3D Mystery Shopper
It was an otherwise innocuous press release: Display Search noted “3D TV Not Growing as Fast as TV Makers Expected in 2010,” the company slightly cutting shipments projections from 3.4 million units in the U.S. this year to 3.2 million units. Not a shock; initial forecasts of a new technology often are overly optimistic, backers hoping to project an image of success to spur consumer interest and demand. Once the realities of the marketplace and the current recessed economy took their toll, a quiet (shhhh!) adjustment of said numbers out of the public eye shouldn’t appear too damning.
Except, as is often the case, there’s more to these lower-than-expected uptake numbers than meets the eye. If 3D HDTV fails to catch on, the manufacturers - specifically the retail merchandising managers and trainers, along with the retailers themselves - will have a lot to answer for, at least if my recent 3D mystery shopper trip last week is typical.
Ostensibly, I went out to three Best Buy locations in midtown Manhattan - the store on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, 23d Street and Sixth Avenue, and in Union Square where Panasonic made a big splash with the first-ever 3D intro last March - to test out the new universal 3D glasses from XpanD, which went on sale last week. XpanD’s universal glasses would give me the excuse to devote this column to the quest to unify the nascent 3D equipment experience, including the efforts of CEA’s own universal glasses committee. Attaining a one-standard-glasses-for-all, everyone agrees, would immeasurably ease consumer confusion. The Magnolia stores inside Best Buy, both myself and XpanD figured, would be the perfect place to test their glasses on a variety of 3D HDTV makes and models and, at the same time, take the temperature of the 3D market.
A raging fever doesn’t begin to describe the problems in 3D HDTV.
Only one 3D HDTV in each store I visited actually was playing 3D content, all Panasonic sets, each matched four feet away with glasses mounted on height-adjustable stanchions. At the Fifth Avenue store, there was a 3D Samsung LED HDTV showing not a 3D demo, but ESPN’s SportsCenter because, one employee working in a nearby department told me, they wanted to keep track of scores and news. I loitered around the Magnolia store-within-a-store for 15 minutes, fruitlessly waiting for someone to notice a customer interested in the high-priced item. During my wait, several customers wandered over and Pavlovianly (if that’s a word) donned the 3D glasses tethered to the table opposite the Samsung. I advised each one that the set was not showing 3D (how they didn’t notice this themselves I can’t begin to understand), and to try the nearby Panasonic - which they attempted to do using the Samsung glasses. I let them know that wouldn’t work either, that they’d have to use the glasses mounted on the stanchion in front of the Panasonic - and that’s not the punch line. (One fellow thought I worked there; he was disappointed when I told him I didn’t.)
When I finally beckoned a sales associate and asked her to show me a 3D demo on the Samsung, she acted as if I’d asked her to do my laundry. She then took five minutes to find the remote and run through the TV’s menus until successfully locating the right input settings. It was then we discovered one set of the tethered glasses was missing the power button and the other pair had no power at all. She shrugged her shoulders and wandered off, offering no solution, a potential 3D customer lost. I, of course, whipped out my XpanD universal glasses and fulfilled my original mission.
My experience at the other two Best Buys were actually worse. Along with single working Panasonic demos, both also had single Samsung and Sony 3D sets - neither displaying a 3D demo, neither with glasses anywhere in sight. Only the price tag indicated the set’s status as 3D. And a second Panasonic set in the Union Square store was showing 3D - but there were no glasses mounted in the stanchion. And as in the Fifth Avenue store, I wandered around the 3D TVs in the other two stores for around 15 minutes each, with nary a sales representative in sight.
I’m shocked any 3D sets are actually bought except by those who know exactly what they want and who don’t need a demo, or they are buying a high-end set for other reasons than its 3D credentials. Yes, other stores sell 3D HDTVs, both other big box retailers such as Sears as well as high-end boutiques. But Best Buy, as the biggest nationwide electronics big box retailers, is the 3D front line, and, if my three-store-tour is an actual trend (and I suspect it is), the center of that front line is buckling like the Atlantic Wall on D-Day - not from overwhelming force, but from complete neglect.*
Perhaps the (finally!) release of Avatar in 3D on Dec. 1 will improve matters, but if there are no glasses on sets other than Panasonics, hardly anyone will see it.
Oh, the XpanD glasses proved superior to Panasonic’s RealD-made lenses, offering brighter colors, deeper contrast and blacks, and more 3D depth. But suddenly this seems way beside the point.
