Best Buy begins opening dedicated in-store Samsung Experience Shops

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Samsung mini-stores have begun launching in Best Buy locations across the nation, giving the South Korean tech giant a presence in the retailer previously held only Apple.

sammyshop
via Phandroid


Wednesday marked the beginning of Samsung's rollout for its Samsung Experience Shops, with Samsung execs showing up at the Best Buy in New York Square. Samsung CEO JK Shin joined Best Buy CEO Huber Joly in a launch event that featured Bruno Mars as entertainment.

First rumored in March, the Samsung Experience Shops were confirmed earlier this month by both Samsung and Best Buy. The partnership will begin with 900 mini-stores in Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile locations by early May. By early summer, Samsung expects to have mini-stores on site in 1,400 Best Buy locations across the United States.

The mini-store rollout was timed to coincide with the launch of the Galaxy S4, Samsung's new flagship smartphone. The Samsung Experience Shops ? each taking up about 460 square feet ? will be dedicated largely to Samsung's mobile devices, though they will also serve as a portal to Samsung's wider product line, showing off laptops, connected cameras, and accessories.

The move is aimed at improving Samsung's market share in the United States, where it trails Apple by 17 percentage points. Best Buy is the largest electronics retailer in the country, with locations within 10 miles of about 70 percent of the U.S. population. The Best Buy mini-stores, then, are a partial counter to Apple's sizable retail footprint in its home country.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28


    Samsung Experience.  Sounds funny


    In asia, restaurants have such kinds of tables where office-rushing people just stand and eat and go. :)

  • Reply 2 of 28
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    1) It doesn't look like a cheap copy of an Apple Store the way MS did it.

    2) At least Samsung has plenty of kit to sell unlike MS who mostly sold other vendor's HW.
  • Reply 3 of 28
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    Too bad not that many people go into Best Buy. Every time I go to Best Buy and then to an Apple Store, there are more customers in the Apple Stores than there are in the Best Buy store and the local Best Buy is a HUGE store whereas the local Apple Store is one of their smaller ones. It's funny to see the Apple Store bustling with people even on a week day before lunch time, when the Best Buy is practically no one in the store other than employees.

    Another sign that Samsung tries to copy Apple. Oh well.
  • Reply 4 of 28
    That looks like a huge space. I'm sure Best Buy needs the money.
  • Reply 5 of 28
    Now at best Buy... The All New Hoover Windtunnel Experience! Come Observe All that our vacuums have to offer! Our new live exhibit: See how much our vacuums [can] suck! (no offense to hoover vacuum owners... I have one and it works great. I just wanted something to write:) )

    Anyway, pretty soon BB won't have room for their other offerings with the ever increasing sub stores and experience centers they hold.
  • Reply 6 of 28
    where are the washing machines, the stereos? why isn't the entire Samsung 'experience' in the 'Experience?'

    as size goes, the BBY's around here have slightly less space for the Apple stores (like 2 tables at the larger, 1 at the smaller), but the iPhones and iPods aren't there (they are at the mobile store).

    This is a success for Best Buy if they generate more $$/sqft in the same _stores_ that have these stands. They don't care if they sell Samsung, they just want people to decide and buy something in the store, instead of leaving and buying online.

    That is the reason the Apple kiosks remain. People don't leave the store and buy someplace else. The fact they think they get a 'complete' answer at the kiosk, allows them to make the decision. If they have to go to the Apple store, even if they were going to buy a Dell or whatever, they then go home, go online and buy from there instead of going back to the zoo-mall.
  • Reply 7 of 28
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member


    "Experience shops?" From theVerge review of the S4:


     


     


    Quote:


    I don’t like holding this phone, and I can’t overstate how much that informs the experience of using it. It makes an awful first impression, slippery and slimy and simply unpleasant in your hand. My white review unit is completely smooth and glossy, with a subtle checkered pattern that looks textured but is neither grippy nor textured anywhere on its body. Even the silver band around the sides, which is obviously supposed to look like metal, is plastic. Everyone I showed the GS4 to frowned and wrinkled their nose as if it smelled bad, before rubbing their fingers on the back of the phone and then handing it back to me — that’s the opposite of the standard reaction to HTC’s One, which everyone wants to ogle and hold.



