Nathan for You

My name is Nathan Fielder,

and I graduated from one of Canada's top business schools

with really good grades.

Now I'm using my knowledge to help struggling

small business owners make it in this competitive world.

This is "Nathan for You."

Alen Harikian is the owner of Speers TV,

a South-Pasadena electronics store

that's been operating in the neighborhood

for over 60 years.

But ever since a massive Best Buy moved in

just minutes away from his tiny shop,

he's been finding it impossible

to keep up with their aggressive pricing.

Their sales are ridiculous.

I mean, there's no way that I can compete.

And if it keeps up,

Speers TV is at risk of going extinct.

So I paid Alen a visit with an ambitious solution

to undercut his biggest competitor.

Are you familiar with the Best Buy price-match policy?

Yeah. It's horrible.

I mean, it's bad for small business.

One of the main reasons

Alen has such a hard time competing with Best Buy

is because of their aggressive price-match policy,

which guarantees they will match the price

of any local competitor,

preventing stores like Speers from underselling them,

but if Alen dropped his prices so low

to make his TVs virtually free,

according to Best Buy's own policy,

they would have to match that price, too,

giving Alen a short window of time

where he could buy up all their inventory for $1

and then resell those TVs for any price he wants

to make a huge profit.

The plan: use Best Buy's price-match policy against them

to get Speers an endless supply of $1 TVs.

Um...

It's a great idea.

- It might take a little bit of work and time to do.

Okay.

- Do you have a lot going on right now?

No, I honestly don't. No.

- So you don't have commitments at home

or anything right now?

Relationship stuff?

I'm not in a relationship, no.

- I'm not in a relationship either, so...

Oh.

- We can both work on this, you know, full-time.

Okay. All right. That's fine.

After a bit more discussion,

Alen was on board to move forward with dropping the price

on one of his premium Samsung HD TV models

to just $1 apiece,

but once the new discounted price went into effect,

people would be flocking to Speers to get the deal.

So to help dissuade these bargain hunters

from buying up all of Alen's dollar TVs,

I implemented a strict dress code, requiring customers

to wear formal attire just to enter the store.

I then had all the dollar TVs moved to an area

at the back of the store

and had a new wall constructed to surround this area

that could only be entered

through a tiny, two-foot-tall door.

Finally, in between the door and the TVs,

I added a live alligator,

which would hopefully force customers who made it this far

to reconsider their decision

to take advantage of the great offer.

With our preventative measures in place,

I could now prepare to get Alen his TVs.

According to Best Buy's policy,

price-matches are restricted to one item per customer,

so to maximize the number of TVs I could get Alen,

I put an ad on Craigslist to recruit a team of people

to help make the purchases,

and later that week, I met with those who responded

to see if they were right for the task.

So this job involves buying things.

Okay.

Are you good at buying things?

Um, I would say so.

Like, what do you mean by buying things?

- Like, going into a store and buying something.

Yeah.

All right. Great.

All six applicants seemed qualified for the job,

so after printing out some flyers

and distributing them throughout the neighborhood,

it was finally time for Alen

to offer his $1 prices to the world.

On the morning of the big promotion,

the deal vultures were already circling out front,

and that meant we had to move quick,

so I met my team of buyers out back

and gave them each the dollar they'd need to buy the TVs

and then sent them off in a van to Best Buy.

Meanwhile, I hung back at Speers to help Alen ensure

his inventory remained untouched.

Hey. - Hi.

- You look good. - Thank you.

You too. - Thanks.

And once Alen unlocked the front door,

we were officially open for business.

- Wow, this is nice. - Can I help you, or...

We're here to...

for the TV deals.

- Just so you guys know, we do have a strict dress code,

as you can see on the wall, so...

- Wow. - There's no advertising

about the dress code. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - That's...

- I mean, it's right in the front of our store

for everyone to see. - Yeah, but that doesn't...

- It's inside. - This is the front.

- It's inside. We were waiting out there.

We were waiting in the front of the store.

- I knew some people might be a bit frustrated,

so I offered up a list

of tuxedo rental stores in the area

to show them that Speers did value their business.

Honestly, you seem like very nice people,

and I'd love to let you in,

but I think doing so would be unfair to the customers

that, you know, chose to dress... decent.

What the...

- My plan on the Speers TV side was working,

as 30 minutes after opening,

exactly 0 of his $1 televisions had been purchased.

Meanwhile, everything was on track with my buyers

as they were just now arriving at Best Buy,

but then, to my surprise, a customer actually returned

with attire that met our strict dress code.

Did you rent that? - Yes.

- I wasn't completely shocked that someone

would be determined enough to make it inside,

but I was hopeful that the remaining steps

would prove more discouraging.

So this is the section with those TVs.

- Okay. - Um...

- It's the premium-TV section. - Yeah.

- That's the doorway? - Yeah.

These are the more expensive ones...

Okay.

- So we keep them in a separate room.

That's gonna be in there. Okay.

Yeah.

Oh. Okay.

That's not good. Um...

Yeah.

- The customer may have been determined,

but once he came face-to-face with our alligator,

it was all over.

I'm sorry. I mean, I feel bad,

'cause that's a dollar we're losing as well, you know?

My plan was a success.

The guy chose not to buy the dollar TV,

and every customer after that met our dress code

got no further than Herbert as well.

- Herbert? What is Herbert?

- I'm sorry. Did you not want a TV? Or...

- No, I don't want to be in the same room as an alligator.

- Everything seemed to be going according to plan,

but then I got word that, back at Best Buy,

things weren't looking so hot.

After presenting the flyer to sales associates,

my buyers were told

that the company would not honor their price-match.

- This is a store, and this is their price.

- I couldn't understand why this was happening,

so I left the shop and headed over to Best Buy

to see if I would have any better luck myself.

I actually have a price-match for this to get it for a dollar.

Why not?

- They are. They're within 25 miles.

- Even with my confidence and negotiation skills,

I was denied a price-match too.

I'm gonna count to three,

and if you don't do it by the time I get to three,

I'm gonna leave, okay?

One, two, three.

I couldn't believe it.

How could Best Buy, one of my favorite companies,

turn their backs on the very policy

that drew me in as a customer?

It was a classic bait-and-switch,

but the one thing I knew is that when big corporations

try to mess with regular people like us,

we don't have to take it lying down.

So, the next day, I returned to Alen's store

with a slight adjustment to our plan.

I'm just so sick and tired of these big companies

like Best Buy and Enron

thinking that, you know, the rules don't apply to them.

Yeah. Yeah.

- They can just push around the little guy.