JB Hi-Fi

This JB Hi-​fi has just undergone a refit/​renovation to improve the aesthetics of the store. It has improved remarkably. You can now see & find everything clearly without obstacle. They have a HUGE selection of gaming for Xbox one/​360 & PlayStation which is fabulous! They encourage ‘trade & save’ or to buy pre-​owned games: pure genius. I find the security guard highly entertaining & friendly, been here for years so a good go-​to if you can’t find a salesperson. The staff a bit nonchalant & disinterested (which is a shame), always been the case here. Great opening hours, you can sell your games, DVDs etc if you want some extra cash however (be warned) they pay peanuts. However, they do gift cards to any dollar value. Brill.

One of the three remaining music stores in the CBD (the others being Real Groovy and Marbeck’s, both also on Queen St), this Aussie franchise is turning more into an electronics and gaming store by the month. You’ll find top 20 hits and major recent and older classic albums, but not much beyond that. Shame you can’t listen to anything before you buy it. Even when you get home, the robust packaging on CDs offers a challenge to extracting discs from their plastic shells. Most of the staff are sometimes helpful, but better on the basics than technical questions. The most reliably present member of the team is the security guard at the front door who spends all day nodding at patrons and occasionally breaking his standing record by chasing after a miscalculating pickpocket.

I bought a pair of Phillips headphones from this store ($ 40). When the cashier gave the reciept he told me to hold on to the reciept becuase they were under guarantee. That made me think. I have such bad luck with headphones breaking, and I had never really considered trying to get my money back for them. Sure enough, one month down the track and the sound coming from the left air bud began to flicker on and off. I dug up my receipt and took them back. I explained my situation to someone there (one of the managers I think), and he explained to me that the warranty does not cover wear and tear. I told him it wasn’t wear and tear, the problem was internal. He told me that if I had been using them it is considered wear and tear. Why would you have earphones and not use them? Is there even a hyperthetical situation where this warranty would be of use? He told me to contact Phillips. I couldn’t be bothered doing that so I just argued with him for ages with no other goal than to annoy him.

As much as my sentimental music store-​loving self has a strong sense of kinship to proper independent Kiwi music stores like Real Groovy and Marbecks, I must admit to being a JB Hi-​Fi customer too. Yes, it’s Australian and yes it’s terribly mainstream. However, you can’t fault the sheer expanse of their range, and the convenience of having all your entertainment needs in one place whether it’s CDs, DVDs, games, iPods, phones or TVs. Probably the sheer economies of scale of the place means that they often offer music a lot cheaper than the likes of Real Groovy which does keep me coming back. I feel a bit bad every time I do, but you can’t deny it does offer some pretty sweet deals.

I first discovered JB Hi-​Fi on a trip to Australia a few years ago now and since then they have expanded to NZ. They have an extensive range of anything to do with music, gaming, computers, cameras (basically entertainment technology specialists).
Whenever I’m in JB Hi-​Fi they seem to have some really good specials. I purchased some Sennheiser headphones there which have served me well. They have all the headphones out on display so you can listen to music on them before you buy. I keep seeing a lovely pair in there, which are brown, gold and amazing, but my budget didn’t quite stretch to them at the time (sadly).
JB Hi-​Fi Queen St also do meet and greats occasionally when artists are in town — see photo of Ellie Goulding (whose album Halcyon is worth a listen)!