Best Buy's New Discrimination Policy

[74-StreetMachine]

  No, it's not about race, or weight, or sexual preference, it's about your car.  The Best Buy store in our city has three new designated parking spaces for " fuel efficient vehicles". These special spots near the front door are for vehicles that get 30 MPG or better. It's all about going green and  getting their LEED certification. This global warming crap has gone too far. The more your car pollutes the farther you have to park from the store?
   
    I was all set to buy a 40" flat screen TV. I saved money for almost a year and did hours of research to find the right one. The model I wanted finally came on sale and I was all set to go buy it but then our paper had a story about their new preferred parking spaces. I did some checking around and found Sears has the same model on sale for the same price. So I went across the street to Sears, parked where ever I wanted to, and gave them my hard earned $1000.
  Also, Sears saved me an extra $100 by signing up for a sears credit card, interest free for nine months.

   So, UP YOURS BEST BUY ! 

   In know, there are bigger things to worry about than a couple of parking spots, but what's next?

    The thing that really gets me is that Best Buy is doing all this stuff to go green and save energy yet when you go in their store they have over 40 TVs going for 11 hours a day. They can waist energy when it suits their purpose yet they designate special spaces for energy saving cars.  Hypocrites!

    Here is the store managers email address. Let him know how you feel. keith.sinnen@bestbuy.com 

   And here is the story that was in our paper.   

  MOUNT PLEASANT - The three new parking spaces outside of Best Buy, for "fuel-efficient" vehicles, are just one aspect of a new green initiative there.

And, no, the people at Best Buy aren't sure what qualifies as "fuel-efficient."

"I hate to say I don't really know what miles per gallon (standard) that is," store Manager Keith Sinnen said Tuesday.

"We don't tow people," he remarked. "It's on your honor."

"The reaction has been pretty mixed," Sinnen added.

He explained that the three parking spaces adjacent to the handicap parking stalls are part of Best Buy's application to be a LEED-certified building and business.

LEED is the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system.

It's an internationally recognized third-party verification that a building was designed and built to maximize energy savings and water efficiency, reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and so on.

Parking for fuel-efficient vehicles brings Best Buy, now at 2710 S. Green Bay Road, one step closer to LEED designation. The company also provides one space for employee carpool parking, Sinnen noted.

LEED is most commonly sought in new construction, but Sinnen said the new Best Buy, 2710 S. Green Bay Road - home to Circuit City before it went bankrupt - is virtually all new.

"There's nothing pre-existing about this building other than the four outside walls," he said.

Best Buy is pursuing LEED certification as it opens new stores, Sinnen said. Some examples of the features of the new store here which opened Oct. 21:

More than two dozen large skylights to reduce electrical lighting. The old store had 250 overhead canister lights, and this one has 50, Sinnen said.

And those lights are on sensors. "Most days they don't come on until about 3:30," he said.

The store was painted with low-toxin paint and carpeted with low-toxin carpeting.
The store promotes auto-less shopping. Come in by bike, foot or bus and Best Buy will deliver your merchandise.

Have a bike tire go flat on the way? Best Buy will give you a tire patch kit, a place to work and help you repair it, Sinnen said.

Best Buy takes in many old electronics, including computer monitors and TVs up to 32 inches, for recycling. The fee is $10, but the person gets a $10 Best Buy gift card in exchange.

The recycling program includes baling cardboard and accepting household batteries for recycling.

The building uses low-flush toilets and low-flow faucets.


   

[Troy]

So how does this make the building more efficient? The fuel efficient cars get to pull right in and park where the inefficient cars have to drive around looking for a spot - and then drive to the door to pick up any big items. It's unlikely that the fuel efficient cars can hold any big electronics so they will have to be delivered (in a truck). I personally don't shop often enough at Best Buy to have it influence the type of car I'd buy.

Troy

[BrianShaughnessy]

Pursuing LEED ceritification is undoubtedly a corporate decision based upon lower operating costs and things like tax incentives which will impact the corporate bottom line more than losing a sale on a TV.   Publishing some geek BB manager's name in a forum read world wide is not really fair to him....   although he probably picked up extra copies of the newspaper for his mom anyway.   That really is a local issue.

You bought at Sears, saved some $ and now you'll get hounded by phone calls begging you to purchase their extended warranty on the TV for the next 3 years.   Whatever  

[Landonsrt]

Keep in mind with that Sears credit Card.. It has a rotating due date every month. Its never due on the same day. as soon as you get the bill, mail in the payment!
I bought a Sony Bravia 46 flatscreen and put it on my card. No interrest for 18 months. By the time the 18 months was almost up I had accrued another $800 in interest. I had to pay that off real quick before the end of month 18!

