Electronics retailer hhgregg opens two area stores
JOE MAHONEY/TIMES-DISPATCH
A customer examines the television selection at the soft opening yesterday of the hhgregg store near Chesterfield Towne Center.
Retailer hhgregg officially opened in the Richmond area today.
Nearly 300 people streamed into the new hhgregg store near the Short Pump Town Center this afternoon.
The store opened 15 minutes before the official 3 p.m. grand opening time. The doors opened just after a private ribbon cutting ceremony for new employees.
The customers, some who had waited as long as a couple of hours, were welcomed into store by applauding employees.
The fast-growing regional appliance and consumer-electronics retailer opened another area store -- near Chesterfield Towne Center.
The chain took over two former Circuit City locations that closed this year.
Reader Reactions
Circuit City was just a poorly run company. It wouldn’t have mattered how they paid or trained employees—they were going under. I don’t know the firstr thing about HH Gregg, but if they’re better than Best Buy that’s all I care about. I’ll never darken the door of a Best Buy again.
All I want is a TV. If I can get that at HH Gregg, I’m there.
To shintu: I hope this is not a sign of things to come. Your experience should NOT have happened today. They knew when they were opening and should have been ready. If they weren’t ready, they should have delayed a day or two. Far better to do that than have a bad experience and not go back.
I haven’t been there yet, but the merchandise mix sounds like Best Products combined with CC and Best Buy. Ironically, 2 of the 3 failed and I think BB is not far behind. Poor service from all 3.
The best advice is to buy your major appliances from Appliance Solutions (also known as Lakeside Appliance). Their prices are competitive with the big box stores plus you get SERVICE. They stand behind their products. Shop LOCAL.
(First off, I do not work for any competitor to hhgregg)
What a disappointment. I went in about 6:00 tonight. I was impressed they didn’t have a bunch of wireless-device-communicating techno elites wondering why a customer was bothering them (ala the last CC experiment). What I was surprised at was their lack of preparedness. Their only registers (a whopping 2) were both prone to problems and neither receipt printers worked right (their “IT” guy had to be called out of the back room numerous times to fix them. After my sale (a flat screen HDTV) was rung up, the cashier had no apology for the delay (almost 40 minutes in line with only 2 people in front of me) and no form of “Thank You for your business” was uttered. When As I was exiting, I saw the store manager and relayed this information to him. All he could do is rattle off excuses to me about why things were happenening the way they were (the cashiers were brought up here from Charlotte?), AND that they don’t have the high volume like the “bigger” stores. All I was looking for was a simple “I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience, hopefully we can do better on your next visit to us”. Later, one of the salespeople said the manager is an ex-circuit city person. OH BOY.
I got a great deal on a Yamaha receiver and Bello TV stand to match a Samsung ToC LCD, and just used a HH G ad for a price match @ BB on a Cannon SLR. Glad to see them in opening more stores in Va.
Ummm, they do earn a base pay plus commission. It is not a sell or starve. It is a way to get their associates off their butt, which circuit city never figured out and Best buy did.
“””It’s also interesting to note that hhgregg is selling large appliances and pay their employees commission…”””
Everyone will be wearing plaid jackets right???
Welcome to the new world order! THE SERVICE WORLD USA GOVERNMENT STYLE boys and girls!!!
U-no SALE,,, U no PAYCheque,,,U-no eat, pay rent, U-no send kids to Univerity,,,U-FIRED!!! More like street vending third world style gone wild,,, in AMERICA only they have a roof over their heads, for now!
I’m sure it’s a WHO moved my Cheese or Tom Peters will pick up all tha SLACKERS motivational way O doing the right thing for American WORKERS in the GREAT RECESSION!
NOT!!!
(not to mention Lakeside Appliance closed down in April).
Well, Appliance Solutions is now open at all the former Lakeside Appliance locations. Same deal.
Lower your expectations. I was there yesterday afternoon. Think Lakeside Appliance, not Best Buy.
If you had known that hhgregg is 85% large appliances and TVs, not small electronics and DVDs, etc., which you can buy practically everywhere, you might not have been so disappointed.
I’m glad there’s another place to buy large appliances - all the other small stuff you can usually find online for a fraction of the cost Best Buy sells them for.
If hhgregg is so similar to Lakeside Appliance, why are they expanding so rapidly? They’ve obvious got something going (not to mention Lakeside Appliance closed down in April).
It’s also interesting to note that hhgregg is selling large appliances and pay their employees commission… Circuit City got rid of both of these a few years ago (obviously a BIG mistake).
It’ll be interesting to see if they can stay in the major appliance business where Circuit City gave it up years ago.
They’ve been advertising the fact that they are NOT Best Buy, but compete with them in certain areas. I think it’s great that they can be somewhat different, while still competing with Best Buy on major appliances. Good Luck HHGregg and welcome to Richmond!
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