Those pesky mail-in rebates took one step closer to extinction at Best Buy today as the leading consumer electronics retailer announced it had eliminated more than 65 percent of them on computers and computer-related merchandise. This is in step with a two-year plan the company started in April 2005 to phase out mail-in rebates altogether.
Tag Archive: Ron Boire
Best Buy to Eliminate Rebates
“In response to customer complaints, Best Buy Co. Inc., the world’s largest electronics retailer, promised Friday to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years. Best Buy’s rivals, including CircuitCity Stores and CompUSA, are expected to follow suit.
“Our customers are telling us they just hate the process,” said Ron Boire, executive vice president and general merchandise manager at Best Buy.”
We love to hear this, but the question is whether customers will still get discounts on the products they pay for. Will the savings you would get from a rebate still be passed on in one form or another?
Best Buy To Offer More Plasma, LCD TV’s
The increased commitment to those categories, along with wireless and home networking, will come at the expense of analog TV, conventional audio and PDAs, whose floor space and inventory levels will be reduced, senior executives said.
The news came in a conference call that followed the release of the company’s first fiscal quarter earnings.
VP/general merchandise manager Ron Boire described a “major reset” for Best Buy’s flat panel display assortment that will grow the category from 40 to 60 models. “We’re taking the assortment up significantly,” he said, giving Best Buy an “industry leading” position in flat panel TVs. President/chief operating officer Al Lenzmeier stressed that despite the popularity of DLP and rear projection LCD, the expansion will come largely in plasma and flat panel LCD displays.
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