The top US electronics retailer didn't pick Silicon Valley, India or another high-tech hub to build its hospital for personal computers. It chose the Kentucky countryside, known more for race horses and bourbon distilleries than geeks and microprocessors.
Geek Squad, the quirky PC service division of Best Buy Co, opened its 15,300m2 Geek Squad City warehouse just south of Louisville late last year with a goal of cutting the time it takes to repair and return PCs, especially laptops.
"This is all about giving the customer a better experience," said Michael Rodgers, Geek Squad City's "ambassador," or spokesman.
Computers with broken motherboards, hard drives with death rattles and virus infections begin streaming into the warehouse at 5am from a nearby UPS air hub in Louisville, one of the key reasons that the business was built here, said Wes Snyder, Geek Squad City's top manager, or "mayor."
Snyder said the nearby city offered a tech-savvy work force. The state also offered tax benefits worth up to US$9.3 million.
Inside the facility's sprawling repair room, PC parts and precision tools are spread over the rows and rows of desks where hundreds of computer techs -- Geek Squad's "agents" -- fix more than 2,000 laptops a day. More than 700,000 PCs will be repaired here this year, Rodgers said.
Laptops are the majority of PCs sold nowadays, and the smaller and more advanced they get, the more complicated the repairs. The portable computers also endure more abuse than their larger desktop cousins, getting dinged, dropped and splashed with coffee.
"They're getting down to where you need watchmaker tools and very special expertise. It's not just swapping out a disk drive anymore," said Richard Doherty, president of The Envisioneering Group, a research company.
About half the laptops are repaired on the same day they arrive at Geek Squad City, but the average is about three days, Rodgers said.
Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group research company, said the turnaround time is faster than any other computer retailer.
"From a store perspective, I'm not aware of anyone else doing this," he said.
Original or direct PC manufacturers like Dell can typically repair and return a PC in about that time, Enderle added.
Circuit City Stores Inc, Best Buy's main rival in the electronics retail market, launched its own PC repair service, called Firedog, in October. It offers in-home and in-store service, similar to Geek Squad. Circuit City declined to comment on Geek Squad City.
"Oftentimes what an industry leader like a Best Buy does is force others people to kind of follow," said Samir Bhavnani, a research director with Current Analysis.
Most of the thousands of computers sent to Geek Squad City could not be fixed by employees at Best Buy locations, typically because the store didn't have the proper parts.
Swift repair time is crucial in the PC business.
"Laptops are very personal and people don't like a personal element of their life to be out of their reach for two or three or 10 days," Doherty said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘NOT SUBORDINATE’: Only Taiwanese can decide the nation’s future, and people preserving their democratic way of life is not a provocation, President William Lai said Taiwan does not want China’s “one country, two systems,” and must uphold its freedom and democracy as well as resolve to defend itself, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, rejecting Beijing’s latest bid to bring the country under Chinese control. The president made the remarks while attending a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The tanks are made by General Dynamics, a major US defense contractor. China this week said it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media
RSS