Sales Floor Let's meet in the Middle; an Electronics/Tech thread

[BoxCutter]

If I was a negative person I wouldn't be leading my electronics team. I know we sell crap. I accept that we sell crap. I simply don't tell people we sell crap. When asked I try and just highlight the good things. That is how I am still around after so many years.

So, what brands in each category do you think Target should be stocking and selling?

 

[oath2order]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

You would be telling people not to buy %95 of your department. ALL of the TVs are crap models,

I bought a Samsung for about $250 at Target approximately 4 years ago. I use it semi-regularly for gaming. Still works great.

We didn't have anything more that a descent pair of headphones until the Sony 1000XM3's came along.

My Skullcandy works just fine.

None of the bluetooth speakers accell,

I mean your spelling clearly doesn't. "accell" is a new one on me.

The laptops are literally tablet hardware with a wired keyboard, no upgradability and if any part of it breaks it is not repairable.

How many people are actually going to be upgrading their laptop?

If you know anything about electronics and gadgets, you either dont work general retail or you just shut up and serve koolaid.

If you know anything about retail, you know that Target's line of products is perfect for who they're trying to market towards.

 

[daemon]

So, what brands in each category do you think Target should be stocking and selling?

Headphones:
Budget minded $60 , SteelSeries, Ospry, Advanced. There are a lot of korean/chinese/japanese companies that make the high end headphones for other major brands who have stepped into the ring with more affordable versions of their own branding.
Entry $100: Shure, Grado, AKG, Audio Technica.
Mid level $200 you have Sony, Sennheiser, Grado, Beyerdynamic.

TV's, we need to offer things like the Vizio M series and the TCL series 6 in ALL stores.

Laptops: Dell, MSI, Asus plz. They all offer good $600 options.

Phones: Samsung, LG, ONE, Asus all have good mid ranges phones. Due to conflict of interest it would be kind of hard to sell these though. You could sell the crap out of a galaxy A8 and total wireless at half the cost of a flagship + top tier plan, but target mobile gets such a huge kick back from those sales. Sadly this is why dealing with cell phones in stores is such a pain, sales people often have ulterior motives for pushing you to a specific brand because their job presents them.

Bluetooth Speakers: It does not seem like any top tier audio makers have entered this ring with high quality speakers, what we have is what there is aside from chinese knockoffs. They just have so many areas of improvement. They do get the job done and if you spend the money, multiple UE units will handle ANY JOB.

Printers: Give us Brother back, and some of the affordable laser printer models.

Cameras: Hard to beat canon, sony, and nokia, just update models pls. Looks like there is a new mirror less design that is getting a lot of traction.

Fitbits, I loath their prices but I praise their simplicity. Just for gods sake, give us accessories back! Oh and speaking of things taken away from us that made made money, portable radios and discman!

Computer networking: We carry a ton of stuff that most people wouldn't need or use. My main problem is our 1900ac level routers are still kind of crap in that the models we carry are the inexpensive models that have crappy internals and thus difficult or impossible to load alternative firmware like OpenWRT/DDWRT onto. I think if someone is going to spend the money (or better yet, I can talk someone into buying one) on a 1900ac model, make it one of the ones like linksys wrt1900ac or netgears r7800 which are well supported. The 300/750 models are ok. I recommend one for the grandparents who just web browse, and the single guy/one child who streams to just one TV in his house.

Oh and we NEED a video display that outlines how wifi extenders work and how they get setup. I get so many returns on these things because people don't know a thing about networking.

I bought a Samsung for about $250 at Target approximately 4 years ago. I use it semi-regularly for gaming. Still works great.

You clearly don't do anything besides some card games. Even the top end samsungs NOW struggle against apples bionic chip. The new AIR tablet is a small monster. That said if you were NOT a gamer, I would totally recommend samsungs tab 5e. If we sold it.

My Skullcandy works just fine.

That is because you don't know of any better. Honestly once you hear how good a quality $60 pair of ear buds sound, you would scoff at what we have on that wall.

I mean your spelling clearly doesn't. "accell" is a new one on me.

Pulling the spelling nazi card are we? I had a brain fart and was thinking of shortening the word accelerator for some reason.

How many people are actually going to be upgrading their laptop?

