So I go to Best Buy this evening to buy a (crappy) Linksys router for a guy at work that needs help setting it up. And Stephanie (who bought Monk – Season 5) introduces me to Jason, a former colleague at ACS and, apparently, the sole reader of this site.
Hello Jason. Welcome to your site! 😉
Anyway, I discovered a few things that Anchorage shoppers might like to know…
- Best Buy sales reps are not on commission, either for specific products or — get this — extended warranties. Apparently sales of extended warranties might play into a job review, but there’s no direct compensation. That’s a good thing for shoppers, as extended warranties are rarely a good deal (though I did recently recommend someone consider an AppleCare warranty).
- There is, indeed, a second Best Buy being setup in Anchorage, on the north side of town in the shopping center being developed by CIRI and pals. I knew that already, but had forgotten. Hopefully that will alleviate the horrible parking problems at the existing location. That’s the only reason I hate going to Best Buy in Anchorage and do my best to find low-traffic times to go.
- The current Best Buy location in Anchorage is the largest physical retail location west of the Mississippi in the Best Buy network. As I remarked to Jason, it didn’t seem that big to me. That might be because I used to live out East and I even lived in Best Buy’s hometown so I’ve seen some big stores.
- As I had heard before, but Jason confirmed, sales in the Anchorage Best Buy rock.
- The “Apple guy” (can’t remember his name… Ben?) from CompUSA that so many people know in town is now working at Best Buy (due to CompUSA’s collapse). Good for him and them. Screw CompUSA — the sooner they die the better… I hated that store. And I shouldn’t — I worked for CompUSA many years ago in the Columbus, Ohio area and it was okay.
- Best Buy’s CEO is gay and hit on Jason when visiting the store recently.
- Okay, I made that last one up.
So if you’re headed out and want to buy a computer at Best Buy, or whatever, see if you can find Jason to help you. Tall guy, glasses, likes Army of Darkness, carries an iPhone and knows what the hell he’s talking about.
stephanieandjohn.com 
I figured I would check your site on the iPhone to determine if the blog of my dreams came true. Thanks for the shout out even though the two of us are the only ones that read this blog since stephanie admitted she did not peruse it often. It was great to finally meet the man, myth, and legend.
I’m the man, the myth, the legend? You need to get out more! Or I need to tell Stephanie to tone it down a bit when she’s talking about me. (What DOES she say?) 😉
Actually you have another reader. I try to keep up to date with the Alaska team so I have you sandwiched in my regular blog reading, you were steadily moving up the list and then there was that post on “One Night in Bangkok” and I became afraid, very afraid.
So I come back and you are now Twittering! You need a job, cause you are out of control with this hobby. Maybe it’s just too cold up there? I can tell you this – it’s freakin’ freezing down here in KY, is this Global Warming thing ever going to kick in or is it just some Al Gore pipe dream?
Seriously though, hope all is well.
Well actually – you do have another reader. I may not be tech savvy and into all the “toys”, but I do like to check up on you and see how life is treating you (since my Christmas card was returned!). Lisa in VA
wow john, this turned out to be great. You now find out out you have multiple readers. Now you have a reason to update more often.
Wow! I had no idea anyone actually stopped by once in a while. Lisa and Eric — I’ll contact you guys separately, but thanks for commenting!
I’ll add some more plugins to the site to make commenting more interactive, too.