Worst Buy

[mlmpetert]

I worked at the one by Springfield Mall when i was 16. More than 10 years later it is still by far the worst job ive ever had.

Bestbuy was a great story of a record show owner who had a massive sale because of a hurricane (maybe Andrew??) and learned that he could make more money by moving a large amount of product at small mark up than by selling a few records at a big mark up.

But they become a corporate juggernaut who prized themselves for bankrupting Circut City (headquartered in Richmond of all places!). I remember a huge mural in the break room of the bestbuy “tag” and the circut city “plug” boxing and the bestbuy tag knocking the circuit city plug out.

Ive always been disgusted by this:

The clock-in machine and the coat room were on opposite sides of the store. They made a real big deal about dropping off your coat first then walking to the clock to clock in. Same thing with leaving; clock out then go get your coat. Well the problem with that is that its nearly impossible to walk across bestbuy in a blue shirt and khaki pants without having to help a customer during busy hours. Could be something simple, could easily turn into a 5-10+ minute thing.

They made a really big deal about it. Their explanation was that yeah, sure you may lose a few cents, at worst case a dollar, of earned money but bestbuy the company looses hundreds of thousands or more a year of employees putting their coats away. They would say things like it really hurts the company and has little or no material effect on you. In reality I believe the percentage financial loss was either the same or more for the individual than for the company. It really ground my gears.