1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 4887 2010-01-20 17:55:02 UTC 7 1 There are way more Netbooks in the wild than iphones. Take a little time to develop a netbook app with some amount of usefulness. If you're in the AppUp store early enough, you should get a lot of downloads.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/appup.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/appup.htm</a><br/><br/>Of course, it's not clear what advantage an app could have over the web site - but apparently apps are catching on. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 161 app 3455 appup 3457 wild 3456 netbook 0 4474 2009-12-22 15:10:25 UTC 4 4 Twice in the last couple months, I've ordered something as an in-store pickup from bestbuy.com, and have gone in and shopped around a little, but not picked up anything except what I've ordered. So it gets me in the store but not buying anything else. <br/><br/>While I think this is great and love the no-hassle checkout, I think if BestBuy tacked a &quot;today-only&quot; coupon either on the pickup-slip email or on the receipt when I do pick it up, then I'd be more likely to mill around some more to find something else to buy. It doesn't have to happen every time, maybe at random, but you could try it and see if it helps to get customers buying more. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 1805 coupon 1306 in-store pickup 1577 pickup 3226 retention 1 3676 2009-11-10 13:52:16 UTC 1 2 Take a page from Amazon's book - they have no shipping on most orders over $25 (and no tax to most states). If Best Buy were to cover the tax on purchases over $25, you'd have people buying a couple of items to get up to $25. I guess you can cap it at $100 (or $200 if you want to include the wii), but it could help a lot. I know you can't really not pay tax, but I'm just calling it that. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 918 amazon 2835 twenty-five dollars 2834 tax 4 3594 2009-11-03 20:13:51 UTC 1 3 Thinking it'd be neat if you had some home studio lines, for different home studios. You could sell some or all of the line, but give people a basic idea of what it takes to have a home studio for creative fields. The guide could be interactive online and just some glossy prints in-store.<br/><br/>Examples - <br/><br/>A &quot;web studio&quot; would have a basic version of a pc (an Eeetop?), some simple photo editor, and posterous/facebook guide, but the pro version would have some dreamweaver/photoshop/adobe kit with a nice desktop.<br/><br/>A music studio basic would have a simple mac mini (garageband) + usb stereo audio + microphone. The hobbyist would be a macbook pro + external audio interface + H2 recorder + studio headphones, and the pro version would be a Mac Desktop with a mixer and a midi/usb keyboard.<br/><br/>A game studio basic guide could just point out some free tools online (e.g. Microsoft's XNA studio with XSI's free version of SoftImage 3d Modeler, ModTool). A hobbyist version could point to BlitzMax/Blitz3D, etc., AC3D, and some decent 3D mouse. A pro version would include Photoshop, and one of Max/Maya/XSI, and some Visual Studio, etc.<br/><br/>App Studio...<br/>Photo Studio...<br/>Video Studio...<br/><br/>Encourage people to take classes if they need to, pursue activities that interest them, and pick up their tools at Best Buy. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2776 studio 2777 hobby 2778 hobbies 2775 home studio 0 2981 2009-10-14 13:01:56 UTC 3 2 Of course you know everything is going digital distribution. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_distribution)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_distribution)</a><br/><br/>Best Buy needs an online content store or they'll get left behind in the next generation. Not just music, but all physical media is on its way out. Don't get stuck selling iTunes gift cards and Netflix subscriptions.<br/><br/>A few ways that yet another digital content provider can be different:<br/>- add a digital marketplace for people to buy/sell/trade used content - does Best Buy have enough pull to manage this?<br/>- multiplatform - mac/pc/linux, or even multi-console - watch a movie on 360 or PS3, sell Live Points/Nintendo Points/PSN credit<br/>- use Best Buy gift cards - this may be your biggest selling point, if you do it soon enough<br/>- auto-download for physical media. i.e. purchase a DVD or Blu-Ray in-store, automatically the download version is added to your account, ready for download.<br/>- physical location in-store - as discussed on this site for Napster/iTunes, you can provide an in-store kiosk for the Best Buy online store.