If you like buying stuff from Best Buy but you can’t stand actually entering the stores, you might soon be able to just sit in your car and wait for them to bring your in-store pickup purchases out to you as though it were a lukewarm bag of Chili’s Chicken Crispers.
The “Curbside Pickup” program appears to be in some sort of testing phase – I searched for an item to pick up in the Minneapolis area and only one store, a relatively new one in Shakopee, was offering to bring my impulsively-purchased item out to my car. I wasn’t able to find pickup locations outside of Minnesota, either, so it might be a very-limited pilot program launching out of Best Buy’s home state. If it works, though, you can bet it’ll pop up elsewhere.
According to the FAQ, you have to actually call and schedule a pickup time with the store, which kind of defeats the purpose for those who want to avoid interpersonal communication until it’s absolutely necessary. Once you actually show up at the store, there’s a number to call to let them know you’re there or, if you don’t have a cell phone, Best Buy says, “We’ll be watching for you.” Sounds kinda creepy but if it means I can eat, sleep, and buy gadgets without ever leaving my car, I guess that’s something.
In all seriousness, there could be some very useful implications that go along with this. Handicapped people, the elderly, and anyone else with limited mobility might use a service like this all the time, so it’ll be interesting to see if it catches on.