Did you ask them? It is hard to give examples based on OUR models because our laptops are so under powered I consider them EOL out the door. You are already buying a processor that cannot game or do video/photo editing in the slightest.

If you know anything about retail, you know that Target's line of products is perfect for who they're trying to market towards.

No room for improvement? We are trying to go against amazon and best buy here. I need the proper ammunition.

 

[tholmes]

You clearly don't do anything besides some card games. Even the top end samsungs NOW struggle against apples bionic chip. The new AIR tablet is a small monster. That said if you were NOT a gamer, I would totally recommend samsungs tab 5e. If we sold it.

Just noting that the original comment was about a TV, not a phone/tablet...

^ speaking of tablets, though, we need significantly nicer stuff in this range. Our selection is laughable for anything to come close to an iPad.

No room for improvement? We are trying to go against amazon and best buy here. I need the proper ammunition.

We would need to overhaul the entire electronics department to compete with Best Buy. We don't hold a candle to what they carry, and they blatantly don't consider us a competitor in a lot of areas.

The big thing to remember is what the goal is "Target run and Done." We serve the clientele that doesn't care all that much about their customization options or firmware or upgrades. Yeah, I want better stuff in a lot of areas, but Spot isn't ready or prepared for that leap.

I agree with you on the printers, cameras, TVs, and mostly for the laptops. Give us more variety and a couple models that go higher up the scale so guests can compare; it would make a world of difference.

For the laptops, we simply don't sell the higher-end stuff that we have (at least at my store). About 80% of the interactions I have regarding laptops see people trying to spend under $300 for a laptop, and Chromebooks sell well. Give me more options any day and a couple decent $500 computers, but only a couple. Anything more is overkill for the Spot we work for.

With phones, I agree with you that we need better stuff to attract a different crowd, but I think Spot needs to double down on Plus Mobile first. As long as Marketsource has a commission system based on contract sales alone, we can't compete or carry unlocked mid-range phones. As mobile myself, I'm already frustrated that my selection of contract devices is literally just iPhone XS/XR or Galaxy S10/S10+.

Regarding speakers and headphones, lots of people really can't tell, and I personally see the stuff under $40 move a lot faster than the more expensive stuff, and it's a better profit margin. We're fine here unless Spot manages to significantly increase it's number of audiophile guests.

Lastly, I say just don't mess with the networking selection other than adding literally anything for DSL modems, they would fly off the shelves. I just want a display similar to the wall mount display fixtures: pictures and explanations of the general workings. I'd also be up for a video demo, but I'll start in Spot's comfort zone.

 

[Mikuhl]

If heyday made AirPod clones like you can get on Ali for 20 dollars, holy shit would people buy them. But yes, less Chromebooks please... Partner with Xiaomi for the unlocked phones, or at least just carry the newest Motorola and not one 3 versions behind... Speaker brands are fine but yeet out Altec. We need new series TVs. I can't believe Samsung re-released series 7 for Target like it's a new TV or something.. At least Vizio is bringing Quantum Dot.

 

[techGuy777]

If heyday made AirPod clones like you can get on Ali for 20 dollars, holy shit would people buy them. But yes, less Chromebooks please... Partner with Xiaomi for the unlocked phones, or at least just carry the newest Motorola and not one 3 versions behind... Speaker brands are fine but yeet out Altec. We need new series TVs. I can't believe Samsung re-released series 7 for Target like it's a new TV or something.. At least Vizio is bringing Quantum Dot.

The RU models are the 2019 models. We got the RU6, 7, and 8 this year. I dont know the improvements exactly between the NU7100 vs RU7100 but I hope there’s at least something better, lol.

Edit: Actually here you go. I also recommend this website to any Electronics team member(if you wanna learn more about tvs and specific models):

Samsung NU7100 vs Samsung RU7100 Side-by-Side TV Comparison

The Samsung NU7100 and the Samsung RU7100 both have very similar performance. The RU7100 has a slightly faster response time which is great if you watch sports, and a much lower input lag which is great for those who play video games. The NU7100, on the other hand, can deliver more uniform blacks.

www.rtings.com

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

You would be telling people not to buy %95 of your department. ALL of the TVs are crap models, not a single one can do HDR properly (Stores that dont carry the 8000's or OLEDs). We didn't have anything more that a descent pair of headphones until the Sony 1000XM3's came along. None of the bluetooth speakers accell, they all have a critical flaw. All of our mobile accessories are crap. Printers are total junk. Our cameras are 3 years old or older. The laptops are literally tablet hardware with a wired keyboard, no upgradability and if any part of it breaks it is not repairable. Our entire line of discman and boom boxes are by jenson and you will be lucky to get a year of service out of them before the cd mechanism dies.