<br/><br/>Other suggestions/comments? There are a lot of digital distributions out there already, you'll have to set yourselves apart somehow. Or you can go the easy way out and buy out Napster or Real 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 80 movies 2299 content 2298 online content 2297 digital distribution 143 store 96 video games 18 music 6 2875 2009-10-10 02:44:36 UTC 3 3 I've seen these more and more in Best Buys the past few years, these big undivided bins of $5 dvds. These things turn into a disorganized mess. And it makes me feel like I'm at Wal-Mart, in a bad way. I appreciate that all the bargains are in one place for me to find them, but I hate having to sift through them for something I might like. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2214 wal-mart 91 dvds 2213 bargain bins 7 2785 2009-10-02 13:43:29 UTC 3 2 This is a really open-ended type of idea, may not work everywhere.<br/><br/>If you've ever been to a siggraph, you hopefully visited a room filled with Emerging Technology demos from students and companies all over the world.<br/><br/>The list from 2009:<br/><a href="http://icanhaz.com/coolz" rel="nofollow">http://icanhaz.com/coolz</a><br/><br/>I think it'd be interesting to see upcoming products before they're out, either being demonstrated, or maybe even just some videos of them being demonstrated, in-store. It doesn't have to be as &quot;raw&quot; as the Siggraph demos, but maybe something in between those and the latest for-sale items.<br/><br/>Maybe a store could partner with local ACM or IEEE chapters (or other similar organizations) and let them display some cool projects they've worked on as well. Locally, there's some neat stuff happening at hrgeeks.com and the popular hak5 podcast is done in the area as well - I'm sure somebody would love to have the exposure, and Best Buy would benefit from extra foot traffic and community involvement.<br/><br/>The obvious down-side for Best Buy is that if people are seeing what's &quot;next&quot; they may not want to buy what's current. I still think it would be good for some stores, though. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2159 tech 2160 demonstration 2161 outreach 378 demos 34 education 479 emerging 976 community 0 2750 2009-09-30 18:02:59 UTC 3 1 Every so often, somebody will post to a deals site what items they saw on clearance at their local best buy, and BAM! they start selling out everywhere.<br/><br/>But why should your stores reward us Internet trollers? What if there were a way to send an email from local stores with the items that will be going on clearance in the coming week, and the number available of each item at, say, the 5 closest stores?<br/><br/>This gets me in the door, and you scoop the bargain hunter sites. I still may not get there before the last one is gone, but at least you let me know. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 428 email 168 clearance 2136 bargains 1363 deals 1 2721 2009-09-29 16:55:42 UTC 2 4 Just thinking, not sure yet whether I really like this idea or not, so constructive comments, etc., welcome!<br/><br/>What about smaller storefronts in places where a full-sized store wouldn't make sense? Probably a slightly different name - &quot;Best Buy Mini&quot;, &quot;Micro Buy&quot;, or other names.<br/><br/>I could see it being really popular during the Christmas shopping time if you had a mall presence where people could look at a few big-ticket items - computers, home theater, digital cameras. You can stock some smaller items, but just let the bigger items be delivered from full stores nearby.<br/><br/>And also carry a wall of new release blu-rays and games. You can definitely undersell the FYE's in our mall, and your new game prices could be better than the game stores.<br/><br/>Besides malls, there are some &quot;downtown&quot; type areas that are all the rage where a Micro Buy would fit. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 241 location 176 tv 123 retail 8 computers 2118 mini store 2117 mall 4 2697 2009-09-28 13:37:35 UTC 2 2 I would like to see a little interactive kiosk in the store that demonstrates the lower quality of MP3s (or other compressed formats) vs. the full PCM you get from a CD. Maybe you can tell, maybe you can't - it's pretty obvious on a site like mp3ornot.com that you don't get a full range with MP3s. Have a poster, too, showing the frequency spectra of the various formats (iTunes vs wma vs mp3 vs FLAC vs VOB) for a typical song, and list the formats different devices can play.