What better way is there to say, “if you stop by tonight around 3am, I have a brand new TV and the boxes are probably still in my garage. This giant TV is so awesome and hightech that I needed a team of experts with a REALLY big van to bring it to my house and set it up for me. And if you get here early I also have a Blue Ray player and surround sound system.”
I get that it’s a great form of advertising, but certainly not for the homeowner.
Don’t see what the big deal is – most people have home theaters now a days. Bet you can can “order” a specific brand in the black market and they’ll get it for you.
As for the company doing the installation, well, they advertise their business. It’s what companies do.
True, but most people don’t put a sign out front of their house saying, “Hey everyone I just got a new one so awesome it had to be delivered in this giant truck!”
Which I translate into “rob me I have a new tv!”
Yup, it’s great advertising, no question about that. But are they not aware of the potential impact to the homeowner?
Pretty much. Not my house, not my problem. But perhaps a cautionary tale to anyone thinking about using their service.
Sort of, I’m pretty careful about things like that. Do you just put the box outside next to your trash can? Makes sense, how else to make sure your neighbours know what you bought?
I color over the box with a big magic marker, and then tape a sign that says “Really Cheap Low-Quality Styrofoam Peanuts And Nothing Else” over it. Works like a charm.
Just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t really out to get you. But sometimes, it is just misplaced fear and paranoia too.
I live in densely populated Queens, NY. My neighborhood is 95% detached homes. Nary a week* goes by when some neighbor on my block or the surrounding blocks doesn’t have a box for a high ticket item in the recycle pickup. Surprisingly, every time I’ve put one to the curb, I’ve been burglarized. Oh wait, I meant to say I haven’t been burglarized. My next door neighbor hasn’t mentioned being burglarized either. Maybe they just don’t like us, or maybe my neighbors are getting better stuff and they don’t want to be bothered with my stuff.
Or maybe it just isn’t as big a problem as you fear. But now would be a good time to install the “Slomin’s Shield”, eh?
*Okay, maybe not every week, but at least monthly with higher concentrations around the big sales times.
I have a friend who feels this way as well. Every Christmas, he has a wonderful rant about people “bragging” about their new stuff and that they will be burglerized very soon. This single guy also has a water bowl in his back yard (no dog) and some yardsale kids stuff in the front yard. He says that having kid stuff means that he doesn’t have new stuff and all of it is broken anyhow…and that there might be a dog, because why else would anyone keep a bowl of water full.
He also has a bunker full of food, with lock keypads on the inside as well as the outside. very long story short here, but he thinks that having to remember his password while he’s in the bunker and being hit with alien mind control rays will keep him safe. I haven’t asked him about how hard it would be to get into the bunker with the mind control stuff happening. I don’t want his brain to splode or anything.
Sure, but I’d assume they’d have a truck that says, “HOME SECURITY INSTALLATION” on it. Most people like to advertise security systems, new home theaters not so much.
But when they are out to get you paranoia is your best defense.
Oddly enough, a roommate’s boyfriend once bought a brand new and very expensive bike, got excited, and drove it to our place. While inside thieves cut the lock and took the bike. We figured they were sitting outside the bike shop and followed him.
I imagine ‘home theater installation’ has some of their best margins so that’s what they are going to advertise. I think you’re being a bit ridiculous insisting Best Buy needs to have separately painted trucks for everything they do.
Each store only has one or two box trucks they offer a lot off different services and delivery. They don’t have separate trucks for each.
The sides of trucks are giant billboards for advertising, of course they are going to use that space for what they want to sell.
If the need to drop off a washer or dryer should they head to the auto body shop to get it repainted first?
Possible, but much more likely it was bike thieves looking for crimes of opportunity. Following new purchases, I would think, are low payoff. Too many ways to lose a score (how do they know he wouldn’t be storing a bike indoors, like my daughter does?), and a reduced number of scores (have to wait for purchases, then follow until it stops and presents an opportunity). Unless it is a one-off larceny, it doesn’t make sense.
No question it’s a great way to advertise, and if it has the best margin then it’s definitely what they should put on the vans. I know it got me thinking about a new home theater, and let me know they offer installation.
But there’s no way in hell I want that van sitting in front of my house.
It’s hardly what I’m asking them to do, perhaps there is oh I don’t know, a middle ground? Does that exist any more? Is it too much to ask for a little discretion?
Is this really a unique concept? Am I the only one that avoids making myself a target?
You know what else tells the world you have a big ticket item just sitting around waiting to be stolen? Parking a car in your fucking driveway. Also, windows.
Do you have a big screen TV? Do you remember how fucking heavy it is? Thieves are looking for small, untraceable items. Jewellery. Cash. Objets d’art. Big fucking TVs are neither small nor untraceable. Chill out.
Most of the posts are from normal people who are in the middle ground. We lock our doors and windows, maybe have an alarm system, maybe even keep a weapon (softball bat and cricket bat for me). We make sure that the people coming into our homes (meter readers and whatnot) are whom they say they are.
You are the one at the extreme. Whomever or whatever got you to think that BB’s marked trucks are nothing but advertisements to thieves are the same ones wanting to sell you protection. Your fear is their profit. Hell, fear-mongering is used by politicians to discredit opponents, used by TV stations to draw eyeballs, and yes, even used by con artists and thieves to scam your money. I am not saying a little paranoia is a bad thing. But being afraid that the BB truck is an advertisement for thieves (were you to buy something from BB…which I would advise against, but that’s another thread) pegs your fear meter as being too tightly wound.
And just so I am clear, I am not saying that there is a zero chance for burglary due to the presence of the truck. I am saying that the elevation of the chance of burglary due to the presence of the truck is minimal compared to the chance of burglary had no overt delivery been made.
