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Big Lots is a better place to go to get a HDMI cable (and a few other cables as well) than Best Buy. I'm not sure which company this says more about, really.

I find the markup on cables at BB to be very frustrating. Why can I get a cable shipped all the way across the country for less than 1/8th the price of a BB cable?

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Best Buy's historical strategy has been to make profits from accessories like cables. But they have been doing it wrong in the past 5 years. They should be using these accessories to drive foot traffic.

Best Buy can sell products or services. They obviously cant sell products (for a profit), and their services kind of suck. But they need to do one or the other, and they need to do it great. Amazon and company has them beat on selling products. They need to focus all their energy on selling services.

Best Buy's current strategy is borrowed time. A shame the employees get to suffer through shitty (mis)management like this.

As I understand it, most of BB's profit is from the markup on peripherals.. they make little to no profit on big box items

Edit: GeekSquad and warranties are the other profit makers

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