Best Buy has all these stores around the nation dedicated to selling televisions, stereos, computers, and pretty much any interesting piece of consumer technology. So Best Buy’s CEO, Hubert Joly (above), met with J.K. Shin, one of the heads of Samsung, half a year ago to see if he could get Best Buy to dedicate some of their floor space for a small store that would only sell Samsung stuff.
The two came to an agreement, they announced their partnership at the beginning of April, and now today the two have got together to launch the “Samsung Experience Shop” at a Best Buy in New York City’s Union Square. Customers will be able to play with all of Samsung’s latest equipment, though it looks like you’re not going to get any customer service there should you break your Samsung phone, laptop, or tablet.
This is obviously a move against Apple, who has several hundred retail stores around the world. Those stores are owned and operated by Apple however, unlike Samsung, which is just paying existing stores for a couple square meters of space.
Will these stores work? I’m going to have to say yes. I bought my Galaxy Note II from just such a shop in Malaysia. The people were extremely nice, highly professional, and I’d even go so far to say that they offered an “Apple-like” experience.
