Best Buy reports 90% drop in profits

[WhoIsNumberNone]

Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers aren't buying enough TVs

[Live and Learn]

1. Wow, that is not good.

Never been a big fan of Best Buy but I hate to see these companies go under. Seems we are getting less and less choice in places to shop in addition to the job losses.

[Lucky Luciano]

4. Amazon is killing them. Best Buy is now basically a showroom.

People test drive the gadgets they want there and then buy it at a discount from Amazon - or they just go straight to Amazon.

[Incitatus]

5. That's part of it.

And of course the majority of Americans having less discretionary income is also a factor.

[reformist2]

8. I'm guilty of showrooming. :)

[pstokely]

11. But what about large appliances like washing machines?

People don't buy small electronics at stores anymore but what about refrigerators or microwaves?

[jsr]

2. 90% drop was in profit

not revenue. But yeah, they're in a death spiral.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

3. OK- I corrected it. Thanks

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. I feel sorry for the thousands of people that will lose their shitty, but barely better than nothing

jobs. But I will shed no tears for the loss of this organized crime.

Theft, no matter the scale, is not a sustainable business model.

[Zalatix]

7. "Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers aren't buying enough TVs"

And that's going to come around to bite Amazon on the ass, too.

[zappaman]

9. Doubtful.

AMAZON, unlike BEST BUY, sells everything.
You can get everything BEST BUY sells plus vitamins, tools, or even dildos.
AMAZON ain't going anywhere.

[Zalatix]

10. Fewer people have any money to spend.

If this situation doesn't reverse itself, neither Amazon nor anyone else will have enough people to sell to. They will have to shrink.

And Amazon isn't immortal, either. No business is.

[area51]

17. +1

This is what happens when you have a 30.5% unemployment rate.

[cali]

18. I call bullshit on that number

it's from 2 years ago. I called bullshit on it then too.

Here's why:

He cited a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that showed the Warren-Youngstown-Boardman area lost about 22,000 nonfarm jobs from January 2008 through August 2010, falling to 216,800.

He extrapolates for the entire country using one depressed area.

And this:

The YSU study also includes the underemployed - people who aren't able to get full-time jobs due to the economy; people on sick leave or early retirement; recipients of government aid, such as a low-wage worker getting Earned Income Tax Credits, or prison and jail populations.

And this:

He noted it's also hard to define prison populations or what constitutes a standing military. He said for the study, the total number of service men and inmates represents people not in the labor market.

Yes, unemployment is way too high in most regions of the county, but I hate bullshit studies.

Personally, I use the Disney Company as a measure of the discretionary income that Americans have. And I've done so for several years.

Who goes to Disney World? Not the uber wealthy. It's a middle class destination. Who buys Disney products? Again, largely a middle class market.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/784031-disney-a-good-buy-ahead-of-earnings

[Nye Bevan]

12. Bricks and mortar stores need to adapt to the 21st century.

If they stick their heads in the sand and pretend it's the 1950s, they will go the way of Borders.

[HiPointDem]

13. fuck the 21st century and its no-employment business model.

[Nye Bevan]

15. And fuck that cotton gin for destroying all those jobs in the 19th century. (nt)

[HiPointDem]

16. gee, not the buggy whip?

[HiPointDem]

14. things sure change quick.

It was named "Company of the Year" by Forbes magazine in 2004,[9] "Specialty Retailer of the Decade" by Discount Store News in 2001,[10] ranked in the Top 10 of "America's Most Generous Corporations" by Forbes in 2005 (based on 2004 giving),[11] and made Fortune magazine's List of Most Admired Companies in 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_buy


that's depression economics for you.


In 2011 Best Buy had $1.2 billion in profits & 180,000 employees, a profit of over $7000 per employee.

Amazon had $631 million in profits with 69,000 employees, a profit of $9145 per employee.