     


    This is from a site that is typically Samsung friendly. Sounds like quite an "experience". This is the flagship device of Samsung's flagship line, and this is what they believe consumers deserve. This is how much they care. This is the level of contempt they have towards quality. 


     


    What has Samsung done to deserve these shops? Shit hardware, shitty, confusing software (the S4 has an "easy mode")- but hey, the specs are good! There's not a single unique aspect about Samsung mobile products that makes them deserve this space. But hey, they have money, and BB needs it, so why not. 

  • Reply 8 of 28


    where are they hiding the refrigerators?

  • Reply 9 of 28

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    "Experience shops?" From theVerge review of the S4:


     


     


     


    This is from a site that is typically Samsung friendly. Sounds like quite an "experience". This is the flagship device of Samsung's flagship line, and this is what they believe consumers deserve. This is how much they care. This is the level of contempt they have towards quality. 


     


    What has Samsung done to deserve these shops? Shit hardware, shitty, confusing software (the S4 has an "easy mode")- but hey, the specs are good! There's not a single unique aspect about Samsung mobile products that makes them deserve this space. But hey, they have money, and BB needs it, so why not. 





    what??? the metal band is plastic? wtf? it's baffling that people will buy that phone over the iPhone 5 or HTC one.

  • Reply 10 of 28
    This only serves to confirm that Best Buy, as a retail shopping experience, is deader than a doornail.
  • Reply 11 of 28
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Begins? The one by has had a Samsung Shop for a month now. The camera and Note 10.1 were surprisingly nice.
  • Reply 12 of 28
    vorsosvorsos Posts: 302member


    Slurpy View Post


    "Experience shops?" From theVerge review of the S4:



    [negative statement]



    This is from a site that is typically Samsung friendly. 



     


    There's a difference between being vendor-friendly and a time period of posting positive things about a vendor's products. This is the former. The Verge is the latter.

  • Reply 13 of 28
    Prediction: Microsoft is next.
  • Reply 14 of 28
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member


    I was just at Best Buy and all you could hear were crickets. I think there were 5 people there plus me and no one was in the Samsung section.

  • Reply 15 of 28
    Saw a apple mini store on one side of the aisle and a soon to be Samsung on other side. Apple had one table with just a few products, Samsung had products on bookshelfs stuffed full. I think you know what seems better.
  • Reply 16 of 28


    Best Buy came & went really quickly here in the UK, think they only lasted 6 to 15 months before the plug was pulled. Sort of from 'Best Buy' to 'Best Bye'. image


    Guess you could say we were lucky if they are that bad. We have our own co's who should pull their socks-up too.


     


    Felt sorry for the staff though loosing their jobs through no fault of their own, would be like blaming the waiters for the mess the restaurant co is in.

  • Reply 17 of 28
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Apple should perhaps pull out of Best Buy soon. Don't be there when BB goes down the toilet.

    Sorry got to go, things to buy at Amazon and Apple Store....
  • Reply 18 of 28
    galbigalbi Posts: 968member


    This isnt Samsung's first time with a retail store.


     


    They have many of these stores in South Korea (some are 3 stories in fact) , long before Apple began to venture with its own retail stores.

  • Reply 19 of 28
    Best Buy may be a bottom feeder at this moment in time but I would hesitate to scoff at Samsung's retail entry. In Asia, most retailers and mobile operators prominently feature Samsung products. Here in Indonesia, there are notably more Samsung smartphones in hands than Apple. Don't take my word for it. I prefer iPhone but there's a move afoot and Apple may well find itself on the wrong side of it.
  • Reply 20 of 28

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Robert Turner View Post



    Best Buy may be a bottom feeder at this moment in time but I would hesitate to scoff at Samsung's retail entry. In Asia, most retailers and mobile operators prominently feature Samsung products. Here in Indonesia, there are notably more Samsung smartphones in hands than Apple. Don't take my word for it. I prefer iPhone but there's a move afoot and Apple may well find itself on the wrong side of it.


    There may be more Samesung phones in hands of users, but I'm sure the majority of those are the really cheap ones... the ones that prepaid carriers here in the US sell for under $150-200 with no contract. They're a dime a dozen, the quality is horrid, and they all end up in landfills within a year. But it's a sale!

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