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Tim Burns Effect posted:They also exclude services like Netflix from counting towards your data. I mean yeah if they were truly committed all of their data would be equally free or equally expensive But if they're going to let media sites be free at least it's most/all services and not like, only Comcast's streaming service and Apple Music or something.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:26
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All I gotta say is when the final nail is hammered in for the true death of retail, I hope Microcenter makes it out alive. Last minute the other day I urgently needed an HDMI to VGA adapter. Figuring 90% of the projectors in corporate offices are still VGA, I ventured to Staples with the utmost confidence that they would have one or two types for sale. Nope. Nothing. Again, this is an office supply store and a ridiculous number of offices in the corporate world still use VGA for their projectors or older plasmas. I go to Microcenter and they had seven different ones to choose from. SEVEN. Seven different makes, models, and types of HDMI to VGA adapters. Staples had zero. 800 different cell phone cases and power strips that you can get at a loving pharmacy, but not something slightly unique that an office might actually need. I have no doubt that poo poo like this is why Staples is in dire trouble. Not to mention the Staples brand of DVD-Rs (that were on sale by the way) were literally double the price of the DVD-Rs at Microcenter. Basically what I am saying is long live Microcenter.
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Apr 3, 2016 11:00
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Beastie posted:They didn't force it on anyone, but I had plenty of people above me tell me that it would be great if the whole store would tweet about their top holiday gift picks out of the merch and use a specific hashtag. You're in luck!
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Apr 3, 2016 17:43
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Tim Burns Effect posted:in college we had to post/tweet/advertise the lovely tv pilot we were making in our tv pilot class or else they knocked off points They are teaching you marketing. Doesn't count as you made 0$ from your school.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:09
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:All I gotta say is when the final nail is hammered in for the true death of retail, I hope Microcenter makes it out alive. Last minute the other day I urgently needed an HDMI to VGA adapter. Figuring 90% of the projectors in corporate offices are still VGA, I ventured to Staples with the utmost confidence that they would have one or two types for sale. Nope. Nothing. Again, this is an office supply store and a ridiculous number of offices in the corporate world still use VGA for their projectors or older plasmas. Microcenter has a great selection on obscure parts and usually half-decent prices on essentials like cables but holy poo poo is their customer service awful. There's only ever 2 people working in the DIY department and they're always busy tinkering with their friends' ridiculous rigs and always act lovely when you ask them for directions to an item. I also hate the way they bring a higher-priced item to the front instead of letting you walk it up like a big boy, and the last half-dozen times I've been there there's never more than 2 out of 9 registers open, no matter how stupid-long the line is. Really they're just lucky they timed their appearance on the market well - all the other PC retailers are dead, and nowadays DIY PC poo poo isn't as mystifying as it used to be so there's actually a decent amount of demand for it, so they're really the only ones out there if you want to get your poo poo right away.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:14
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drunk asian neighbor posted:Microcenter has a great selection on obscure parts and usually half-decent prices on essentials like cables but holy poo poo is their customer service awful. There's only ever 2 people working in the DIY department and they're always busy tinkering with their friends' ridiculous rigs and always act lovely when you ask them for directions to an item. I also hate the way they bring a higher-priced item to the front instead of letting you walk it up like a big boy, and the last half-dozen times I've been there there's never more than 2 out of 9 registers open, no matter how stupid-long the line is. I always do the pick it out online in store pickup thing. Saves me from having to wait in the 20 person long line.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:22
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Beastie posted:Barnes and Noble actually split Nook into a separate company a few years back. Then they sold part of Nook to Microsoft. They just bought back that chunk a year or two ago. Interestingly, Canada's B&N equivalent, Chapters/Indigo, is doing surprisingly well. They got into e-readers when one couldn't get Kindles in Canada (easily, at least) and cornered the Canadian ereader market. Then the moment they hit saturation, sold off the ereader division to Rakuten and Kobo has been doing fine ever since. They still sell them in store, but alongside ipads and andriod tablets. They also, sadly, cut back on the books and ramped up the "lifestyle" element. Overpriced knick kacks like sea salt toffee, throw rugs, paperweights, pillows and whatever suits the current theme (cabin life, back to university...). It sounded insane at the time, but by focussing on shilling overpriced lifestyle stuff, they've done wildly successful. The trade off is, there's less books but the stores stay open.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:51
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Frys isn't dead!  Just hilariously overpriced. Even though I hate waiting for computer stuff to show up in the mail (with all the inherent and frustrating DOA issues that are involved), it's waaaay cheaper to order from Newegg.