If you know anything about electronics and gadgets, you either dont work general retail or you just shut up and serve koolaid.

I like my Altec speakers.

 

[Llamanatee]

I always get people asking about our laptops looking for something with power and we dont have that. Lol

Same.

 

[Llamanatee]

Anyone else have to clean up after their team mates give people wrong information about electronics? Winner of the week told a guest the MAIN difference between Amazon Fire Tables and Ipads are the chargers. How this person got hired for electronics is beyond me. I’ve not been scheduled to work with them because of my aggressive personality and low tolerance for bull shit.

 

[tholmes]

Anyone else have to clean up after their team mates give people wrong information about electronics? Winner of the week told a guest the MAIN difference between Amazon Fire Tables and Ipads are the chargers. How this person got hired for electronics is beyond me. I’ve not been scheduled to work with them because of my aggressive personality and low tolerance for bull shit.

It's been a little while since I've had one that extreme, but yeah. Doing mobile is a nightmare some days because one of the TMs doesn't have a super great grasp on how cell phone stuff works yet. He is trying, though.

 

[Mikuhl]

I just don't understand heyday. We were going through the 5 billion repacks of heday stuff in the back and came across one of their larger power banks, but it was like purpley pink color. Who is in charge of Heyday creating all these fucking colors?? I would like to speak to them... I wouldn't even say that's alienating 50% of people you would want to buy the product, its more like 99% of people aren't going to buy a golden camouflage power bank, or puke yellow headphones, or FLAMING HOT PINK wireless charger... ????

 

[Mikuhl]

Although Heyday TWS earphones would kill. But you know they would only come in poop brown, throw up green, and carrot orange.

 

[BoxCutter]

View attachment 8189
Although Heyday TWS earphones would kill. But you know they would only come in poop brown, throw up green, and carrot orange.

Don't forget Piss Yellow!

 

[Llamanatee]

Y’all jinxed my store.
I walked into an LG with a blue screen this morning.

 

[techGuy777]

Anyone else have to clean up after their team mates give people wrong information about electronics? Winner of the week told a guest the MAIN difference between Amazon Fire Tables and Ipads are the chargers. How this person got hired for electronics is beyond me. I’ve not been scheduled to work with them because of my aggressive personality and low tolerance for bull shit.

We had an Electronics team member a few years back that thought “cord cutter certified” advertised on one of the smart TVs meant you couldnt cut the cord with scissors. (In his defense it did have a diagram of a scissor cutting a cord right next to the words, but cmon).

 

[can't touch this]

We had an Electronics team member a few years back that thought “cord cutter certified” advertised on one of the smart TVs meant you couldnt cut the cord with scissors. (In his defense it did have a diagram of a scissor cutting a cord right next to the words, but cmon).

Does he also think a firewall is made of real fire?

 

[oath2order]

Behold the worst cover

 

[Llamanatee]

Behold the worst cover

I beg to differ. This is the first Kidz Bop song I ever heard waaaay back in the day.

 

[oath2order]

DO YOU HAVE MARIO MAKER 2

 

[daemon]

DO YOU HAVE MARIO MAKER 2

I'm missing that fun. Also it's amazing how many people miss the new release endcaps.

 

[daemon]

I beg to differ. This is the first Kidz Bop song I ever heard waaaay back in the day.

I'm trying to determine if those are music videos, or behind the scene videos of kids fashion shoots.

 

[Llamanatee]

I'm trying to determine if those are music videos, or behind the scene videos of kids fashion shoots.

The chicken noodle soup one use to play on the commercials advertising Kidz Bop.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

DO YOU HAVE MARIO MAKER 2

Yes

 

[rog the dog]

DO YOU HAVE MARIO MAKER 2

To be honest we might idk I'm on vacation

 

[techGuy777]

DO YOU HAVE MARIO MAKER 2

But did you store get those tin lunchboxes that come free with the game? Because my store sure as hell didn't.