They arrive every time a hot new video game hits the stores.
Often, they breeze through during lunch.
There’s a name for these tech-savvy, single men, many of whom work in offices surrounding the store: “Buzzes.” And the Best Buy store at South Colorado Boulevard and East Mexico Avenue in Denver has switched to a format catering to them.
“Buzz” stores contain areas for testing video games and checking out the latest plasma-screen TVs. Store associates devote time to playing the games alongside customers to fully demonstrate them, said Jerome McKay, “Buzz segment manager” for the south Denver store.
Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy Co. has launched a plan to redesign each of its 660 nationwide stores to cater to specific customer profiles.
In addition to Buzz, the young tech enthusiast, the company is creating other formats with code names: “Barry,” for example, is for the wealthy professional willing to plunk down thousands of dollars for a home theater system. “Ray” is for the family man who prefers practical technology, and “Jill” is a soccer mom who does all the family’s shopping but usually avoids electronics stores. Additionally, the company is converting some stores to BB4B or “Best Buy for Business” models.
Based on analyses of databases of purchases, local census numbers, surveys of customers and targeted focus groups, Best Buy last fall started converting its 67 California stores to cater to one or more of those segments of its shopping population. It plans to roll out a similar redesign throughout the country in the next three years.
Three Best Buys in the Washington, D.C., area, for instance, are being transformed into stores for Barrys, featuring leather couches where one might imagine enjoying a drink and a cigar while watching a large-screen TV hooked up to a high-end sound system.
The south Denver store celebrated its recent conversion to a Buzz store Saturday with live bands and giveaways.
“It definitely does not mean we don’t take care of every other customer, but each store is catering to a particular need,” McKay said of the store’s new approach. Associates who encounter a Barry in a Jill store might steer them to a Barry store so they will get a more expanded selection of high-end products, McKay said.
Big chain stores used to be among the most egalitarian of places. They were aimed at the average person, the generic “shopper,” without conscious regard to background, race, religion or sex. That is changing as computer databases have allowed corporations to gather an unparalleled amount of data about their customers. Many retailers are analyzing the data to figure out which customers are the most profitable – and the least – and to adjust their policies accordingly.
Express clothing stores no longer accept returns from those the company deems to be serial returners. Filene’s Basement has even gone so far as to ban a few customers from its stores because of excessive returns and complaints.
Such endeavors have proved controversial, because the computer programs that try to determine a customer’s true value are still a work in progress, with the potential to alienate as well as attract good spenders.
But Best Buy chief executive Bradbury Anderson, inspired by Columbia University professor Larry Selden’s book, “Angel Customers and Demon Customers,” is on a mission to reinvent how the company thinks about its customers. Best Buy also has pared some less desirable shoppers from its mailing lists and tightened up its return policy.
The Best Buy store in Santa Rosa, Calif., is a Jill store.
Pink, red and white balloons festoon the entrance. TVs play “The Incredibles.” There is an expanded selection of home appliances and displays stocked with Hello Kitty, Barbie and SpongeBob SquarePants electronic equipment. Nooks are set up to look like dorms or recreation rooms where mom and the children can play with high-tech gadgets. Best Buy has new express checkout lines for Jill; store managers say anyone can use them, but if you are not escorted by a special service representative they can be easy to miss. The music over the loudspeakers has been turned down a notch and is usually a selection of Jill’s favorites, such as James Taylor and Mariah Carey.
But who exactly is Jill? “She’s very smart and affluent,” Best Buy employee Jenn Metzger said.
“Jill is a decision maker. She is the CEO of the household,” said Tony Sagastume, general manager for the Santa Rosa Best Buy.
“Jill’s children are the most important thing in her life,” store manager Jenine Bryant said.
According to Best Buy’s data, Jill usually shops only a few times a year at an electronics store but spends a significant amount.
Since October’s redesign, Jills have increased their spending at the Santa Rosa store by 30 percent, helping boost this year’s revenue to a projected $75 million to $80 million, up from around $50 million a year previously, and pushing its customer loyalty rating to among the top five in the country.
Nationwide, such “customer centricity” stores had an 8.4 percent increase in sales in the quarter ended May 28, compared with the same period a year ago, Best Buy executive John Walden said in June.
When it comes to the remodels, about 20 percent of the overhaul has to do with store merchandise, but the other 80 percent is more about the customer experience, said Susan Busch, a Best Buy spokeswoman. About a dozen of the Santa Rosa store’s 210 employees are part of what is known internally as the Jill segment team. To customers, this group is known as personal shopping associates. Wearing pastels instead of the royal blue shirts worn by other salespeople, they are stationed at an island smack in the center of the store decorated with fake purple flowers and stuffed animals.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-820-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
