Best Buy offers options throughout the entire genre of electronics. Everyone still needs and buys electronics and no new electronics stores have opened . . . so why is Best Buy’s electronics empire crumbling?
Every store (or for that matter, every niche industry) has a finite life expectancy. Some companies can last for decades and continue to grow, like Target, Walmart and grocery stores, but others are not so lucky. In recent years, consumers have watched as stores like Blockbuster and Circuit City fizzle away, finding their last hope on the web. Blockbuster was a niche store, in that it focused its business on renting out movies and games, and once a new niche comes in and improves on the good or service (Netflix and GameFly) they are selling, they probably will not last long. It is quite common to see old niche stores die and watch new ones grow. But when wider–focused stores like Circuit City (and soon Best Buy) take the plunge, heads turn.
Best Buy is fading away for a couple of reasons and it is not because a new electronics seller came into existence. The need to try electronics before you buy them is becoming unnecessary. The fast-paced lifestyle that everyone lives is making us switch over to the speed of websites for purchases.
But Best Buy has a website, so they should be fine then, right? Not really. Not many people use the Best Buy website because the online market is dominated by sites like Amazon and Newegg. Some of you are probably thinking, “There are some items that I still like to purchase from a store, like televisions and computers” so Best Buy still has some sort of market space. Who needs to go to a store like Best Buy, which only offers a couple needs to the customer, when they can just check out the electronics selection at Target and Walmart?
If you have any comments or questions, contact me via email at cejeffre@asu.edu and follow me on Twitter @Court_Jeffrey
