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Can a brand still be highend if it is in a Sears or Best Buy format or does it go the way of Kitchenaid as a me Whirlpool with a nice name plate? Subzero and Viking are not going into the 2 new pacific Sales stores inside of Best Buy. Meile, Thermado are going in. Does being in a low end retail location dimish the brand identity? Is this an abondonment of the independents by these brands?
It looks Like B/S/H is trying again with Best Buy, a few years back they launched Siemens in the Account. It was a complete flop and within a year and Two Directors later it was Se ya. I beleive it completely deminishes the Brand and on one side the majority of customers have no clue that Best Buy even sells Appliances. And if you are a cerebral customer would you realy want to buy a profesional kithchen in a Big Box. That would be like putting a Mercedes Dealership in Wall Mart. There are more fingers on a Pirates hands then units they will sell. "Look Honey you pick out the 42"plasma and Ill go pick out the $15,000 dollar Thermador Kitchen.
What is the source for this? I haven’t heard anything about Best Buy testing a "store within a store" with Pac Sales. Best Buy Public Relations and Investor Relations could not (or would not) confirm. If true this is very big news with significant implications for the industry. AA, what have you heard? I haven’t seen anything about this on your news site.
We had nothing other than this forum comment, and now your (Cohiba’s) checking of the Best Buy site.
So we called into Pacific Sales and spoke to a clerk:The clerk said that she had heard about the plan, but she did not know when or where it would be. We could not ascertain if her information was official or itself a rumor.
We’re thinking that this unlikely rumor is in fact true.We presume.
The Best Buy Store
West LA, CA
11301 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064Pacific Sales has no store that we can see in the area. Is it more likely that this is simply a California play and not a Best Buy everywhere strategy? Maybe a cheap expansion of Pac Sales in markets not large enough to support a free standing store, and not so much the end of the world as we know it.
To west LA’ans our apologies if we insult.From several vendors I know for a fact that Best Buy is going to open a Pacific Sales within two of the Best Buy locations; one in West Los Angeles and one in Dublin, California (up north). Sub Zero and Viking (for now) have said no but many others have said yes. Miele at first said yes but now is reported to be having second thoughts. This is a test for Best Buy to see if the concept works and if it does, it will undoubtedly be tried in other markets. Best Buy feels that these two locations have a wealthier clientle than in their typical stores and therefore they feel it is a viable concept. Additionally, it is a well known fact that Pacific Sales has wanted a West LA location but for various reasons has been unable to open one.
Clearly independent dealers need to show their support for vendors who do not go in and to penalize those that do.
What is the payback for the line that enters the store. Dealers went nuts when they went in expo, but at the end of the day did nothing and did not support the brands that stayed out of expo.
I don’t think that any Designer, Contractor, or other entity would take their clients to a Big Box store and, in essence, ruin their relationship (and any other tangible aspects) with a private dealer …
I know that when EXPO was open in our area, it was the kiss of death for a Designer or Contractor to even be rumoured to be in the store … it was a place for the "happy homeowner" who perceived that the Designer or Contractor got a kickback or cut of the price … the ridiculousness of that thinking was that they got a poor price from EXPO by comparison AND their products were not handled by people accustomed to handling appliances !!!
What goes around comes around !!!
This "test" is a for sure in both the West LA Best Buy and Costa Mesa (Orange County) Best Buy’s. I can see how this could possibly work in the Southern California marketplace where Pacific Sales is a well known appliance retailer. Once you take the test outside of Southern California where no one knows what Pacific Sales is, then you are buying products like, Miele, Thermador, Dacor, Kitchen-Aid, and Jenn-Air from Best Buy. Best Buy has owned a 6% or 7% appliance share forever and cannot figure out how to grow. Maybe this is the last ditch effort? The brands above continue to look for the next big floor display order at the expense of the independent dealers. In the end the independent wont change as long as these brands continue to deliver decent margin, and provide spiffs to salespeople. The independents will bitch and moan about this move over coffee and in the end do nothing to change.
When EXPO was in existence, their sales staff were not commissioned, nor allowed to accept spiffs, or even a key ring or mouse pad … they never competitively bid anything, stating otherwise they’d match any dealer’s price !!!
If you forget this AND what happened to EXPO, and do not act upon it to your advantage, then you might as well give up …
On the other hand, if you use this knowledge and any other findings about your advisary and their inner workings to your advantage, then you will demonstrate to your distributor who deserves the time, attention, etc. and you will prevail !!!
He who snoozes loses !!!
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