But this new “customer centricity” overhaul of Best Buy stores really bugs me. As you may have heard, Best Buy is overhauling it’s stores to focus on five “prototypical” consumers:

“Jill,” a busy suburban mom; “Buzz,” a focused, active younger male; “Ray,” a family man who likes his technology practical; “BB4B” (short for Best Buy for Business), a small employer; and “Barry,” an affluent professional male who’s likely to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater system.

Notice, however, that out of the five “protypical” Best Buy consumers, only one is female - the “suburban mom.” Never mind the fact that according to various studies “women spend $50 billion and buy almost half of all electronic goods sold in the U.S. ” (And I’m willing to bet that not all of those women are married soccer moms.)

The Washington Post article on this initiative has an even more stereotypical discussion of “Jill”:

The woman was a “Jill,” code name for a soccer-mom type who is the main shopper for the family but usually avoids electronics stores. She is well-educated and usually very confident, but she is intimidated by the products at Best Buy and the store clerks who spout words like gigabytes and megapixels.
“She’s very smart and affluent,” said Best Buy employee Jenn Metzger.
“Jill is a decision maker. She is the CEO of the household,” said Tony Sagastume, the general manager for the Santa Rosa Best Buy.
“Jill’s children are the most important thing in her life,” Bryant added.

So what about unmarried, affluent, female professionals? Especially those of us who don’t want to be condescended to by a sales clerk in pastel, against a background of awful Mariah Carey and James Taylor songs? Am I supposed to be a “Barry”? I guess that Best Buy just doesn’t want my money. So maybe I should find someone who does.