{"id":199,"date":"2010-12-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloggy.libsyn.com\/2010\/12\/16\/tech-pulse-action-alert-best-buy\/"},"modified":"2013-02-28T22:08:52","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T22:08:52","slug":"tech-pulse-action-alert-best-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libsyn.com\/blog\/tech-pulse-action-alert-best-buy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech Pulse Action Alert – Best Buy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think the layout of a store speaks a great deal about a company’s strategy. \u00a0It’s definitely a barometer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Haven’t been to Best Buy’s stores in a good while. \u00a0I was there the other day to pick up the Michael Jackson Experience and wow have they changed the floor plan. \u00a0It’s obvious, like Apple, they hire the best of the best to analyze and improve upon the layout and people flow of their monster stores. \u00a0Here are my take aways.<\/p>\n

– Gone are the cattle herding checkout lanes, once lined with shiny impulse buy items like batteries, candy, water, red bull and discounted video games. \u00a0Well they are not completely gone, but toned down to a civilized level. \u00a0I feel less like a cud chewer.<\/p>\n

– \u00a0The new floor plan has that free-flowing rapture of the deep thing popularized in department stores, where you keep losing track of which way is up. \u00a0This intentional disorientation leads to those As the world falls Down<\/a> feelings… You know what I mean Labyrinth fans.<\/p>\n

– Motion Control systems like the Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move both have big faux living room demo setups, but they are relegated to one of the far back walls. \u00a0This seems less than ideal for customer impact. \u00a0Perhaps Best Buy believes these will sell themselves based on consumer anticipation, \u00a0but it still seems odd when the Kinect is topping so many of the analyst’s Christmas top seller lists. \u00a0Video Games aren’t quite getting the VIP treatment this year it seems. \u00a0Although Wii pack-in systems were placed in a strange island near the entrance of the store almost acting as a visual barrier to make the reveal of the new store layout more grandiose.<\/p>\n

– Three new islands dramatically angled against the store walls yet parallel to each other are prominently featured in the center of the store. \u00a0These are the main attractions.<\/p>\n

– The first island is iPhone 4 dominated along with other Android devices<\/p>\n

– The second island is mostly Samsung Galaxy Tabs (all running Angry Birds) and a couple Google TV powered Sony Flatscreens<\/p>\n

– The Third island is not quite as focused, with some other Android tablets, and e readers.<\/p>\n

No iPads were found on these islands, however in very close proximity to the Tablet\/Google TV island was an iPad kiosk.<\/p>\n

So what’s this have to do with you guys, the Podcasters, the New Media Movers and Shakers? \u00a0Best Buy is betting that a big ol’ consumer shift thing is reaching its tipping point this season and they are all in to make the most of it. \u00a0Best Buy is in the business of entertainment goods and services. \u00a0To them the new era of entertainment is all about the phones that barely get used as a phones, the tablet as the next big computer form factor, \u00a0and TVs that stream content from the internet. \u00a0Best Buy’s CEO is conservative in his\u00a0statements publicly<\/a>, but I think the actions are speaking loudly here. \u00a0This is a mean product threesome that all get their power of attraction thanks to the wealth of content on the internet. \u00a0This puts podcasters dead center in the eye of the storm.<\/p>\n

…Also, they seem to be leaning on\u00a0Angry Birds<\/a>\u00a0to move units and QR Codes on the walls for geek cred…<\/p>\n

But it seems like we’ve got ourselves a sea change a happenin’, at least at Best Buy in Pittsburgh. \u00a0So Surf’s Up Podcasters!.<\/p>\n

– Dave M<\/div>\n
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I think the layout of a store speaks a great deal about a company’s strategy. \u00a0It’s definitely a barometer. Haven’t been to Best Buy’s stores in a good while. \u00a0I was there the other day to pick up the Michael Jackson Experience and wow have they changed the floor plan. \u00a0It’s obvious, like Apple, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t