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Best Buy aims to match Walmart's HDTV prices while sprucing up stores

by Darren Murph posted Mar 17th 2009 at 12:08AM


If you thought the death of Circuit City would lead to even higher prices at Best Buy, you're obviously not considering the Bentonville powerhouse in your calculations. Since the downfall of one of America's most well-known electronics retailers, Best Buy has now refocused on rivaling Walmart, who has done quite a lot over the past year or so to become a serious venue for buying new HDTVs. Granted, most of Walmart's offerings boast labels like VIZIO and Emerson, but that's beginning to change. In a new piece from the Wall Street Journal, incoming CEO Brian Dunn asserts that he's planning to "match" Wally World's famously low prices while making Best Buy stores more of an "experience." How exactly it plans to lower TV margins while sprucing up retail space is beyond us, but maybe it's looking to those $150 Monster-branded HDMI cables to pick up the slack.

Sony Style Comcast Labs opens to show off future of high-speed internet

by Darren Murph posted Mar 16th 2009 at 2:34PM


Eager to see what life's like on a Sony VAIO hitting speeds in excess of 160Mbps? Head on over to the City of Brotherly Love, as that's where a flashy new retail location is opening up to simultaneously showcase the future of high-speed internet and Sony gear. The Sony Style Comcast Labs facility will open its doors to the public tomorrow in Philadelphia's Comcast Center, where onlookers will be able to check out the power of DOCSIS 3.0 as well as some applications and platforms being developed to take advantage of all that speed. As far as we can tell, this co-branded location is nothing more than a showcase of current and future products for both firms, though we fully anticipate that reps will be on hand to take orders of whatever you fall for while browsing around. Anyone down for checking it out?

Gallery: Sony Style Comcast Labs opens to show off future of high-speed internet

TheaterXtreme franchises going strong after corporate namesake goes under

by Steven Kim posted Feb 8th 2009 at 7:12PM

TheaterXtreme logoHere's a story that's all too rare amid all of the recent news of store closings, layoffs and corporate exits -- now-independent TheaterXtreme franchises are doing well in the wake of the parent company's Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The linked story tells a story of entrepreneurial franchise owners who broke from the parent company after experiencing evaporating support, and have since adopted a "customers first" attitude on their way to growing business. We can't imagine why the corporate offices didn't take the advice to get into products central to custom home theaters like lighting control and distributed audio, but thankfully these franchises had an eye on the ball and decided to break ranks. Kudos to these owners who focused on delivering quality to customers and came out on top.

Verizon opens up FiOS TV test-drive kiosk in new Virginia Beach store

by Darren Murph posted Nov 28th 2008 at 6:53AM


We know -- everyone lacking FiOS just wants Verizon to push it out to more areas, but Verizon's hoping to secure more customers in the locations it's already in. For the second time in a week, we're being treated to a new Verizon store opening, and within is a test-drive kiosk where patrons can see first hand what the outfit's fiber-based programming / high-speed internet services are all about. The newest location is on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach, VA, and hey, even if you're completely uninterested in signing up, why not stop by just to check out the home theater setup and rest your loins in the plush chairs?

Verizon gives patrons a taste of FiOS TV / internet in new Columbia, MD store

by Darren Murph posted Nov 21st 2008 at 2:10AM

We've seen Verizon push its fiber-based FiOS TV and high-speed internet services in some rather odd locations, but at least store patrons won't be baffled when they see the demonstration kiosks in the carrier's new Columbia, Maryland store. Located at 8835 Columbia 100 Parkway in Suite B, the store offers up a "home theater setting where shoppers can relax in plush chairs and see for themselves what all the excitement is about as they experience FiOS TV on high-definition TVs." Better still, subscribers can swap or drop off FiOS TV set-top-boxes / remotes at the store, and they can even phone up friends in the southeast and brag about their proximity to the service. And you know they (you) will.

Pioneer opens second US retail store in Phoenix, Arizona

by Darren Murph posted Nov 15th 2008 at 3:06PM


For those ensconced in the Arizona desert and looking for a new KURO, you're in luck. Pioneer has just swung the doors open on its second US retail store, a 3,200 square-foot facility situated in the Northeast Valley of Phoenix, Arizona. The outfit opened its first US store in Orange County, California in August of 2006, and both stores will be responsible for selling a wide variety of Pioneer gear, most notably KURO flat-panels, Blu-ray decks and speakers / headphones typically reserved for the Japanese market. Now, if it manages to notch anything close to an impressive amount of sales (without vast, deep discounts) in this economy, you can color us floored.

Blu-ray getting larger chunk of floor space in Borders, Target

by Darren Murph posted May 30th 2008 at 3:51AM


With the format war being a distant memory in the minds of high-power retail execs, it's really no shock to hear of brick-and-mortar outlets shifting floor space towards Blu-ray. Sure, the high-def format still has quite aways to go before it begins to dominate DVD, but reports are already flowing in suggesting that Borders and Target are embracing the future. Reportedly, a couple of Target stores in Los Angeles increased BD facings from 60 to 90 since January, and we're also told that each Borders location "will feature at least one bay or rack fixture full of BD titles on one side," with larger stores having up to three. We'll admit -- Blu-ray player pricing is still well above where the general public wants it to be, but getting Blu-ray out in front on consumers is a surefire way to pull attention towards the medium.

Pioneer to launch new West Coast stores in 2009

by Steven Kim posted May 19th 2008 at 9:21AM

Pioneer Electronics store in Costa Mesa
Left coast gadget-philes will have a few new playgrounds sometime after spring of 2009, when Pioneer adds at least three more West Coast locations to the current Costa Mesa, CA store. Specific locations and dates have not been announced, but the stores will hopefully add some brand presence for Pioneer as it gets its restructuring efforts underway. Yeah, it's ironic that the Pioneer store will be populated by Panasonic panels (and maybe Sharp, too), as well as JVC beamers. But hopefully this move will help give Pioneer some more of the upscale appeal it's seeking (and pricing for). We've chided Pioneer's marketing for not making better use of the fact that its plasmas were generally regarded as "top of the class," so hopefully this move marks a new approach. We'd also suggest reallocating concept car floor space to darkened demo theaters.

[Image courtesy ocregister]

Grant's Appliances reportedly ditching HD DVD

by Darren Murph posted Jan 22nd 2008 at 5:31PM

We wouldn't call this one definite just yet, but according to "sources" cited by TGDaily, a Chicagoland retailer is shedding its purple skin in favor of Blu. Reportedly, it has "stopped ordering new HD DVD supply" entirely, and while it's said that existing inventory has been depleted, we reckon you may be able to score a real deal should you find a locale with one last HD-A3 just begging for an owner. 'Course, whether or not you should plunk down any coin whatsoever on HD DVD -- considering the state of things and all -- is another matter entirely.

[Thanks, Dave]




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