*Editor’s Note: We happened to do our own Best Buy 3DTV shopping in Dallas (only one store) two weeks ago with similar results. 3D content was being displayed on a new set and there were glasses present but they didn’t work, which probably means the batteries were drained.
Tad commented:
To Much To Fast. People don;t even use thier phones like the could and the marketplace will not hold it. I go around and setup peoples new sets after they have tryed for a few days…..Nintendo has the idea with the 3d without the glasses man thats that the way. Good luck.
jcrobso commented:
My personal experiences are about the same as noted is this article. The glasses don’t work or are missing, non 3D program material.
A family 5 asked a sales person how many glasses do you get with the set when the father was told one and any others were $200+ he just walked away. Unless the manufactures adopt the universal glasses 3D will die a sudden death.
I have not been impressed with the few demos that were working. Most consumers are just recovering from the switch to HDTV and the HD-DVD/Blue ray wars, now the #D wars are starting! We need a break!
Brian Carver commented:
I live in SC and NC. Originally over the end of spring I went into the Durham store and got a really good demo (not by the best buy salesperson) by the local Cable Partner. He was doing sign-ups for New Cable customers and took the time to explain the setup.
I just went into the Anderson SC store last week and was treated to the same self serve Panasonic demo. I liked the demo as it was reliable.
As a consumer, I am really hot on this idea but I will be personally late to adopt the technology. I do agree that having standardized glasses will go a long way in consumer adaptation.
My first purchases in 3D will be in the computer market as that is further along.
Frustrated shopper commented:
This is the kind of customer service the seems to exist everywhere these days, not just when shopping in a Best Buy looking at 3D sets. So often sales people are either non-existent or act like you are bothering them. I just don’t get it. Isn’t it their job to sell us stuff? As far as the 3D content is concerned, I remember years ago when I was looking at for my first HDTV. It was the same kind of thing, they were showing SD content on an HDTV, made no sense.
Scott Poole commented:
What you have outlined is why I think 3D will fail as a consumer item. Forgetting the negatives of glasses, viewing angles, lack of software, etc.; the lack of a great, quick killer demo will be the death of the format in the mainstream. I came to this conclusion after visiting CEDIA in September. I went to every manufacturers booth there and there was only one display that was functional when I first walked up, with the first pair of glasses I put on. I got many, many excuses - “try these glasses, the batteries are dead in those.” or “some guy just dropped those”, or “our display has been giving us trouble all day” or about twenty other excuses. But, if the manufacturers cannot get a working display at a trade show that can survive a crowd of industry people; how can we expect a store setting to ever do it?
I also agree somewhat with the above comments. The industry is trying to bypass the independent retailers and specialists on this new technology. That is a mistake. They have bought into the kool-aid that Best Buy and Wal-Mart are selling them.
Ray Windsor commented:
No surprise. Big Boxes exploit existing demand. They do not create demand (educate consumers). Consumer education (demand creation) takes place in three ways... (1)Massive advertising (think iPod or Coke and Pepsi). (2) An informed and enthusiastic sales person in a well merchandised specialty brick & mortar retailer present the technology to the consumer and adds more information to the consumer's knowledge base than the consumer entered the store with. After creating that demand the sales person fills the demand prfitably (closes the sale). (3) The consumer's expert friend (internet forum, consumer ratings on Amazon, etc...) tell him what to buy and where to buy.
The writer correctly laments the failure of the Coke machine to educate the consumer. The writer correctly laments the failure of the product trainers to successfully deliver the message to the big box clerks. The writer however fails to identify the failure on the part of the manufacturers who select ineffective big box Coke machines to whom they fundamentally consign product in a guaremnteed sale fashion, who will ultimately assign responsibility for failure to the consumer's inability to understand the technology.
This is the perfect opportunity for the Wal-mart protester and other well intentioned specialty retailers and their buying groups to "rescue" the 3D manufacturers. Perhaps the manufacturers will respond favorably to... Select us to deliver the message successfully to the consumer, provide an environment where some Profit, Identity and Predicatability are possible and we will show you that we are capable of successfully delivering your technology to market. After we build the awareness allow the big boix coke machines to exploit that demand BUT be prepared to provide us with the next new technology to successfully introduce. After all that is what the special in specialty retailer stands for.
Specialty retailer buying groups...? Concerned specialty retailers...? Concerned manufacturers...? Now is the time to be heard. To take action. Call me and maybe we can find a way to GET IT DONE. 949-228-2153
Ray Windsor
Barrett Monroe commented:
If you want to shop new technology you don’t go to the flea market!(Oh yeah that’s right!)You can blame the manufacturers,big box retailers,and online etailers which lead to the demise of the specialty retailers.The only people capable of a proper presentation,demonstration,and explanation.What did you expect?
