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HDTV Almanac - Where Did You Shop?
By Alfred Poor
HDTV Professor
Posted on January 18, 2010
Category: General Interest


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Earlier this month, the market research firm BIGresearch released their results for the top five retailers for consumer electronics for December 2009. According to the company press release, nearly one-third of all adults (18 years old or older) surveyed indicated that they shopped at Best Buy most often when looking for electronics. Walmart was close behind, with one in five shoppers citing it as their preferred store.

Store Dec 2008 Dec 2009 Increase CEI
Best Buy 29.9% 33.1% 3.3 110.96
Walmart 17.0% 20.6% 3.7 121.63
Amazon 2.3% 3.6% 1.4 159.12
Target 2.1% 2.8% 0.6 129.57
Sears 1.6% 2.0% 0.4 124.58

Source: BIGresearch

The “CEI” figure is a measure of how much the consumer ratings for that store have increased. A score of 100 would indicate no change over the prior year. Of the top five retailers, Best Buy actually posted the smallest share growth but this makes sense given that it started with a large share. Amazon posted the biggest CEI increase in share; while its total number is small, it does indicate that people are more willing to shop online for certain electronics.

The big take-away from these numbers, however, is that Best Buy and Walmart apparently command control of more than half the retail consumer electronics market in this country. This could mean that it will be difficult for another competitor to enter the market, taking the place of Circuit City or CompUSA. And it also likely signals continued hard times for the small stores that specialize in high-end audio/visual equipment. Now that the holiday buying season is over, we have seen a spate of closing announcements among some of these small chains. Bernie’s in New England has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has started liquidation sales, and in the Los Angeles market, Ken Crane’s has closed four of their 10 stores.

All of this is a logical contraction of the retail marketplace, as the differences between products become smaller and the profit margins grow even thinner. Success in this market is all about shelf space and mind share, which favors major brands and highly-efficient retailers who can deal in massive volumes at low margins.

Posted by Alfred Poor, January 18, 2010 5:00 AM

Reader Commentary

See Forum Topic: HDTV Almanac - Where Did You Shop? (9 replies)
Jan 18, 11:53am
Well Alfred , that is very disappointing news . Especially when Walmart is a close 2nd i felt no lose from Circuit City Personally do not shop theses stores for quality gear . When one is looking for quality they would not either .I will
Jan 18, 2:06pm
How depressing. BB: go to buy a Plasma TV, get told it's really an LED and that I really want the flame thrower set where everyone has the glow in the dark faces. But of course ALWAYS needs the $100 a piece HDMI cables. Or with the Magnolia ins
Jan 18, 2:24pm
This past weekend, I actually went shopping for a new flat screen as a house-warming present for our daughter and her family. If their Costco (they're in another state) had the same deal available that I was able to find at our local store, I would have b
Jan 18, 4:38pm
I happen to live in an area that has a large Best Buy and Walmart presence. We are also "blessed" by having two outlets of Fry's Electronics here. While Best Buy and Walmart have crowds during season, Fry's has throngs of customers each day neither co
Jan 18, 7:43pm
Unless Fry's has changed their emphasis recently, they're not a "consumer electronics" store. They started by selling computer components back when it was a really big deal. That has toned down, but the emphasis is still the
Jan 19, 6:44am
Fry's is great for components of all kinds - they have everything from tools to pc parts to cables and connectors, etc. I found a Sony Bravia 120 hz 52" LCD there 3 months ago. MSRP was $2099. Best buy was selling it for $1699. Fry's had it marked d
Jan 19, 7:09am
I found a Sony Bravia 120 hz 52" LCD there 3 months ago. MSRP was $2099. Best buy was selling it for $1699. Fry's had it marked down to $1299. I checked around and that was an amazing deal. The same model with 60 hz was act
Jan 19, 8:31am
Actually, I believe that Fry's relies a lot on "surplus" sources for their inventory. I expect that the Sony LCD deal was a special purchase from some retailer who needed cash more than inventory -- the infamous "gray mark
Jan 19, 12:29pm
Unless Fry's... But watch out when you purchase something "new" from them. I've gotten home with more than one piece of gear only to find out it was sold previously, returned and repackaged - often with missing pieces.
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About Alfred Poor

Alfred Poor is a well-known display industry expert, who writes the daily HDTV Almanac. He wrote for PC Magazine for more than 20 years, and now is focusing on the home entertainment and home networking markets.