The electronics chain Best Buy announced the success of its sales trial of Apple products at 57 stores, and that it will expand the program to 200 stores during 2007. The two companies have had an on-again, off-again relationship, with the most recent deal starting last year with a seven-store pilot sales program, later expanded to 57 stores. In the latest announcement made during a quarterly financial conference call, Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said Best Buy has been concerned about the profitability of the venture. But he said the latest test, “has worked out very well for those stores in terms of being able to find a way to serve that Apple customer, and growing the business in those stores.” Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster says that a small number of the 200 stores will be walled-in to create a special space. In early March reseller CompUSA announced it will close 126 stores within 60 to 90 days, reducing the number of Apple points of sale in the chain.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
yuck.
If Best Buy stocks & sells Apple product, actual sales will not increase. Purchases at Best Buy will occur, but the total overall Apple units sold will not.
Instead of purchasing on-line or from an Apple Store, Best Buy will see some sales because of a proximity standpoint…closer to home/office.
I have 2 Apple Stores closer to me in either direction than a Best Buy. Why would I ever go to Best Buy if I was a retail buyer when I could go to a Apple Store or purchase Apple product on-line? An impulse Apple sales at Best Buy? Right.
Best Buy probably got tired of responding to customers in their stores asking where the Apple product was, and watching potential customers leave the store after their response.
Uh, think for a minute, how many Apple Store’s are there in the U.S.? Now ask yourself how many BBY’s are there in the U.S.? See my point, It’s all about market saturation, the simple fact is that BBY’s outnumber Apple Stores almost 3 to 1. Only big cities have Apple Stores, while more rural areas have BBYs. I do work at BBY in New Orleans, for the record, and own a MacBook Pro. Only places I can go for Mac stuff is a CompUSA, which is very out of the way, and a reseller who is a big time jerk. I would love nothing more than to have my Best Buy carry and service Macs, there would be a lot more converts from PC to Macs.
I actually work at a Best Buy in Little Rock, AR, and I have been kicking and screaming to get Apple product into our store. There is a Comp-USA literally right down the street, and I know that I personally talk to 20-40 people a day about Apple products. It is going to be extremely nice to go, “Why yes, we do have those, they are right over here.”
The Apple Store is the best and should be the only place to get Macs, not the Wal-Mart and whore of electronics, Best Buy. There’s also a reason rural areas don’t have Apple Stores.
You can make all the smart-ass remarks you want, but you can’t argue against the fact that BBY is the No.1 electronics retailer on the planet, if Apple wants to really cut into the Windows dominance(and don’t tell me they don’t want that, cause if they didn’t, they shouldn’t make another computer), you need products in as many places as possible. It’s not like they just decided one day, “Let’s start selling Macs”, they have been selling their products since 1998.