In case you're wondering, that means paying workers on commission, keeping employees for a long time, and making sure they actually know what they're talking about. Naturally, Best Buy, via a spokesperson, was defensive about these claims:

Our employees are exceptional at demystifying complex technology!

while Walmart's PR strategy was hilariously honest:

With electronics data so readily available online today, many customers come to us looking for a particular brand or item, knowledge in hand, and may not want or feel comfortable shopping with a salesperson.

Neeeeeerds!That said, commission-driven aggression doesn't necessarily equate to better service, and I suspect the WSJ's conclusion has less to do with the chains' superior customer experience than it does the public's inordinately toxic impressions of big box retailers like Best Buy. But the sentiment certainly rings true: even as a gadget blogger, I feel better buying my gear from someone who can answer basic questions about it. [WSJ--Image courtesy of the WSJ]

Now, founder and "Head Monster" Noel Lee is cutting prices on top-of-the-line cables for high-definition TVs, effective in June. An 8-foot HDMI cable that currently sells for $129.95 at Best Buy will be priced at $99.

On Monday, the company also lopped $10 off the price of its most basic—but rarely stocked—HDMI TV cable, to $29 for a 1-meter length. And it introduced two new lower-cost HDMI cables in 2-meter and 4-meter lengths for $39.95 and $59.95. Competitors' cables of similar length can be found online for as low as $5.

This just makes me laugh. As we pointed out in our "Truth About Monster Cable" series, buying high end cable is usually unnecessary. But hey, if people want to waste money on "the best" I can hardly blame Monster for selling it to them. As Noel Lee pointed out to USA Today: "It's ironic, when people buy Monster, they don't expect to pay (a) low price, so our lower-end cables don't sell very well." That's probably true—the people who buy these things might view the price as an exclusive barrier to entry, and therefore part of the allure. It will be interesting to see if this price tactic actually improves sales. [USA Today]

The biggest loser is the microwave, far and away, with only 47% naming it as essential— a 21 point drop from 2006. In fact, pretty much everything is seen as far less essential these days, as you'd expect, except our beloved gadgetry.

iPods, flat-screen TVs, and high-speed internet are all seen as more essential than before. Cellphones stayed the same, and computers dropped a mere 1 point. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the items on the list, like air conditioning, cable tv, and dishwasher, which all suffered double-digit drops. The car, of course, is still the top spot, but even it dropped three points.

So, readers, what can't you live without? I'd definitely do without a car before getting rid of my laptop, but maybe that's just me. [TampaBay]

CNET reports, via an SEC filing, that Apple has cut back their full-time retail workforce by a full 1600 employees—from 15600 to 14000—in the last quarter alone, during which they only opened one new retail outlet.

The press narrative so far this year has been that Apple has bucked the recession, outperforming the industry and minimizing an inevitable sales slowdown after an impressive Q1. And this narrative holds: Apple has done well on paper while its competitors haven't. It's just, now we sort of know how. [CNET] [Note: Some have suggested that some employees have scaled back their hours and been subtracted from the "full-time" figure. This is plausible, but either way it's a pretty rough cutback.]

Better yet, let's add a step four: Make sure you do all of this during one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Stir.

Sounds almost too terrible to be true, and yet there's photographic evidence that exists proving Microsoft overpaid a bunch of its former employees and now wants its money back. Oh, and some employees were apparently underpaid as well. What do you think you would do in this situation? [TechCrunch]

Yes, they pulled in 10.4 billion yen during the 4th quarter compared to 200.2 billion yen the previous year. These dismal figures reflect a downright-disastrous holiday season for Sony, with TVs and PS3s not exactly flying off the shelves. It's your fault, really. I mean, if you'd been spending money on Sony products, none of this would have happened. For shame! Think about someone other than yourself, why don't you? [AP and Kotaku via CrunchGear]

Japan's Nikkei and Reuters are both reporting that losses for the fiscal year ending in March could hit $1.1 billion, with Nikkei saying they may even drift closer to $2 billion. This is, as they say, the exact opposite of the $2.2 billion profit forecast Sony previously cited.

