I’ve needed to buy a wireless access point for the past month. Unfortunately, I only remember this in two situations: a) When I’m nowhere near a store or a computer, and b) When I’m driving past the Best Buy in Watertown, MA.
This morning I found myself in situation b), and so (like I’ve done twice in the past month) sighed and pulled into the Best Buy parking lot.
I walked into the store, waded through a sea of corpulent children wearing athletics clothing, blaring music, and salespeople conning old ladies into buying $4000 Sony laptops, and arrived at the wall in the far back where they had their networking gear. As was the case with my last two visits, I did not see any access points. What I did see were literally about eighty wireless routers. I gestured to an employee, who came over.
Me: Do you have any access points?
Emp: Hmm, let me see.
Emp walks over to spot on the corner of the shelf, and points at a single price sticker *
Emp: No, here’s where they’d be. We’re all sold out.
Me: You know, this is now the third time I’ve come in here, and every time you’ve been sold out of these.
Emp: Yeah, I guess they aren’t that popular.
Me: Huh?
Emp: Well, we try to keep the routers available, because those are pretty popular. But the access points aren’t as popular, so we don’t stock as many. We only get a few in each week, and they’re usually gone in a day or two.
I gave him a weird look. Behind him the routers were all covered with a thin layer of dust. There may have been more than eighty. They took up three rows and about ten columns of shelving. I looked again at the single spot labeled “Linksys Wireless Access Point”, and the empty space behind it. And decided any argument would be futile.
I thanked him, left, and drove across town to the CompUSA, which had a well-stocked, balanced assortment of routers and access points from several different brands. As well as the high-quality HP laser printer paper that Best Buy is also perpetually sold out of.
Someone’s cheese is not on their cracker over there.
That is prettey weird. Wireless access point are one of the most popular home electronic devices. I live in the Boston area so I will make a note of that.
It sounds lke some type of war you encountered:
You: “Excuse me sir, can you tell me where the Ipods are?”
Salesperson: “Never heard of it. Perhaps they were discontinued.”
I bought a Linksys wireless access point from a Best Buy in Concord, NH two weeks ago. It works fine. However, I wanted a high gain attenna to go with it so I grabbed one from the display right beside the stack. After I got home, I discovered that it only works with discontinued models.
In case anyone is confused, an Access Point device connects to a wired router to add wireless access to an existing network.
Many people do not realize new cable and DSL modems already have a router, and so we get many calls of people attempting to connect a wireless router to the network that already has a router; (It is similar to adding two chefs in the kitchen, eventually they will fight with each other) in a case like that, an Access Point device is needed.
That’s the store where a clerk tried to convince me that the PS2 game I was buying was not the one I wanted, and that what I really meant to buy was a different one.
Um, OK. :rolleyes: But I’m pretty sure that I, as the person who can actually hear what’s going on inside my head, am the one in the best position to know what game the voices are telling me to buy. So can I spend my $30 or not?
As someone who absolutely despises WorstBuy and refuses to set foot in one ever again, I can say this: The one in Landmark Center is not bad at all. Everything in stock, no upselling, no PSPs. And not crowded at all.
Playing devil’s advocate here, he probably thought you wanted the newer one, Vice City, but accidentally chose the older one. Of course, he should have pointed that out in a simple manner and let it go once he was corrected. But it maybe isn’t quite as psycho as it originally sounded.
Ah, if only that were it. I explained I knew it was the older edition, and that I did indeed want it. But he persisted and was genuinely inisistent that I couldn’t possibly mean to buy GTA3. He kept showing me the cover of the game and saying “But this isn’t the one you want” with a puzzled expression on his face. He was reasonably nice about it, so I smilingly insisted I wanted to buy GTA3 and then rolled my eyes a little as I was walking away.
It was just odd. He wasn’t making a recommendation of Vice City as newer or better - just seemed sincerely confused that I’d actually want to buy GTA3 when Vice City existed. No biggie. I’ve certainly had worse experiences in stores. I just found it funny that Absolute was talking about the same Best Buy where I had my odd customer service moment. Hey - maybe he was stoned.
Best Buy (at least the ones around here) have incredibly stupid low prices on CDs to get people in the door, so that they’ll go buy other more expensive things.
I go in there and buy the CDs sometimes, and never anything else. And I since I pay cash, I politely (“No thank you.”) refuse to give my phone number at the register when asked. It’s fun to watch them figure out what to do next.
For me, it’s a matter of sometimes wanting truly instant gratification. I am so excited about something I can’t even wait for overnight shipping. Or sometimes I’m like Absolute and I only remember I covet something when I’m nowhere near a computer. I most often remember I want something as I’m sitting on the subway on my way to work. Then I forget about it by the time I get to my desk. Sigh.
Yeah, while I do 90% of my shopping online, there’s nothing like the rush of getting your greedy little hands on a shrinkwrapped box, plunking cash down on the counter, and playing with your new toy RIGHT NOW.
Then again, I love coming home to find a package at my door.
I’ve encountered this mindset several times, and I’ve never been sure how to respond to it.
One time I tried to buy a tshirt for a popular dance venue in LA, but they were all out of my size (Medium). I asked when they might have more, and the guy said “Well, we get batches of shirts every few months, but Mediums are pretty popular, so they usually sell out the first week or two.”
Many people also don’t realize that the Westell DSL router that you got from BellXXXX has a router built in - so if you want to use another router (say, with wireless) you need to put the Westell to pass-through mode.
I guess I’m a bit different then. For me, the instant gratification is far outweighed by the horror of mingling with humanity. And even more, by actually having to interact with a brain-dead salesman-type.
Truly, as Wilde said, “Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.”
Depends on the salesperson for me. And my own mood going in. There are some stores that I love shopping in, and they are always a treat. Going there is an event. Tonight will be such a time for me, and it will be at the afore-mentioned Landmark Center. It will most certainly NOT be at Best Buy.
But yeah, I can be a serious misanthrope, especially at grocery stores. Every other person on the face of the Earth is a moron, and they all want deli items at the same time I do.
