Best Buy has partnered with the West Coast Customs shop famous for its “Pimp My Ride” show.
First, Best Buy will be featured on WCC’s new show, called “Inside West Coast Customs.” Second, Best Buy will sell a new line of car audio products and car care supplies through Best Buy starting this summer.
The WCC line will be offered in 466 Best Buy locations initially as well as BestBuy.com. The line will be expanded to additional stores throughout the year. Initial products include four car speakers and car care products as shown on bestbuy.com. A spokeswoman said other products will be tested under the WCC brand.
Also, on the cable show, during each episode, WCC mechanics will take products from a Best Buy Pop-Up Store located in the shop before they install them in the featured cars. The items shown on TV will be the same products available for purchase by consumers at Best Buy.
Best Buy will also appear in two upcoming WCC episodes including one show where WCC trains Geek Squad Autotechs on the show’s “seven steps of customization.”
Source: Best Buy
My big question is this: What brand of speakers and/or amplifiers and accessories is is being covered up by the WCC logo? Brand & quality is a key seller. I’m not going to buy brand X just because you glued the WCC logo over the true manufacturer. Vinnie Z and Steve have it right, do you really expect a 20 year old installer to have very much experience in the car audio world and expect Best Buy to be just as good as WCC? That is giving the average consumer false hope all the way across the board. The team at WCC are very skilled, pushed to their limits on just about every high end build. Why, because they are getting paid exceptionally well to do so. Do you really expect Best Buy to do the same to each of their installers? HELL NO!! I know this for a fact. I used to work for Best Buy back in the day and know that BB HQ wants you to do great work for half the price. If you have ever seen the quality work that a Best Buy installer does? If not, I will tell you. We were told to use crimp caps for wiring, no solder and heatshrink. No custom work even if the customer requested it. You have to get the vehicle out in a certain amount of time or your employee record would reflect it and job evaluation score was low. In turn, no raise. Some vehicles require a little more time and patience than others. Any installer/fabricatior/designer with 5+ years of experience knows it takes skill and knowledge and time to do the job RIGHT. Experience teaches you the tricks of the trade, not a 3 hour book test that Best Buy gives you to become MECP Bacis-Certified. Customers want it done as cheap as possible and as fast as possible.
I can understand both Ryan and Best Buy wanting to increase their profit margins, but I don’t think this was such a smart move. Keeping CUSTOM out of a big box store is wiser than allowing it. Ryan should have given this job opportunity/market to CUSTOM shops all over the US.
I’m so disappointed! Like the rest of us, Ryan at WCC has competed against the big box stores for a long time. Because of people like Ryan and his crew, people could see the real value in having a real professional work on their cars. Now, Best Buy will be able to pay for what Ryan has worked hard for, and use it against other custom dealers. I can’t blame the guy for wanting to improve his margins, but who is going to suffer? He should have made the line available only to custom retailers, not e-tailers and certianly not big box stores. Any time you take something good and turn it into a commoditiy, it loses value. This has to be a mistake.
Just another example of someone like Best Buy thinking that 20 year old kids in their install bay can install more than basic head units and they won’t have issues like they have with Remote Starters.
Seeing how my DVR records all IWCC episodes, this whole season they have had scenes where parts guys are shown pulling into Best Buy parking lots and inside the store picking up product. Been on the air for a few months now. They are alos doing spots with local/smaller businesses on the parts of the builds that they contract out. Easily 2-3 per episode, plus the regular best buy scenes.
Hasn’t the WCC gang been advertising this for 2 weeks (during the upcoming episode part of their show)? I think the new show is doing a great job showing what those guys can do and how cool custom cars can be instead of just putting in popcorn machines and disco balls in beat up old cars.
Any time car audio gets air time it is a good thing in my book. Kudos to Best Buy for partnering with WCC to promote car audio.
We need more detail!! On the show they’re mounting wheels at Best Buy. Interestly they had a cheap balancer in the Best Buy bay but no tire changer. The show makes this look like much more than some WWC speakers and detailing stuff.