At fault are, well, the financiapocalypse of course, which has resulted in subdued demand for HDTVs in the American market and elsewhere, as well as a booming yen that has driven up the price of exports. Stocks for all of the Japanese tech companies plunged today from the news, with Toshiba, Canon and Panasonic all down in the neighborhood of 7%.

So the idea of Sony shuttering a major division by the end of next month rings a bit more true now, doesn't it? Who will get the axe?

[NYT, Variety]

Yes, the tanking economy is hitting the mighty Google just as hard as every other company out there, and they're having to cut costs as a result. Gone is the 20% time that allowed engineers to dedicate one day a week to pet projects. And hell, why pay those engineers at all? Users can come up with ideas just as well as they can, and they don't even have to pay them.

That's the idea behind the new Google Product Ideas blog, a place for people to submit and vote on ideas for new Google products. And what if you come up with a genius idea that makes Google millions of dollars? "If you post an idea or suggestion and we put it into action, we may give you a shout out on our Product Ideas blog, but we won't be compensating users for their ideas." Don't be evil, indeed. [Google Product Ideas via Slashdot]

Consumer electronics are always hit harder than average in tight times, but massive drop confirms what my various visits at barely-busy big box retailers led me to suspect. But what else can we find in this data? And is it really as bad as it looks?

First of all, the category that fell by 27% is titled "Electronics/Appliances", so it's possible that things are OK in Gadgetland, and pure carnage in Whirlpoolville. But probably not. Second, the data shows a inverse correlation between a drop in sales and utility. This isn't to say that gadgets are superfluous luxury items—you won't hear that here—but rather that the other categories like, you know, shoes, contain products that probably take priority over USB humping dogs and Monster cables.

Oh well. Expect to hear plenty more about these numbers when Q4 earnings reports start trickling out, like tears of disappointment onto so many plimsolls. [WSJ]

Says Sprint spokeslady Lisa Zimmerman-Mott:

"What is happening is Sprint is offering a personal decision for employees to take advantage of a voluntary separation package. No one is being forced to do anything. There are no forced reductions. There are no layoffs in store. It's a matter of employees having the option to exercise discretion. No targets have been announced."

Supposedly, improving customer service was one of CEO Dan Hesse's major goals when he took over the beleaguered carrier, but we're wondering how shedding staff is gonna help that. Also, how long before the pink slips go from voluntary to mandatory? We can't help but think this move is simply to make a coming massacre slightly less bloody. [Fierce Wireless via Consumerist]

The nav market is a tough one, and with the added economic difficulties, Dash feels it can do better work by focusing on their open-source OS, which they will then sell business-to-business. More important than the OS, which is fine but not fantastic, is the back end traffic mesh system. A Dash-powered mid-range Garmin nav sounds like a pretty appealing propect, and will help bring a Dash-like system to more people for less dough. New CEO Rob Currie also notes that the Dash's GPRS chip and 400MHz ARM processor are quickly being outpaced by even low-end mobiles, so a move toward adding Dash functionality to GPS-equipped smartphones sounds like a plan to me.

Dash is going to keep the Express back end running for existing owners, but no word on for how long; because these devices hold almost zero local data, once the service goes you will have yourself a nav that can't do much more than direct address routing. Dash friends, care to let us know how long we have? [GigaOM]

The reason of the sudden swing was artificial, caused by a large chunk of computer-driven orders that pushed the values up, only to drop down again after these were processed. At least according to the Associated Press, which says that this early roller coaster was "likely caused" by these orders, which "kicked-in when prices had fallen far enough to make some stocks look like an attractive bet. But that buying reflected no lifting of the market's deep despair, and selling continued."

Oh noes. Maybe we should all cheer up and let computers run the whole thing for a while then. Or just send stocks to hell altogether. [AP — Thanks OMGponies]

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