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this 8-bit life – An Open Letter to Best Buy CTO, Robert Stephens.
I read an article today that referenced a comment you made at the Android Open conference. From what I am hearing you said something to the effect that you envision a day when the DVD section of Best Buy stores might be replaced with a section dedicated to Arduino development boards and homebrew electronics. That Best Buy, one of the largest retailers in the country might actually start selling easily accessible technology that allows the user to create and learn something. I must admit that when I think of Best Buy I think of camcorders, MP3 players, cell phones, tablets and TVs. And the over-simplified image that I have of the customer base is largely uninformed consumers who have little interest in how their devices work. I will be the first to tell you that this is my nerd bias and that while it may be right to some degree it is certainly not true of all of them. After all, I shop at Best Buy too…
That was fast 
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Well, I don’t know about you, but when I think of Best Buy, Radio Shack and others like them, I think of unethical business practices like hooking consumers with cheap goods, then ripping them off for accessories at ridiculous mark-ups, once they have them on the hook.
Have you ever tried to buy a Firewire cable at a place like that? Expect to shell out $40+ for the same cable you can buy on-line for $1.25.
It’s a disgusting business model, and the Maker community doesn’t need them. I’m perfectly happy with the successful hobby-oriented suppliers we already have, thank you very much.
Just sayin…
Comment by Daniel — October 11, 2011 @ 9:24 am
@daniel, we try to be inclusive and support companies that want to be part of the maker community by becoming more like us. that’s how change happens
Comment by adafruit — October 11, 2011 @ 9:25 am
Well, If they do ever do this for their typical markup, there will still be Adafruit, Sparkfun, and Make selling them and variations therof at a reasonable price.
Comment by The Ideanator — October 11, 2011 @ 8:16 pm