[Daytona R/T SE]

I think I'd park my Imperial across all three spots and leave it run while I wandered around their establishment for a couple of hours.

I'm sure during that time, I'd need to take a big shit and plug up one of their "lo-flow" toilets.

[Silver R/T]

that's pretty stupid policy

[moparguy01]

I got 1 big gas guzzling truck, who has 2 more? Lets go park there and say its more "fuel efficient" than our other cars......

[69bronzeT5]

Come Spring, when I go to Best Buy....I'm parking my Duster in their fuel efficent spots...hell, it's fuel efficent for a Mopar muscle car!

[jb666]

How ridiculous.. I might have to bring the wife there to shop tomorrow.. I'll live park right outside the front door.. With my engine running... 

[NHCharger]

Pursuing LEED ceritification is undoubtedly a corporate decision based upon lower operating costs and things like tax incentives

The company I work for is starting to build LEEDS certified buildings, there are several different levels of  LEEDS construction also. It all goes back to tax credits and the companies that rent office space from us get a warm fuzzy thinking they are saving the polar bears from extinction.   

[AKcharger]

I'd still park in those spots, since it's private property you can't be given a ticket 

[68X426]

Park a big RV in front, leave it idling, and then go to the business next door to shop.

[FLG]

Park in the spots and do a burnout while your there.

Explain to them (in the words of hemi doug) your "Giving rubber back to the earth"

[68X426]

An RV doing a burnout at the Best Buy. Brilliant.

[mauve66]

kinda like handicap parking at the mall....................... you can walk around the mall for hours but can't walk across the parking lot?  makes no sense

[Rolling_Thunder]

So...   when my Charger is done and I run it on E-85 does it qualify ? 

[resq302]

I'd still park in those spots, since it's private property you can't be given a ticket 

Unless they asked the town to pass a local ordinance like our mall where I work has.  Then the officers can give a ticket.

[Todd Wilson]

I think I'd park my Imperial across all three spots and leave it run while I wandered around their establishment for a couple of hours.

I'm sure during that time, I'd need to take a big shit and plug up one of their "lo-flow" toilets.

HAHA!   I couldnt have said it any better then that!!!!!!!!!


Todd

[41husk]

Folks, this is political postering!  If you parked a 69 hemi Daytona in one of there designated green area spots, How many people would question or could prove your fuel economy?  I think we should all park Muscle cars in all of those spots and tell them they are four cylinder cars!

[ACUDANUT]

  Why don't they instead have a "American Made" slots reserved up front. Oh, wait everything they sell is Asain Made. 

[68charger383]

A few years in CA back if you bought a $26K hybrid Prius/Civic then you could get yellow stickers which would allow you to drive in the car pool lanes even though you were a single rider. So why the masses were stuck in hour long traffic, these new green yuppies zip by doing 65 MPH.

Now I guess they will also get a preferred parking spot at Bestbuy  

[chargergirl]

Just reminds me of the lady who screamed at me about my gas guzzling dually when we get 22mpg while towing an enclosed trailer. It was fun to explain it was a deisel...she only gets 24mpg hwy so I told her she needed to check tire pressure, change a fuel filter...any filter...pick a filter...it was great! Any of this stuff we have to deal with just thank Al (do as I say, not as I do) Gore. His electric bill in his house is not cheap and he flies everywhere to let us know how un-green we are...love it!

[TexasStroker]

Yet another blown proposal...

If you yield a section of parking at a crowded store to "x" vehicle (in this case x=econbox) have you not just defeated what SHOULD really be the objective of such a proposal?  If you have a car that gets 40+ mpg and then a horrible, carbon footprint godzilla like one of us, does it not do more good to yield the reserved parking spot to the gas guzzler so that they may come in, idle briefly, and park immediately as opposed to make lap after lap searching for a parking spot?

It is this kind of "green" mentaility which you can find in legislation and ad campaigns across the nation...Simple intellect will dictate that more often than not the end result is a negative consequence, despite how "good" the original intentions were 

Fwiw, I despise shopping of any kind...and anywhere I go I park miles away from the nearest car 

[Arthu®]

The only way I think this is meant to help is to create an incentive for people to buy a more fuel efficient car. It's not that they are going to enforce rules, there is no set limit of when you can park there and when not. It's just to make buyers aware and possibly create some more benefits to owning one of these cars. My opinion is that it will never work, unless you set a limit and enforce that limit everybody is still going to park everywhere they want. That's the whole problem with these incentives anyway, they are never forcing enough to actually make a difference and that is for a reason of course. There are a lot of powerful people in this world that don't want us to start consuming less just yet. As opposing as what they might say.

Arthur

[moparstuart]

   i'm going to go peel some hybrid emblem  off a car and put them on my gas guzzler