I don’t want to say that I told you so, but, well, I did. Middle america continues to move online, content purchases have gone digital, and Walmart and Costco will keep undercutting Best Buy on pricing of high-volume items. For Best Buy to survive it needs to move upmarket in home electronics (helping consumers navigate the complexity of HD home theatre), focus on white goods (kicking Sears out of that market for good), and pray for a real-estate recovery.

I had a pretty terrible experience with Best Buy this Christmas; I ordered an XBOX 360 on their website for in-store pickup and never got it. Many other folks had this problem. The reason was that their “Order Online” button was completely disconnected from their in-store inventory management. In other words, they had no business telling me that I could buy a certain product online, for in-store pickup, because they had no idea if the product would actually be available in store.