Defunct CE specialist Crazy Eddie apparently still lives on as a referral site for Best Buy.
Visitors to the Web site www.crazyeddie.com are now re-directed to www.bestbuy.com, the e-commerce site of the industry’s No. 1 CE chain. A spokesman for Best Buy said the company had been made aware of the online action, but could not explain it, as it has no business arrangements with Crazy Eddie. He added that Best Buy is investigating the matter.
According to an industry observer, affiliate deals are a common online practice, in which parties receive a referral fee or commission on purchases made by consumers who were re-directed to a second site.
Crazy Eddie was a notorious New York metro area chain with 43 stores and $350 million in annual sales at its late 1980s peak. Its founder, Eddie Antar, served six years for stock fraud, but resurfaced with the e-commerce site in 2001. The site closed last January, just two weeks after Klipsch, assisted by NetEnforcers.com, filed suit against the company for selling its products without authorization.