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Apr 3, 2016 21:42
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Fry's isn't THAT expensive for computer components except, for some reason, video cards, which are outrageously priced. But the fact that 75% of their stock has been sold and returned and is being resold keeps me from buying much from them, like you said, Newegg is so much easier. <fake edit> Fry's had a 90$ off sale on 4690K Intel processors, which was a helluva deal, except when I went in there, they had four processors in stock and every loving one of them had been opened/returned. I grabbed the least-molested box and took my chances - worked out ok, it OC'd fine at 4.3 on stock voltage.
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Apr 4, 2016 02:28
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Kllj
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Apr 4, 2016 02:48
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JnnyThndrs posted:Fry's isn't THAT expensive for computer components except, for some reason, video cards, which are outrageously priced. Nerd level 10 achieved
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Apr 4, 2016 02:50
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Microcenter owns and i have no complaints about it. but everytime i go to microcenter i end up talking to some old dude about unix or pdp-8s or some poo poo, somehow. every time
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Apr 4, 2016 04:52
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A White Guy posted:Frys isn't dead! Fry's has bad service.
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Apr 4, 2016 05:07
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Fry's has a food court and is just around the corner from microcenter so it's good to stop there for lunch. I might go get lunch and buy a new video card soon at microcenter.
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Apr 4, 2016 07:07
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Nonsense posted:Fry's has bad service. What do you expect when their employees are forced to make a certain quota of sales or have it go against you? The reason they have all that returned poo poo is probably their 30 day no questions asked return policy. I've done it a few times.
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Apr 4, 2016 16:28
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Holyshoot posted:What do you expect when their employees are forced to make a certain quota of sales or have it go against you? Last time I went to Fry's I grabbed a $4.99 USB adapter off the shelf, and a Fry's employee swooped in and hounded me all the way down the isle to the check-out line for me to let him take it to the back of the store where he was stationed, scan it, and give me a piece of paper to bring to all the way back to the check-out line so he could get credit for a sale he had no part in.  Not to mention you can't stand still in that store for 10 seconds without half a dozen employees running up asking if they can help you find something. It's legitimately insufferable and makes me actively avoid shopping there so I don't have to deal with swatting away floor staff to buy a loving HDMI cable.
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Apr 5, 2016 06:48
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lol what kind of hosed up 1947 business model is that like al bundy tryin to get that last set of keds so he can make enough commission to keep the lights on what the gently caress
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Apr 5, 2016 07:48
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i remember long ago i went with a friend to buy the then-newly-released Halo 2 at Best Buy a employee near the big table with a bunch of discs for the game: "Don't forget the strategy guide" "Oh, we're good." "Yeah, but this one has a lot of tricks and secrets." "Okay. We'll be sure to look them up, with Google, thanks." "No, you'll really want the guide it's got maps and such" "This is becoming a very weird interaction, it's TYOOL 2004 and the Internet has multiple websites telling you all of the things to know about any given video game." it was like they had his family and weren't releasing them alive unless he moved enough halo 2 official prima strategy guides i can only imagine what it's like a dozen years later
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Apr 5, 2016 07:56
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has anyone said ..... "Draino" yet?  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Apr 5, 2016 08:00
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you can't find the best drain cleaner in stores anymore because people use it to cook meth thanks walter white
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Apr 5, 2016 08:07
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Ein cooler Typ posted:you can't find the best drain cleaner in stores anymore because people use it to cook meth is that the poo poo that had skulls on the side and it comes in a gallon jug that then is sealed in a plastic bag? that poo poo gets it done.
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Apr 5, 2016 08:12
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Pure lye?
