We compared shopping for electronics at Best Buy and Sears - and it's clear why one is struggling while the other is thriving
My first stop was Sears in Yonkers, New York. The massive department store spanned three floors.
It took me a while to find the electronics department. It was shoved into a corner on the third floor, surrounded by vacuums and microwaves.
The selection of TVs was limited. There were two walls of TVs that were all similar in size and price.
A few TVs were marked as clearance, but one was on the floor, and the wall was bare.
Microwaves and other appliances were in the middle of the floor, spilling over from the neighboring appliances display.
There were a few speakers to choose from ...
... but there were more boomboxes for CDs, radio, and cassettes.
A lot of the technology felt dated.
There were a few cell phones for sale ...
... but there were a lot more landline phones to choose from.
The DVD section only had a handful of titles, and most of them were at least a few years old, if not more.
There were a few more current products, like the Amazon Echo and Ring home-security system, but there wasn't a ton to choose from.
The whole section was a bit of a mess.
A lot of merchandise appeared to be out of stock.
Overall, the electronics department at Sears was depressing.
I visited Best Buy next, and the experience was completely different.
I knew the selection would be bigger at Best Buy, but the way it was displayed was a lot more appealing than at Sears. It was a lot more inviting of a space to shop in. The prices on TVs were lower at Best Buy. Most TVs cost about $1,000 at Sears, but there were large TVs for well under that at Best Buy.
Instead of boomboxes, there were a ton of brand-new speakers with features like built-in Google Assistant.
Instead of just having one type of cell phone, there was a pretty big selection to choose from.
The store had a whole department for music and DVDs, and it included movies that were just released on DVD, like "Black Panther."
Products that seemed neglected at Sears were highlighted at Best Buy. The home-security and smart-home products were set up in the front of the store, and they were laid out so you could actually see the products instead of being on a shelf near the floor.
Everything was much more organized at Best Buy. The stores carried mostly the same brands of headphones, but everything was around $5 cheaper at Best Buy.
To be fair, Best Buy is a store devoted to electronics, while these products only make up one department at Sears. Still, Best Buy was the clear winner.
What Best Buy carried was more modern, less expensive, and displayed more cleaning, creating a better shopping experience. Sears was depressing, with empty shelves and outdated products taking up most of the space.
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