9:11 PM

Best Buy hopes to exorcize devil patrons:

Best Buy’s strategies could represent the beginnings of a shift in how retailers approach their customers. As consumers become more savvy, and online shopping continues to grow, you can bet other retailers will watch Best Buy closely. Early results indicate that Best Buy’s test stores are outperforming their established stores by a significant margin, and it’s safe to assume that the trend will continue as they shift to their new sales mode across the board. Of course, if you aren’t Barry, Jill, or Buzz, then who are you and how will you be treated? Customer profiling has a nasty side to it, one which we can attest to. It’s common, for instance, to be utterly ignored in some commission-based sales environments if you look too young, or too poor.

Meanwhile, Dell and others seem to be doing their best to attract those customers Best Buy doesn’t really want. While Best Buy has pulled the plug on their relationships with some of the more well-known bargain sites, Dell is using those same sites to run their promotions and clear out inventory with insane coupon deals. The biggest danger for Best Buy is the prospect of getting upside down. They run the risk of selling out for profit margins at the cost of sales volume.