Company-review site Glassdoor says that according to employees at both companies, Apple's repair technicians — known as "geniuses," with the attitude to match — make $18.30 per hour and $36,000 per year on average. That's about 56 percent more than Best Buy's Geek Squad "agents," who earn $11.58 per hour and $23,000…
Hm, how to grab shoppers' attention in the cavernous Mall of America, without having to pay some kid $7 an hour to stand there passing out fliers? A hologram man, sent from the future! It's only a matter of time now until Terminator-like robots patrol our nation's food courts, gesturing menacingly with their whirring…
Best Buy will begin selling Apple iPhones this September, but it won't make much or any money at all doing so, according to retail analyst Colin McGranahan, who writes in a not the chain won't markup the phone more than $50 if at all. So why's Best Buy doing it? One, to sell higher-margin accessories like iPhone…
Electronics retailer Best Buy will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G next month. Until now, only Apple Stores and AT&T outlets carried the phone. Like Apple Store customers, Best Buy shoppers must sign a two-year AT&T contract to leave the store with an iPhone. [WSJ]
BitTorrent has denied our report that the company laid off 12 out of 55 employees. That may be true: While our source told us 12 employees were on the layoff list, we've learned that, at the last minute, the jobs of two sales engineers, an HR manager, and an office manager were spared. Another tipster — "you can…
BitTorrent Inc., the file-sharing startup whose underlying technology is responsible for much of the piracy that plagues Hollywood, is laying off its sales and marketing department. The immediate cause of the layoffs: A failure to sell the Torrent Entertainment Network, BitTorrent's attempt at an online media store,…
Trying to download the Sex and the City movie last night, I had to wonder, When is a torrent site more comfort than a Cosmo? If you can't fulfill your Sex-seeking ladylove's needs with some unpacked .rar files, I understand. So does Best Buy's Geek Squad, which is offering rescue packages composed of quarters and…
(Screenshot via shifted)
Best Buy's Geek Squad is holding a memorial tonight to honor Arthur C. Clarke. Alas. Everyone was far too polite to say this about the recently deceased sci-fi writer: Had he lived in the U.S. rather than Sri Lanka, he'd be a prime membership candidate for the North American Man-Boy Love Association. "Once they have…
Apple is now the second largest music retailer, beating Best Buy, in the United States. NPD Group, the market-research firm which tracks sales, estimates 12 single-song downloads as an album. Why don't they just count revenues? That would be easier. [BusinessWeek]
"They're toads," Tony Kornheiser recently said about bloggers on a radio show for which he is paid good money. "They're little toads. Actually, they're pimples on the behind of the greater body politic in this country and in this city. And because, because they have access to airwaves and three or four people read…
Sales clerks at a number of TV retailers in Massachusetts gave inaccurate information regarding the upcoming analog-to-digital television conversion. Imagine that: Sales clerks giving inaccurate information! The switch will require users of older televisions to purchase a basic set-top box partially subsidized by…
Raelyn Campbell wants $54 million from Best Buy. She bought a $1,100 laptop and a $300 warranty for it from Best Buy in 2006. The next May, the laptop's on/off switch broke and Campbell brought it into the store for repairs. The store told her she'd have it back in two to six weeks. That didn't happen.
Sprint Nextel has revived serious discussions with startup Clearwire to form a joint venture that would bring in funding from the likes of Intel, Google and Best Buy to build a high-speed wireless network using WiMax technology. [WSJ]
Best Buy's quarterly profit stormed up 52 percent because of strong sales and fewer discounts than last year. Margin benefited from the "more rational" environment. Same-store sales climbed 6.7 percent. [WSJ]
We had to go to Best Buy today to buy some shit. I hate it there. The blue-shirted khaki-clad workers are like a poor mercenary brand of brigands gussied up to look like regulars. When they ask, "Can I help you?" they really aren't sure and most times they can't. Anyway! On the second floor in those mockups of…
Those Brits really have a way with words. The witty writers at British IT rag The Register summed it up so well: "CompUSA goes tits up." The computer retailer, which closed a number of stores earlier this year (including one half a mile from my house, natch), has sold itself to Gordon Brothers, a "restructuring…
Microsoft and Best Buy are liable for subscribing the retailer's customers to Microsoft's Internet service, MSN, without consent, the Supreme Court ruled today by overturning a lower court's ruling on an appeal. One question the Supremes should have asked: "Who in their right mind subscribes to dialup anymore?" [AP]