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Apr 5, 2016 09:43
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Nooner posted:has anyone said .. A few pages back yeah I still feel sorta bad about it. e: Darth123123 posted:About 542 SA posters thought of posting this, including me, but stopped. But here we are. Sponge Baathist has a new favorite as of 10:15 on Apr 5, 2016 |
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Apr 5, 2016 09:50
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Holyshoot posted:What do you expect when their employees are forced to make a certain quota of sales or have it go against you? Yeah holy poo poo this is my main turn off with retail commission jobs How the gently caress are you supposed to engender any kind of lasting teamwork on your staff if it's literally an attitude of "gently caress you got mine" between all the employees And for a new guy getting into it where the guys already there have established customers who demand they see this person, it's sometimes loving hard as poo poo to meet those quotas gently caress that method of retail business, it only makes the customer feel hassled and doesn't produce good results, only desperate employees In other chains that are going down the drain, Family Video
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Apr 5, 2016 10:00
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Sperglord Firecock posted:In other chains that are going down the drain, Family Video I sort of thought Family Video was diversifying itself pretty well, though, to cope with the diminishing home rental market. wiki posted:In addition to the brick and mortar store front, Family Video has branched off into other markets such as real estate, 24-hour fitness centers, and cable television.[6] The company also sells new and previously used items online.[7] Family Video expanded into the Canadian market in 2012.[8]
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Apr 5, 2016 10:12
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Huh. So that's why they're lingering Thought they were just barely hanging on
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Apr 5, 2016 10:45
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Sperglord Firecock posted:Yeah holy poo poo this is my main turn off with retail commission jobs Speaking of companies that are circling the drain and crappy commission things: I once got a job selling electronics part time at Sears. Of course they always trimmed my hours just so that I would never be full time. I got a pretty low hourly rate and a very small percentage of sales on things like TVs and protection plans. There was this old chickenhawk who had grandfathered in from an old system and got a much larger percentage of his sales. He was my supervisor and whenever I'd begin closing on a sale he'd give me some menial tasks to do, and I'd come back and he'd be ringing up the sale. I complained to the department head who said the guy was untouchable since he made all the sales. Well durr of course he made all the sales. poo poo employees and poo poo business practices. A few months later they starting firing people to keep in the black. I found out when I came for my next couple of weeks schedule and my other friend were no longer on there. When I asked that department head he said oh yeah you two don't work here anymore, didn't someone tell you? Gutless. This was right after Circuit City went under which was the last place I worked. After that I had enough with sinking retail ships.
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Apr 5, 2016 11:04
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Sperglord Firecock posted:Yeah holy poo poo this is my main turn off with retail commission jobs Sales commission is one thing but gently caress retail jobs where you're judged by extended warranties or some equally asinine metric. Yes, this lady came in and bought 20 pairs of $8 headphones as party favors. No, she didn't want to buy $2 extended warranties on items she's giving away as gifts, for 20 items. No, I don't have any other explanation for why I'm 3 for 23 on service plans today and I don't think I need one. gently caress you. By the way, our cost for those headphones is $1, so I'm getting yelled at for netting the company $140 of profit in a single transaction, meanwhile the coworker who sold a flatscreen TV for $480 made exactly 3 times the commission I did, while netting the company maybe $20 in profit on that transaction. This is literally why Radio Shack crashed and burned. Emphasizing high-cost, ultralow-profit items while ignoring the fact that their profit margins on the bullshit essentials (batteries, wire, components, you know, the stuff you associate with friggin Radio Shack) were often in the 70%+ range. The warranties were the icing on the soul-crushing cake, especially since we were literally told to sell them as replacement plans, but only covered "normal" wear and tear on items. (That changed near the end but the well had already been poisoned and nobody bought them anyway). e: also they changed the employee commission structure like 3 times in the 3 years I was there, which I'm still convinced was a trick to both pay employees less overall and deliberately obfuscate how they were getting paid (unless you wanted to keep a detailed spreadsheet of your sales transactions for the pay period, good luck ensuring your paycheck is what it's supposed to be!) Snow Cone Capone has a new favorite as of 15:13 on Apr 5, 2016 |
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Apr 5, 2016 15:11
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Sperglord Firecock posted:In other chains that are going down the drain, Family Video My father used to do some consulting work for them, and he said that one of the reasons they hung on was because (despite calling themselves "Family Video") in many of their stores they still have a porn section. That, plus the diversification of assets/the smart move of putting take-out pizza next to where you rent movies.