JerryAJ commented:
As a Product Specialist for The Leader in 3D Technology, there are more markets than New York city. Less than 5% of Americas shoppers are in that particular market area. In the San Antonio Market, a shopper can walk into virtually any Best Buy and other “Big Box” retailers and actually watch a 3D Presentation either with or without a salesperson. Panasonic has been actively placing self serve Demos that function quite well. Yes, 3D is alive and well way down here in South Texas. Of course it is next to impossible to assure that 100% of the time you will not encounter an issue with a broken pair of glasses or maybe someone forgot to place the 3D BluRay in The Repeat mode that day. From what I have witnessed, the major obstacle in this market is a shortage of 3D product. I don’t feel the Glasses are a major issue as most consumers who buy a particular brand will want to purchase that brands 3D glasses. I am still somewhat leary of a so called “Universal” pair of 3D glasses. So, to sum up: If you want a professional Demonstration of 3D Technology come on down to South Texas. You may need to find your way through a herd of LongHorn Cattle, but you’ll be glad you did.
William McCurry commented:
The elephant in the room here is profitability - with the lack of success in 3D sales the manufacturers have cut prices and margins, the only “strategy” they know. What’s missing is the age old pricing cycle where retailers make money during the introduction of new technology. The side benefit of this pricing cycle is it gives retailers the encouragement and rewards to actually sell (as in create demand) for new products. Under today’s model, Panasonic is basically renting space from Best Buy and it is Panasonic who is responsible for keeping those glasses charged and functioning.
Why should Best Buy care if 3D suceeds or fails?
Margin dollars (whether from markup or creative accounting and payment of various allowances) at the end of the day determine retailers’ priorities. Yes, it’s true the short sighted policies have run the independent out of business.
When cutting prices is the only “strategy” you understand then eventually it is your own throat that is cut . . . Panasonic (and others) are reaping what they have sown. No surprises here.
J.Bradley commented:
I find this to be terribly true with most retailers about 3D tv and home theater. No matter where I go, I always seem to be more knowledgeable than the clueless salespeople there about 3D.
John Nemesh commented:
This doesnt surprise me at all. I recently went to the Best Buy in Lynnwood WA (to purchase Call of Duty, Black Ops). This is one of their flagship stores, with the Magnolia A/V “Store within a store” concept. My brother and I spent 20 minutes (!) in the Magnolia section checking out the displays, including the 3DTVs (no 3D on display here either!) and the high end audio rooms. Not a single soul was present in the Magnolia section other that myself and my brother. 20 minutes spent poking and prodding at some relatively expensive gear and not a single “how can I help you?” or “are you finding everything ok?”. Best Buy is an EPIC FAIL when it comes to customer service, and them taking Magnolia A/V and bastardizing it to fit their business model is not working as far as I can tell. The poor souls working there (even in the Magnolia section) are getting very little above minimum wage, and are poorly trained. With no commission, there is no reason for anyone to even want to help, and even if they wanted to, they dont have the training or the experience to know what the hell they are talking about. The funniest thing I saw? Martin Logan electostatic speakers (power hogs), hooked up to a Marantz NR1601…an entry level AVR with a whopping 50 watts per channel. Its not a bad AVR, but totally unsuitable for the $5000/pr speakers that were attached to it!
Bottom line…if you are counting on Best Buy to promote any new technology, you are barking up the wrong tree. Hopefully for 3D technology, there will be someone out there who can do a better job.
Fred Nebbish commented:
As a former sales manager (regional and local) for more than 30 years in the “better hifi” category, I can only shrug my shoulders and shake my head. The reason so many of us have abandoned the industry is that the specialty marketplace has been abandoned by the manufacturers. The result: there are so few places where the consumer can properly learn about this complicated technology that they are relegated to the under-prepared and under-qualified denizens of Best Buy. Had the manufacturers not sold all the specialty stores down the river of their bottom lines, there might still be the many hundreds of locations around the country where education, quality service, and a proper demonstration could be obtained. Let’s not blame the recession–the fault lies with an industry which is imploding with a price/big box calculus that guarantees a poor customer experience. WalMart, Best Buy, Target, Costco: These are your avenues of education and salesmanship? Continued merchandising through outlets like these will ensure that any clever upcoming technology advances will receive the same improper, lackluster, inept presentation referred to in this article.
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