6 ms·

You really can't beat going into a physical store for a large ticket item purchase. No waiting for shipping, easy to return, viewing the product in store. Rec

• gameswithgo 8y ago
  A while back we had a refrigerator die, and I was like "no problem, I'll run to home depot and get one". they could NOT handle it. Everyone seemed annoyed that I wanted to do this. They have refrigerators on the floor but only a few are for sale, and they can do delivery in theory but they didn't seem to know if their delivery guys were available or not. I went over to Lowes next door and it was the same deal. I was astonished. Couldn't give them my money. So yeah I got it online, which was a very smooth experience but was without a refrigerator for a few days which is not good.
  • segmondy 8y ago
    That's your experience. When my fridge was dying, I went to Home depot. They had one, I ordered it, they delivered it, even took off the door off the hinges to bring it in, installed it and placed the doors back on the hinges.
    • gameswithgo 8y ago
      same day? I've had the same experience as you if you are willing to wait a few days. they are great at the delivery/install.
  • crazygringo 8y ago
    I'm not sure if anything has changed there. Huge bulky items have always been delivered from a warehouse ~days later. Online hasn't changed anything with that, I don't think. Sure, sometimes you'll get lucky with a popular model they keep a few of in-store, but that feels like the exception. You can't go to a mattress store and walk out with a mattress either, generally.
    • gameswithgo 8y ago
      But they do have these items in the store out on the floor, they could have done it but it just seemed like they didn't want to make an effort. I realize your choice of model is going to be limited if you are in a hurry, but if you want to compete with amazon, being eager to sell people appliances day of would be a good way.
  • Bedon292 8y ago
    Yeah I was somewhat surprised when I bought a new washer and dryer. Took my truck to the store so I would have space, get there, and they are like yeah its going to be two weeks for delivery. They keep none of those items on hand, as they are too large. Its all out in a warehouse somewhere else, and they just aren't prepared for someone who wants something now. It makes sense, but is not something I thought about before experiencing it.
    • rsync 8y ago
      Interestingly, the one place you could do this (walk in and buy a new washer/dryer/fridge and drive away with it) was Sears which has closed their stores in many major metro areas and are basically going out of business...
      • StillBored 8y ago
        This is only true of a small portion of the sears with warehouse attached (aka the ones not in malls). Even then, I purchased my last two dishwashers there, and in both cases it took a couple days to deliver. If you want something right now, go to one of the scratch and dent appliance places. Same basic deal as hd/lowes/bestbuy when it comes to appliances, just about the only ones those stores have in stock are the ones that got returned.
        • jsgo 8y ago
          I worked at a Sears when I was younger. The location didn't have a large warehouse attached (smaller one, but it was only for smaller home and garden/electronics items), but there was one in town so for some items we'd sell and they'd go there to pick up. I do recall at points where items were sold from the store, but that was a rarity.
  • dyeje 8y ago
    Huh, interesting. I bought a dishwasher a few months ago from Home Depot and it was smooth sailing. Picked the floor model, they pulled the item from the back, we payed, and then they helped us load it into the car.
  • deleted 8y ago
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  • donarb 8y ago
    Just an FYI, Best Buy sells appliances as well. Not sure if every store lets you take them home right there though.
  • swsieber 8y ago
    I'm surprised. I went to Lowe's, finally decided on a new dish washer and they got it down so I could stick it in my car. Perhaps refridgerators are a little different though since they don't fit in cars quite as nicely...
• throwawaymath 8y ago
  Just out of curiosity, why didn't you buy the MacBook Pro directly from Apple? If I'm not mistaken the price is exactly the same in both stores. Is Best Buy just closer to you, or do you have a specific reason for going to Best Buy over Apple?
  • deleted 8y ago
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  • gzu 8y ago
    I think at the time they had a better sale price. It was a slight discount vs msrp. I also was able to sign up for a store credit card to get 10% back in rewards on the first purchase. Top that off with like 3+ Best Buy locations within a 30min drive of my area. Ended up being a very good deal. If I bought from Apple would have missed out on free rewards, msrp discount, and the drive to Apple store is a bit longer
• LeifCarrotson 8y ago
  It's great for a big-ticket, low-margin purchase like an MBP, but poor for cheap, high-margin items like cables and accessories. Which is, of course, where they really make money. They'll price match a laptop to Amazon, but cannot price match a $2 Ethernet patch cable because they're retail space, not a warehouse.
  • segmondy 8y ago
    I've bought plenty of SD cards online for my raspberry pi and dashcam. They all die and start giving errors within a month or two. Even tho I went of my way to buy name brand, and not the cheapest 4 star cards. :-/
    • Marsymars 8y ago
      Look into high endurance cards for dashcams. There are a few different brands with them.
    • H1Supreme 8y ago
      I love the Raspberry Pi, and all the good it's done for computing. I have 3 of them currently. But, I don't want anything SD card driven for my next SBC. They are too volatile for heavy use.
      • bsder 8y ago
        The Beaglebone Black has eMMC onboard.
    • mafuyu 8y ago
      Even the nice consumer SD cards aren't really designed for high write endurance. I would look into industrial cards like the Swissbit microSDs with SLC: https://swissbit.com/products/nand-flash-products/cards/micro-sd-memory-cards/ https://swissbit.com/products/nand-flash-products/cards/micr...
    • jpindar 8y ago
      These are some of the most counterfeited items of all, so I'll only buy them from industrial distributors. I figure they are accustomed to vetting their suppliers and have a reputation to protect.
• Dayshine 8y ago
  >Walked back in the store the next day to return But they could have been difficult about this right? In the EU at least, buying online means you can always return no questions asked within 14 days. Buying in store means you are bound to the shop's returns policy.
  • fhood 8y ago
    Wait really? What's to stop me from setting up a side business selling mbp hard drives then?
    • kowdermeister 8y ago
      Jail time
  • JustSomeNobody 8y ago
    They could. But why would they? They're just going to return it to Apple.
  • mrlala 8y ago
    Shipping costs to return something big like a fridge, tv, or whatever is huge.
• scarface74 8y ago
  Not Best Buy related but I tried purchasing an elliptical online from Amazon along with assembly. One company does the shipment and a third party does the assembly. The assembly guy cancelled on me because it was raining (not really hard) and he couldn't come out at a reasonable time. I cancelled the assembly, had the box returned to Amazon (of course its not their regular shipping). I then ordered from Sears. They came on time with the equipment and they did the assembly. Back on topic. I'm debating whether to use Geek Squad to mount my TV (I have no mechanical skills) or purchase it through Amazon for half the cost.
• jmuguy 8y ago
  I ordered a MBP from Adorama and got shipped an empty box. It took about a month to get the notebook. I ended up ordering from B&H and having Adorama just refund me because they were taking legit forever to "investigate". I hate that I didn't throw the box back at the UPS guy when I realized it was empty :(