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Apr 5, 2016 17:33
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Troy Queef posted:My father used to do some consulting work for them, and he said that one of the reasons they hung on was because (despite calling themselves "Family Video") in many of their stores they still have a porn section. Yeah, there was a huge deal of pearl clutching made a few years back in Wichita, KS due to that. Lots of angry moms yelling about predators hanging out back there.
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Apr 5, 2016 17:37
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Troy Queef posted:My father used to do some consulting work for them, and he said that one of the reasons they hung on was because (despite calling themselves "Family Video") in many of their stores they still have a porn section. I walked into my hometown FV after a few years of living downstate and I was floored to see that they combined with a pizza place. Not only can you do carry out from the video store side (they have a window in their building that leads directly to the pizza counter) but if you order a pie for delivery they will grab the movie for you. If you order a pizza and want the delivery guy to return the movie you rented last time they will do that too. How did it take so long for a company to figure this out?
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Apr 5, 2016 17:51
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Beastie posted:I walked into my hometown FV after a few years of living downstate and I was floored to see that they combined with a pizza place. Not only can you do carry out from the video store side (they have a window in their building that leads directly to the pizza counter) but if you order a pie for delivery they will grab the movie for you. They put a Marcos pizza and Family video down the street from me about a year or two ago. The pizza is decent, but I was kinda shocked to see a movie rental place going in. Its still there and I see it is quite busy on the weekends.
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Apr 5, 2016 18:53
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As far as frys goes now a days it's not so bad. I've walked in there and bought a $100 item and not had a single person walk up to me or hound me. Seems like if you look like you don't know what you want they take an interest. Or if you ask for help finding something. Maybe they changed their system a bit? I know it was 10 years ago when a friend working there as a second job told me how it went. From what I remember he said if you didn't meet your sales minimum the remaining balance went on a credit card or something and you had to sell your next months minimum + what you didn't do last month. Or something like that. I have been in sales jobs before but they were for call centers and they never did anything like that. If you didn't hit your mins you just had to hit it next month or get a warning. You never had to make up previous short comings.
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Apr 5, 2016 19:05
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I still like going to Fry's because it looks like an Aztec temple and poo poo and sometimes I don't want to wait for computer poo poo I need that day.
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Apr 5, 2016 19:53
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KiteAuraan posted:I still like going to Fry's because it looks like an Aztec temple and poo poo and sometimes I don't want to wait for computer poo poo I need that day. The Fry's in Austin is just styled like a boring old piano. And yeah, Newegg and Amazon Prime both destroy Fry's, but sometimes you just can't wait on shipping times. Just had to get a couple keydrives earlier today, paying store prices for usb sticks I can get for a quarter of the price online made me squirm a bit. Captain Cornflake has a new favorite as of 08:15 on Apr 6, 2016 |
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Apr 6, 2016 08:12
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Sperglord Firecock posted:Yeah holy poo poo this is my main turn off with retail commission jobs Yea it's awful and only makes the customer pissed off. At the Sears I work at the appliances department is a drat soap opera because people are stealing sales and in general being really underhanded and sneaky. It's terrible and just ends up with confused and pissed off employees and customers.
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Apr 6, 2016 08:46
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Amazon shipped a router to my home at like 6pm on a sunday that i had ordered at 10am same day. That is fuckin crazy...
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Apr 6, 2016 08:49
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I sort of think shipping has gotten a bit worse on items in the last few years. A few years back, ship-to-store and home delivery used to be pretty quick even with the basic options. I ordered something from Wal-mart of all places in the late afternoon on a Wednesday and got it less than 24 hours later on my doorstep. Meanwhile, I've ordered stuff from Amazon lately that has taken them 3-4 days before they've even shipped it out.
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Apr 6, 2016 17:29
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I can honestly say no "sales associate" in any big box store has ever really sold me anything. My interaction with them is always limited to "Hey i would like to buy a <modelnumber>", they got my sale based on their physical proximity to me at the moment i decided i wanted the thing. So if you are looking for sales comissions hang out close to the big ticket items?
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Apr 6, 2016 18:43
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JediTalentAgent posted:I sort of think shipping has gotten a bit worse on items in the last few years. A few years back, ship-to-store and home delivery used to be pretty quick even with the basic options. I ordered something from Wal-mart of all places in the late afternoon on a Wednesday and got it less than 24 hours later on my doorstep. The struggle is real.
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Apr 7, 2016 00:53
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