Best Buy Wants More Women in Stores
Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:26PM EDT
See Comments (27)
Notice soft music playing in your local Best Buy? No? Well, you may soon, along with other changes to attract and please women customers.
Reuters reports that the electronics chain has promoted Julie Gilbert, 37, to senior vice president and charged her with leading the retailer's strategy to bring in more female customers to stores and, while there, to spend. Best Buy, which competes with other mass retailers including Wal-Mart for family electronics purchases, says women control an estimated $68 billion in the U.S. electronics market.
As Wired notes, "Best Buy has been retooling stores with innovations such as softer music and non-pushy sales clerks who sometimes know what they're talking about." Gilbert will be at the helm of finding more ways to make Best Buy a women's destination for electronics shopping—and buying.
Want to help her out? Women want what everyone wants in an electronics store...
No shady pricing—just straightforward, bottom-line best deals.
No rebates. Just give us the best price you can offer.
Honest answers and informative sales people. We want well-trained support staff so we can get answers to questions. Don't just talk to us about the items being pushed that week.
That's a start. Chime in, women, and add what you want from a retail store where you are considering plunking down many hard-earned dollars on tech and electronics. Let's help Julie Gilbert do her job well.
LINK: Best Buy names exec to boost female customers [Reuters]
Comments on Best Buy Wants More Women in Stores
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2 Posted by drodgers1234 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:48PM EDT Report Abuse
If they could learn not to be patronizing to females it would go a long way toward improving their bottom line. I can't count the times I have either been ignored or talked down to, all the while having money in my pocket that I'm prepared to spend on electronic items. And by the way, not only am I female, but I'm over the age of 60, which appears to be a double whammy.
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3 Posted by deadlyrose86 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:39PM EDT Report Abuse
I have heard from other sources that best buy tends to hire white males, and fewer minorities and females. Is this familiar to anyone?
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4 Posted by markosians on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:08PM EDT Report Abuse
My wife likes going to any tech store (I love them all!) like I enjoy going to Bed Crap and Beyond... :) Nick
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5 Posted by tresas@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Female friendly stores what a “novel” idea.It's about time businesses realize, women generally spend the big bucks. From where we live, how we furni----- , what we drive,and where we go on vacations. Now,how about providing us with salespeople who actually use the product we are interested in or at least have knowledge about it. Even better, get someone who can answer our questions, rather than just “reading the information from the display card". (“Gee, why didn’t I think of doing that?”). My last trip to Best Buy was to buy a replacement hot water dispenser. I spoke to three male employees(at the customer service desk) who had no idea what I was looking for. The employee who helped me was a stock girl. She looked it up on the computer and was able to get another employee to finalize the order. Fortunate for me, her mother had one. I will give Best Buy "kudos" for having a clean, well lit and uncluttered store at The Rim in San Antonio. I detest having to maneuver around boxes in any store.
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6 Posted by tresas@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Female friendly stores what a “novel” idea. It is about time businesses realize, women generally spend the big bucks. From where we live, how we furni----- , what we drive, and where we go on vacations.
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7 Posted by tresas@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Previous post should have read: From where we live, how we "furni----- , what we drive,and where we go on vacations.
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8 Posted by borderbaby8 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:11PM EDT Report Abuse
[ just purchased a 279.00 ipod last week from best buy. I researched this item carefully before the purchase. although my visit was pleasant,as a woman my biggest beef is , we have enough used car salesmen , who give us the runaround. When we ask a question, we want a honest answer. Its that simple.
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9 Posted by sashi482003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:05PM EDT Report Abuse
I have had only good experiences with BB. Of course,I would never consider shopping anywhere for anything over $5.oo without first doing my homework. In the past year and a half, I have purchased a refrigerator, washer, dryer, 4 mp3 players, Bose speaker system, 3 GPS systems a phone, a laptop computer, an 80gb hard drive, Nicon D40 camera and all the trimmings, and countless smaller items from BestBuy's from Florida to California. I always price check on the laptop before I buy and know exactly what I'm paying before I make the decision.I have shopped at other bigbox stores,discount stores, and specialty stores when I've found the item at the price I want. Sometimes though it's just not worth it. For instance, at another bigbox store I bought an mp3 player,(there was no BB within 40 miles at the time.)It took 3 of their emloyees to even begin to answer the questions I had about function and accessories. Shrugs and I don't knows or downright incorrect information is what I got. I bought the item, but I was so frustrated when I left,I vowed to never return there. In contrast, at BestBuy,I had several indepth conversations with several employees on several occasions about my camera before I actually bought it. I was amazed at the knowledge they had. I got information from them that I'm sure I would have had to take a class on,and they were happy to spend 15 or 20 minutes with me when I wasn't even buying at the time (just doing my homework) It's sad to hear that somewhere in the system are people who think that focusing on the bottom line and not the customer will bring them greater returns. Some people may not be able to think in the long term.Too bad, because in the long term,"tricks" like this will only hurt. I intend to continue shopping for the best bargain.Maybe we should all do that and not rely on the 'kindness and goodness of others" If my research leads me to BestBuy, so be it.
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10 Posted by penguino8165 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:06PM EDT Report Abuse
I have only been inside of Best Buy a total 2 times. The first time was at Christmas, looking for DDR for my daughter. (Naturally I got the wrong one.... how was *I* supposed to know there are different versions of the same stupid game? lol) And then again, just within the last month. Both times I was greeted with a friendly "Hi! Welcome to Best Buy!" and was told that if I needed any help, just let someone know. I only needed a replacement portable DVD player, as our other one died rather suddenly. I had found one at the store that I'd seen online. The one in the store was more. I asked a salesman about it and he sent me to Customer Service. He said they'd help me get the correct price for my item. Sure enough, the gal at the desk got me the internet price, which was a LOT less than the store price. All with a friendly smile and a "Have a great day, ma'am."
1 Posted by tmmeyer on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:14PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm tired of the sales clerks intruding on my shopping experience all the time. I know I good deal about what I'm looking for because I usually research items beforehand. I bet a male sales clerk approaches me to ask how I'm doing about five times every time I go in the store. Today, as a matter of fact, I was looking at some DVDs while standing next to a male patron. A male sales clerk asked me if I needed help but not the guy. Call it flirting but sometimes I want to be left alone. Yes, and rebates have to go. Just lower the prices, please.