The JC Penney (attempted) model at Best Buy?

[Badger52]

Link to the story.

Snippet:

Ron Johnson's flawed experiment to turn J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP ) around by opening branded mini-stores in the department-store chain is alive and well at Best Buy (NYSE: BBY ) .

Shares of Best Buy moved higher on Thursday on news that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) will open hundreds of stores inside Best Buy's cavernous superstores this summer. Best Buy stock also moved nicely higher when Samsung announced an even larger mini-store initiative two months ago.

The market eventually soured on Johnson's vision when it failed to generate sales growth at J.C. Penney. A similar fate may also await Best Buy.

Personally I think they'll screw this up but, not to worry, the consumer in the mid-size markets will get screwed first.

[MR2]

Getting quality service at BestBuy has always been spotty. I've often run into motivated and very knowledgeable employees, but more often I'll find many who have no clue (obviously) where the restroom is.

With the advent of Internet sales, I've found that the only time I buy at BB is for their loss-leaders. Black-Friday for example. In fact this last go around all the things I was looking for were available the day before on their (and others) web site - so I didn't even have to "wait" in line.

J.C. Penny? Didn't they go extinct with Monkey Wards and Sears?

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by MR2

J.C. Penny? Didn't they go extinct with Monkey Wards and Sears?

You're right about Ward's of course; RIP long time now.
Not sure how it is in the really big cities; in "the city" near here there is a mall, with Sears at one end, JC Penney at the other, and a zillion high-end specialty stores between. (In town here, there's actually a little Sears catalog outlet that will get stuff & have it shipped in locally for pickup. Staff of 2 gals, both pretty good with a pallet jack.)

With so many little branded niches carved out in the Penney's store & the other competition a few steps away, not sure how their bottom-line is but they are mostly a place for people to traverse from that end of the parking lot to the mall. (I avoid the place entirely unless under duress, where I will wait in the middle near the Victoria's Secret entrance. Statistically better scenery, although I'd like to see them do an old-school sidewalk cafe there like the Kranzler instead of another sunglasses/smart-phone kiosk.)

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by DocIllinois

This wouldn't generate enough revenue to pay the modern mall's high leasing cost.

If you come up with something, though, I'll gladly lend my small business experience to pitch it to Best Buy, so they can have a mini-store to draw the bored IT guys and coffee tweaked soccer families.

If Starbucks doesn't beat us to it, I'll retire to San Louis Obispo with my share of the millions.

LMAO, hell no - I was just musing about that very specific location.
There's already a Starbucks, and the giant Barnes & Noble shrine in the middle has one of their own too. Americans couldn't pull off a Kranzler anyway and they're in too much of a hurry all the time.