Best Buy Bait and Switch
Last year, the day after Thanksgiving, I went into Best Buy to purchase a computer that I had read about in the sales flyers. I knew that I needed a new laptop for work, and there was a pretty good deal on a Toshiba. I'm not overzealous about these kinds of sales, so I slept in, and went into the store around 11 A.M.
The first employee I asked about the computer told me that he didn't think they carried that particular computer, but he wasn't certain about that. The next employee I asked told me that they had sold out of that particular computer I had seen the flyer, but that there was another, virtually identical laptop she could give me that was $100 more, and came with a printer and carrying case. I was anxious for a new computer, and I had been planning to buy a carrying case too, so I quickly warmed up to the idea.
It's called Bait and Switch. It's an old sales tactic that lures in customers with the promise of a cheap product offering, but when the customer asks for it, it's unavailable for some reason, but a higher-priced substitute is.
I had heard of the Bait and Switch tactic long before I went into Best Buy that Black Friday, but when the employee told me, without missing a beat, "Hey, we have an alternative laptop you can buy", the thought that I was being manipulated did not cross my mind.
Later, it dawned on me that it was a possibility. I Googled "Best Buy Bait and Switch" and quickly found lots of people sharing similar stories. (Google Suggest even offered "best buy bait and switch black friday 2009" before I was even finished typing my query into the search engine.) The stories came from people who were frustrated because they were lured into the store with false promises and were then upsold on a more expensive product...very similar to my experience.
Don't get me wrong: I'm happy with the computer. That's really not the issue. I keep it around for some programming projects and to record my music on. But whenever I'm sitting there, waiting for it to boot up, I can't help but remember where it came from. I remember being manipulated, I remember being made into a sucker, and I don't like myself for it. I don't like Best Buy for it.
I'm sure some of my friends (the Libertarian ones) will tell me that it's nobody's fault but my own. Caveat emptor, the old mantra goes. I should have been thinking and should have realized what was happening at the time. And they're partly right. But in the case where Best Buy "tricks" a customer into buying a computer, under those circumstances, how is that person supposed to feel when they find out?
It's not smart. I used to make a habit of going to Best Buy, just for the hell of it, whenever I passed by their store. Often, I would buy something. Now, I never bother going there. And if I need to buy something, I try and go to Best Buy as an absolute last resort. Nobody wins in these cases: I lost a place to browse electronics and DVDs, and they lost the lifetime value of me being a customer. I wouldn't tell anyone they should go to Best Buy now.
Manipulation leads to transactions, not relationships, and long-term successful business strategy is based on the latter.
The first employee I asked about the computer told me that he didn't think they carried that particular computer, but he wasn't certain about that. The next employee I asked told me that they had sold out of that particular computer I had seen the flyer, but that there was another, virtually identical laptop she could give me that was $100 more, and came with a printer and carrying case. I was anxious for a new computer, and I had been planning to buy a carrying case too, so I quickly warmed up to the idea.
It's called Bait and Switch. It's an old sales tactic that lures in customers with the promise of a cheap product offering, but when the customer asks for it, it's unavailable for some reason, but a higher-priced substitute is.
I had heard of the Bait and Switch tactic long before I went into Best Buy that Black Friday, but when the employee told me, without missing a beat, "Hey, we have an alternative laptop you can buy", the thought that I was being manipulated did not cross my mind.
Later, it dawned on me that it was a possibility. I Googled "Best Buy Bait and Switch" and quickly found lots of people sharing similar stories. (Google Suggest even offered "best buy bait and switch black friday 2009" before I was even finished typing my query into the search engine.) The stories came from people who were frustrated because they were lured into the store with false promises and were then upsold on a more expensive product...very similar to my experience.
Don't get me wrong: I'm happy with the computer. That's really not the issue. I keep it around for some programming projects and to record my music on. But whenever I'm sitting there, waiting for it to boot up, I can't help but remember where it came from. I remember being manipulated, I remember being made into a sucker, and I don't like myself for it. I don't like Best Buy for it.
I'm sure some of my friends (the Libertarian ones) will tell me that it's nobody's fault but my own. Caveat emptor, the old mantra goes. I should have been thinking and should have realized what was happening at the time. And they're partly right. But in the case where Best Buy "tricks" a customer into buying a computer, under those circumstances, how is that person supposed to feel when they find out?
It's not smart. I used to make a habit of going to Best Buy, just for the hell of it, whenever I passed by their store. Often, I would buy something. Now, I never bother going there. And if I need to buy something, I try and go to Best Buy as an absolute last resort. Nobody wins in these cases: I lost a place to browse electronics and DVDs, and they lost the lifetime value of me being a customer. I wouldn't tell anyone they should go to Best Buy now.
Manipulation leads to transactions, not relationships, and long-term successful business strategy is based on the latter.