<br/><br/>Maybe most people won't care, but if I have a choice between buying CDs or lower quality formats for the same price, I'd lean towards CDs - I can always take a couple minutes and generate the MP3s from the source, but I can't go the other direction. Maybe if more people were better informed, they would at least consider the differences. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 219 mp3 453 audio 2099 compression 2100 information 2101 poster 2102 wma 34 education 43 kiosk 67 cd 0 2635 4880 2010-01-20 17:44:05 UTC 0 http://bestbuyideax.com/ideas/2488 Good one. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2536 4451 2009-12-22 15:35:47 UTC 1 Dudes, it's time to give up on correcting people's spelling online. If you are looking for perfect spelling and grammar, the Internet is the wrong place. At any rate, I think all this guy is saying is that he wants there to be a WiFi-enabled digital frame. And there already are a few out there, but I haven't seen any that are affordable or have a decent UI. So it's probably a year or two out. I'm watching for either HP's DreamScreen (SKU 9463733) or Toshiba's WiFi Frames (not at Best Buy yet, but they look really sleek) to drop in price and get a little more user-friendly. Slightly off-topic - has anybody used FrameChannel? Looks like it would simplify setup of a web-connected frame a lot. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2535 4412 2009-12-22 15:22:45 UTC 2 This could actually happen with the older machines with hardware that is out of patent. Third parties make Genesis, SNES, and NES compatible machines (search the webs for SEGA Genesis Firecore or FC Twin), and some make machines that will play two or three of the old systems. So the hard part would be finding games to play. I must be getting old when you call the the GameCube Old School and my thought is "That's not Old School. In my day..." 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2465 2488 2009-12-14 15:41:24 UTC 3 Not sure why they removed the link above and not the reference to woot, but whatever. At any rate Best Buy now has a daily deal for reward zone members - check out https://rzdeal.dtdeals.com 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2421 2981 2009-12-11 19:43:57 UTC 3 Well, at least somebody's listening - A certain online retailer just announced a feature exactly like one of my suggestions above... http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/10/amazons-disc-program-tosses-in-a-free-vod-with-your-blu-ray-or/ 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2273 3948 2009-12-01 20:09:33 UTC 0 Ironic considering a couple years ago we were supposed to ban Target, when they not only asked their cashiers to stop using "Christmas", but they also turned away the Salvation Army bell ringers! Still no bell ringers, but I think they have some on-line donation program. The list of stores I'm supposed to boycott just keeps getting longer. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2272 4096 2009-12-01 19:17:23 UTC 2 10 songs for weeks on end - that would get annoying! They should make this up to the managers or something. At least stick in one of those Sandisk preloaded cards and stick it on shuffle... http://www.bestbuy.com/site/SanDisk+-+Rock+slotRadio+Card/9563858.p?id=1218125333590&skuId=9563858&st=sandisk%20slotmusic&cp=1&lp=13 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2031 3676 2009-11-20 21:22:47 UTC 1 I know they still pay taxes. I was really just suggesting that Best Buy just eat the tax on purchases over some threshold. When a website offers free shipping, somebody still has to pay for it - they just do it to get you to buy more stuff. Since Best Buy doesn't charge for shipping, my thought was that the equivalent would be to not charge tax. They still pay it, but we've bought more, enough to (hopefully) offset the difference. Strange that my comment like this one disappeared... 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 2030 3769 2009-11-20 20:56:50 UTC 2 haha, it's real - all the companies somehow manage to "leak" their ads to the deal websites for free publicity. The weekly ad scans that get leaked pretty regularly on Thursdays/Fridays are always the same, no reason to think the Black Friday ones aren't. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false 1881 2875 2009-11-10 13:40:54 UTC 9 Right, the game bins too. And to clarify, I meant nixing the bins as they are, not the bargains themselves. I've noticed walmart wised up and replaced theirs with actual shelves in my area, it stays a lot more organized, and you can look browse them without having to physically pick through disorganized stacks of dvds. 1171 RuanCaiman 2009-09-16 14:44:38 UTC 28 false