’ll say that I’m glad that Best Buy is reusing an existing space rather than building a new one. But as far as companies go, Best Buy is pretty bottom of the barrel in terms of customer service. Read anything on the Consumerist about them, and you’ll probably question shopping there. Also, keep an eye on their return policies (items over $250 bought on debit–you’ll get a check mailed to you) and restocking fees (15% on several categories–like Circuit City did). And Geek Squad? Don’t get me started.
As far as Crutchfield, before everyone shopped online they were THE place to go to for DIY car stereo installation, and I think they still are. They have stellar customer service for that, even on a national level. It’s the difference between a specialty store (that admittedly carries lots of other stuff now) and a big box electronics store.
I don’t need customer service, I need good deals. And I find that most of the time crutchfield is too expensive. If you need to get car stereo stuff they are the best. But for anything else they seem over pirced.
Crutchfield was great when I took my then 9-year old daughter in to shop for cameras- she wanted to use her birthday money for one. Wal-Mart was a joke- the associate could hardly be bothered to stop talking to his friends. The dude at Crutchfield took his time, explained everything very carefully to her, and even she came away impressed. (I know comparing Wal-Mart with Crutchfield is comparing apples with… well, maybe a watermelon, or some other very large non-apple fruit, but still.)
JLL
I’m really looking forward to a Best Buy coming to Harrisonburg. Although I didn’t go there too often, I don’t have to travel all the way to Charlottesville to find one.
All this talk of the Best store sure takes me back. Although the memories aren’t all too clear, I remember many an hour wandering that store many years ago. Of course we used to have a Mr. Gatti’s next door. How Harrisonburg has changed…
Although it is nice to have a local place to go for electronics you need NOW (when surely you can get a better deal online) from what I read and sense, it’s only a matter of time before this retailer goes out of business as well. A lack of competition (in the big box store arena) promotes bad business and customer service practices. So they start banging on with their Geek Squad and extended warranties and yet know SO little about their products. And when you want assistance, good luck finding a salesperson!
Thanks for the corrections. I regret the error.