There are a lot of Best Buys in my area -- I'm in the Twin Cities, which I think is the chain's home town -- but I only go when I know exactly what I want. And actually, that's fairly frequently, at least for small computer-related items like memory sticks, DVDs, even printer paper. I did buy an early digital point-and-shoot, had a satellite radio system installed in my truck, and a year ago bought a small flat-screen TV.
Two major drawbacks -- The Best Buy salesmen never know as much about a particular product as I do. There may be a few enthusiasts among them, who really do know a lot about some particular item, but I've never found one. I've decided that your typical BB salesman is a guy who was selling shoes last week, and will be selling hats next week, but this week he's selling cell phones. And, frankly, they're usually willing to lie about the product, or at least inflict their incorrect information on you, to get the sale. One of the hardest things to do is see some woman in BB with a kid, shopping for a first computer, obviously without much money or knowledge, and hear some aggressive BB guy unloading a bunch of BS on them. This happens quite frequently. One guy was so bad that when he went off to check something, I took the woman aside and told her about Dell; she was obviously very nervous about spending fifteen hundred or two thousand bucks for a computer for her ten-year-old, and why shouldn't she be? I don't know what she did, but what was happening to her wasn't right. What I'm saying here is that agression, combined with a lack of specific knowledge about products, makes going to BB really dangerous for the uninformed or the timid.
(I will go so far as to say that if you go to BB, and browse through the computer section for fifteen minutes, you will almost always hear at least one person being given a load of BS. It's that pervasive.)
The other thing is the selling of extended warranties. I know they're basically just a scam, but again, the aggression is annoying. (Don't tell me it's not a scam; it is. It's a vastly profitable form of insurance, so profitable that it qualifies as a scam.)
The most amusing thing that ever happened to me at a BB was when I went in to buy a flat screen TV for my studio. I went to BB because they had one that specifically fit my needs, at an OK price. The salesman was INSISTENT that I buy the extended warranty. We actually got in a little snarling argument about it. Then he went away, apparently to talk to a manager, then came back and told me that the TV I wanted was being closed out, and that the manager had authorized him to give me a discount of exactly the amount of the extended warranty, but only if I'd buy the extended warranty. So I got the extended warranty -- no skin off my butt. It'd be perfect, now, if the TV broke, but unfortunately it has been absolutely reliable.
In that particular case, I got a good deal, I suspect the salesman got a good deal, but I don't thing BB got a very good deal.
Overall: BB is okay for prices, if not great, and they're handy. Otherwise, because of the attitude of the sales people, I wouldn't go there.
JC