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I worked at Best Buy #583 in Mt Laurel, NJ from 2001 or 2002 or until 2003 Or 2004, from age 17 until 20, I think. I started working in their PC repair area whe
by sickcodebruh 6y ago
I worked at Best Buy #583 in Mt Laurel, NJ from 2001 or 2002 or until 2003 Or 2004, from age 17 until 20, I think. I started working in their PC repair area when it was still “Best Buy services,” black shirts instead of blue, a few years before the Geek Squad thing happened, and left a couple years after that transition. I went in to interview for the PC sales department, the manager thought I’d be better fixing computers, and it was the start of my whole career in technology.
Even back then, I remember a lot of their corporate-produced video content played at quarterly meetings would talk about the value in reinvention. They were very aware that companies that didn’t adapt to the market were doomed, they’d reference old department stores for comparisons. It’s not surprising that even though they stumbled for a few years, they still managed to turn it around.
I remember being very aware of the high production value of those same quarterly videos. They looked so expensive and were occasionally funnier than they had any right being. It stood out because we all felt under paid and under valued, we’d talk about how much those videos must have cost and how much we all could have used some help.
A few times a year, I still have anxiety nightmares where I’m late for a shift or I show up and there’s a line out the door and nobody to help me. Or there will be miles of racks of computers that need virus scans run and I have to do all of them before I go home. It was the most stressful job I’ve ever had, possibly the most stressful job I’ll ever have. It taught me more about troubleshoot software and dealing with angry people than I ever could have predicted. Simultaneously one of the worst experiences and a crucial one. Funny how that works.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- CalRobert 6y agoI worked at Best Buy in San Luis Obispo around 2003 and it was clear that if you didn't sell enough warranties, $29 USB cables (wholesale cost about 80 cents), and (bafflingly) subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly you would get your hours cut to effectively 0. I got chewed out and nearly fired by my boss because a customer came in with a broken lens for their camera they'd just bought, and I told them a replacement was about $99 when _instead_ I should have apparently told them a warranty could be bought retroactively for $199 and that would replace the lens (this was a bald-faced lie, it had clearly been dropped). Of course, consumers should expect that because Best Buy is blatantly evil, but the scummiest thing was that customers would walk in with a printout FROM BESTBUY.COM showing an item was $129, demand we match their own website instead of charging $149, and they'd be walked over to a kiosk showing that the product at bestbuy.com was $149. (They had a mock bestbuy.com running on the kiosk that looked like the web version but with in-store prices). Remember smartphones weren't a thing at that point. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus23dec23-column.html https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus23dec23-column... It was valuable as a reminder of just how bad most jobs are, and that most people in America are treated like absolute shit by psychopath bosses who themselves live in fear of their boss, and so on. It certainly was a motivator to learn to code. Quitting the Wednesday before Black Friday was a thrill. It's supremely depressing Best Buy still exists.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- iamjohnsears 6y agoI showed up to my interview at Best Buy in Ithaca, NY in shorts and was immediately rejected. I was a rising senior in high school and was really into building computers, so thought I was a shoe-in. The hiring manager told me it was insulting to not dress up for the interview. Honestly it was just something I didn’t even think about, but certainly taught me a lesson of sorts. Now I interview people every week and they’re all in t-shirts.