Posted 03/22/2009 at 09:54:14am

It's been so long ago that I don't even remember when it happened, but Best Buy was originally a pioneer discount brick & mortar operation. But a few years back, management, amid much whining about low profits and consumers attempting to rip them off by buying sale items and then attempting to return them after the sale ended, profiting from the higher price, declared that they would no longer be a known as a discounter and would pursue strictly full price high end merchandsie. About the only deal you can get now is on sale items. I also note that CDW, despite it's name, has never been a discounter. CompUSA and Circuit City are both out of business, and MicroCenter has to be watched very closely as they often sell discontinued items and seconds as 'sale' items. Now that almost all of the competition for Best Buy is gone, watch out for humongous price hikes.