Comments on: How Retailers Use Lighting To Confuse HDTV Buyers

By: Gallium Arsenic

Gallium Arsenic — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:57:32 +0000

The author of this article is exactly right. Dissenters, mostly salesmen it seems, are forgetting to think like pressured store managers and forgetting, also, to do some simple arithmetic: There are at least 5000 large retail outlets in the US. Each probably sells twenty big-screen tv’s every day. By steering the customer, as directed by the store managers, salesmen will generate a few hundred dollars in added profit for ext-warranties, and all the stuff mentioned by others, with each sale. A (very) rough estimate here is 20 units per day X $200 in add-on profits–this comes to $4000 per store per day. So each store collects these profits at a rate of $28,000 each week. This times 52 weeks/yr yields around $One-and-a-half Million dollars per store per year. This times the estimated 5000 stores nets $7.5 BILLION dollars per year for the large retailers. Anyone who thinks this pervasive fraud is not organized is not thinking logically.

By: Melany

Melany — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:59:37 +0000

I totally agree with it – Please dont buy Samsung and Vizio, both suck, better buy a Regza Led, cause its really an awesome setup.
I try Samsung and Vizio – it’s suck…

By: mal shepard

mal shepard — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:05:18 +0000

I’m not sure why TV display areas are so bright, but what I do know is that HD Guru is right that it is deceptive and leads people to draw erroneous conclusions about the picture quality of the tvs they see in the store.

By: StaINdrOcKs

StaINdrOcKs — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:28:29 +0000

Get your tinfoil hats on, folks!

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:08:55 +0000

The logic is most people buy the cheaper sets. They think the ones in a brightly lit store are better from the comparison to pricey sets in that store. I don’t think that’s what’s going on, but it isn’t laughable logic, either.

My local Best Buy keeps the lights off above the tv wall.

By: Ian Clue

Ian Clue — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:55:51 +0000

My budget: $1500

So instad of buying a $1500 high-end set I buy a $1000 low-end set of the same size and $500 in cables?

No. I buy the larger $1500 low-end set.

By: Toshiba Regza

Toshiba Regza — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:36:48 +0000

Please dont buy Samsung and Vizio, both suck, better buy a Regza Led, cause its really an awesome setup

By: Floor monkey

Floor monkey — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:28:10 +0000

Ben- “I think it’s funny how everyone bashing this article is a floor monkey, or sales person. “I worked here, or there”.
Ok, sure. You don’t work at the corporate level however. All of this stuff goes on way above your heads. I’ve worked for Corporate Fred Meyer, and endcaps, adverts, colors, patterns, it’s all meticulously planned to get consumers to buy more stuff.
Just because you order the TVs from biggest to smallest (great accomplishment there… like wow) doesn’t mean this type of thing doesn’t happen. ”

Likewise, just because you sit at a desk and plan these displays, it doesn’t mean they work or they look good.

Of course it’s all planned for people to open their wallets, but you can’t track the number of people that are turned off by these displays and don’t spend, because you can only track the sales and not the lost sales.

After months of customers complaining about the bright lights at my store, we convinced our store manager to take out half of the bulbs so customers could get a better feel for the TVs. Afterwords, no one complained about how dim the area by the TVs were, except of course for the district manager that came in once a month.

You are the people that made us literally greet the same customer every 30 seconds, causing them to leave because they felt pressured into the sale. The same person would have to say, “Just looking” 10 times before they left 5 minutes later. We’d always have customers tell us to leave them alone, but if we didn’t talk to them literally every 30 seconds, management would yell at us because you’d yell at them.

So while you look down on the “floor monkeys”, know that we look down on the “headless suits”.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:16:51 +0000

John said – “But on to the holes in the story, If anyone thinks a Best Buy or Sears or whoever employee doesn’t pump the Samsung’s and the Sony’s and Panasonics is absolutley crazy. Don’t take my word for it go to your nearest Best Buy or whatever and act like a clueless customer and see what brands they push. I will guarntee you it aint no Insigna or Dynex. It will be a Samsung or Sony.”

That is the most moronic thing I’ve read about retail in a while. Of course retailers push these TVs, because they are better. In the article it talks about how the even levels make terrible TVs look like the good ones. Experienced salespeople know which TV is better and Sony, Samsung and Panasonic top the list.

It also doesn’t make sense because the margin on a house-brand like Insignia is 10-12% and a Sony or Samsung is 14-18%. That’s not a huge difference, $50-$100 for a similar sized TV with slight difference in price.

I would try as hard as I could to convince people to get a Sony or Samsung over a Vizio, Polaroid, or Element TV at Circuit City because they looked awful, not because the margin was low.

If a customer is completely clueless and asks about the best TVs, why would I even mention a “budget” brand? They don’t compare to the even lowest end models of the Sonys and Samsungs.

By: Branden

Branden — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:19:44 +0000

I hate to say this but i am an employee in the Majors department of a costco warehouse. Majors stands for Major Appliances and i am here to tell you that you have your facts a little messed up. Instead of assuming that the lighting is bright so we sell more TV’s why not ask an employee or a manager of that store. I can promise you are lights are not high to trick people into buying lower priced televisions. Vizio is a very competing company in the market today because they offer a substantial product for the money. And the Vizio most definitely does not look just as good as say the Sony or Samsung. And when people come in looking for a cheap TV, Chances are they do not want to spend extra money on home theaters and such. And the fact that i sell as many as 20 televisions a day at least i realize that when people go more for the lower end televisions (a.k.a. cheaper) they don’t normally buy any extra accessories. “Stores maximize profits by convincing you that a $1000 TV looks as good, if not better than the $1500 set placed next to it. That leaves you with $500 to purchase high profit margin items such as service contracts, “high speed” HDMI cables and power conditioners” This is not the case with Costco because our televisions have the highest profit margins in the store. Lighting conditions in the warehouse are like that for safety for our members. Also the fact that pretty much all Costco locations have a large amount of skylights in the ceiling may have something to do with the extra amount of light as well. Please when writing an article like this don’t assume. Actually ask around. See if people know why.