Global Geek News Blog

Greetings Readers!

It is almost that time of year again, to line up with dozens or hundreds of people at insane hours after a night of shoveling as much turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie in our face as humanly possible, all in the name of getting a bargain.  That’s right, Black Friday, the day I deem to be better than all other holidays combined, is just a few weeks away.  Black Friday circulars for the major retailers have already started to leak onto the Internet, but for some reason, retailers don’t see this as a good thing.

If you are like me and watch for new Black Friday ads closer than who won what state in the presidential election, you know exactly what I am talking about.  Every year, a handful of major retailers such as Walmart, Sears, Office Depot, and others send take-down notices and sue websites who post their ads early.  They bully the little guy just so that people don’t see their sales before they want them to, but of course this is often after the ads have been up long enough that countless people have already seen them.  This is one of the worst things that these companies can do, especially with the economic problems we have now.

Of course these companies defend this bullying by giving the excuse that other retailers are going to try to match or undercut them to take away their business.  This idea is a load of crap and here is why.  Most companies who are already pinching every penny, aren’t going to spend the money the time and money it would cost to redesign and reprint their Black Friday ad just to try to steal a handful of customers.  Rarely do I even see products that I want on sale at multiple stores, rather less at a big enough price difference that would make another company jealous enough to redo their ad to undercut or match the competition.  When you take into account price matching, which most stores do, this excuse becomes completely bunk.

Retailers need to realize that the more time customers have to plan their Black Friday shopping, the better.  Especially in bad economic times such as this, the more time customers have to save up and better budget their Black Friday spending, the more likely they are to purchase the big ticket items such as televisions, computers, digital cameras, and game consoles.  I typically start my Black Friday planning at the beginning of November or ads start to surface, whichever comes first.  By the time Black Friday arrives, not only have I figured out what I am going to get, I have the money saved up to do it and have my attack plan made (Figuring out what stores open when so I can get there early enough to get the bargains while not losing out on other bargains at other stores.  This occasionally involves multiple people).  With unemployment the highest it has been in years and the economy in the tank, it would be better for everybody if the ads were released as soon as possible so that consumers can save up and adjust their budget accordingly to get the items they need or just really want.

There is a major disconnect between the retailers and the consumer.  Until retailers such as Walmart understand this disconnect and change their attitude about this issue, they will fail to reach their potential sales figures.  Contact the major retailers and voice your opinion!  If enough people comment, they might just change their ways to the benefit of everyone.

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray

Greetings Readers!

Do you buy products that come in packaging that is impossible to open without something short of a stick of dynamite?  If so, you have likely experienced “wrap rage.”  If you are tired of turning yourself into a bloody mess just to open your precious new gadget or gadget accessory, Amazon is coming to your rescue with frustration-free packaging!

I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I have cut myself on that impossible to open hard plastic packaging whenever I purchase a new set of headphones or memory stick for my PSP.  I have been wondering for pretty much my entire life, why can’t companies make packaging that I don’t have to use scissors or a very sharp knife to get into, only to still end up with several cuts?  I understand the whole idea of not wanting things easily stolen from a store, but to protect your product at the cost of my hands is beyond stupid.  Thank goodness, finally a company such as Amazon is standing up against this evil packaging practice and is on the side of the consumer.

Before you get your hopes up just yet, this is a multi-year initiative, not an overnight change.  They have this to say on their announcement on the Amazon home page.

Amazon is working with leading manufactures to deliver products inside smaller, easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard boxes with less packaging material (no frustrating plastic clamshells or wire ties).

It sounds like it will be a while before it reaches the majority of products typically contained in the clam shell packaging (the hard plastic stuff), but at least its coming.  Currently, you can only purchase select products from Mattel, Microsoft, Fisher-Price and Transcend with the frustration-free packaging.  To view the entire list of products available with this great new packaging, you can visit http://www.amazon.com/packaging.

While this is great for the consumer, I can only imagine how mad the bandaid makers are right now.  I expect to see a considerable drop in their revenue from this great development.

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray

Greetings Readers!

In case you haven’t opened your feed reader or checked your favorite tech blogs today, there is more bad news surrounding Circuit City.  They have announced the closing of 155 stores across the country (list here).  This of course comes on top of the news last week that Sony has stopped shipments to them, in mid shipment, because they are afraid that Circuit City can’t pay for the shipments.  The NYSE also warned Circuit City that they are about to have their stock listing removed because it has been below $1 for over 30 days.  At this point, it would be hard for news to get much worse about Circuit City.

Best Buy has been beating the snot out of Circuit City for a while, and it looks like they are chomping at the bit to put the last nail in Circuit City’s coffin.  I have never seen why Best Buy has any more appeal than Circuit City, but around here, they are pretty much identical in size, inventory and price.  The only real difference I can see is the fact that the Geek Squad is much better known than Circuit City’s Firedog service.  Honestly, I hate both companies equally.  From the employees that know nothing, to the prices which are disgustingly high compared to what you can find online, both stores can gladly die off as far as I am concerned.  When I talk about the stores, instead of using their actual names, I typically refer to them as Worst Buy and Circuit Sucky.  The only redeeming quality they have compared to online retailers is that I can get something the day I want it instead of having to wait a day or more to get something shipped.  Even then, I hate that I have to pay sales tax when I never have to with most online retailers such as Amazon.

For the sake of getting things when I need them, I am kind of glad that my local Circuit City isn’t one of the ones that is closing.  Of course that feeling will quickly vanish as soon as I get trampled by the mob of people that will descend on the store on my favorite holiday of the year, Black Friday.  Circuit City has always been apart of my Black Friday tradition, and it will be hard to imagine it not being there in the future.  I should probably say that I expect Circuit City to go out of business as early as middle of next year but almost certainly before the decade is over.

I think there are two main factors as to why Circuit City is having such a hard time.  #1: Pricing!  With the possible exceptions of video games and bargain bin DVDs, I can typically find most of the same items that Circuit City sells online and for much cheaper, often as low as half the price even after shipping!  I have gone into the store on a couple of occasions to look for various computer parts, only to get pissed off when I see I have to pay double the online price just because I need it right away.  #2:  Service!  While I have not visited every Circuit City to say that this is true about all of them, for every Circuit City that I have been to, most of the employees don’t know anything more than how to take money.  They often can’t tell me about a product, how it compares to other products, or even where a certain product is!  To be fair, I have this exact same problem with Best Buy (and the pricing problem to an extent as well).  Is it really that hard to find a person that has at least a little knowledge about what they are selling?  If you combined the knowledge of all of the Circuit City employees at my local store, it probably wouldn’t even be half of what I know about the products!

Circuit City is hoping the new store closing move will help it become profitable, and while it did bump the stock up over 20%, I don’t think even this can stop its slow slide to death.  At this point, I think Circuit City just hopes that it can survive and that nobody tries to put it under before they have tried everything they can.

It is for these reasons that I am not sad to see Circuit Sucky go, and I would likely wet myself in excitement of the same thing happened to Worst Buy.

Are you glad to see Circuit City go?  Do you wish that Best Buy would go down with them?  Have a fond memory of the stores?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

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-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray