Yesterday, I went into a Best Buy for the first time in ages because I needed a USB A to USB micro b cable and I was on the road in a small city (fewer than 50K).
I was surprised by how clean, well-organized, and well-staffed it was. When I asked where such cables were (not having yet left the front of the store because, not having a lock with me, I needed to stow my bicycle up front), the associate on the floor came over and directed me precisely and accurately to where the cables were.
I hope Best Buy figures out how to stick around because the cable I bought is actually pretty nice (braided cable) and I like having the option to buy quality electronic accessories from a clean storefront when I'm on the road (i.e. urgent electronics need and I don't want a low-quality no-name throw-it-away-after-5-uses knock-off).
The thing I find Best Buy really useful for is things that actually need to fit you or do not have a standardized size or really varying quality like headphones or mice. I get attached to models of both of those items and eventually they get deprecated and I have to find new ones and the Amazon experience just doesn't work for those things unless you want to buy 3 and return 2 that don't work for you.
I also feel like it's the same with phones- you can can go and see if it feels right in your hand or if you want the XL model or something and since it's not a mobile phone store primarily it's less apparent pressure then the dedicated stores for those sorts of things.
I think they do have a place going forward if they keep the experience up, the other big box places you can buy electronics such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Staples end up just being depressing supermarket-esque experiences with half the products on the shelves being out of date by 3 or more years or just being the absolute bottom of the barrel in quality. It really feels like a struggle for other stores to carry decent quality middle of the road products, but Best Buy does well in that aspect.
I was surprised by how clean, well-organized, and well-staffed it was. When I asked where such cables were (not having yet left the front of the store because, not having a lock with me, I needed to stow my bicycle up front), the associate on the floor came over and directed me precisely and accurately to where the cables were.
I hope Best Buy figures out how to stick around because the cable I bought is actually pretty nice (braided cable) and I like having the option to buy quality electronic accessories from a clean storefront when I'm on the road (i.e. urgent electronics need and I don't want a low-quality no-name throw-it-away-after-5-uses knock-off).