Best Buy plugs into Fresno State

Electronics store sets up shop on campus for a day

By Angelita Caudillo
The Collegian

The “Ultimate Party Bus” was on campus Monday as Best Buy introduced its latest products.

The bus served as a shuttle to transport students to the local Best Buy store while the electronics company was on campus. The bus was complete with a live DJ on board, flat screen televisions, a Playstation 2 and a home theater system.

In addition to the party bus, which made four trips Monday, Best Buy also brought what it called an “Ultimate Residence Hall,” a traveling mock dorm room equipped with the latest electronics to make any student’s life at college complete, the company said.

“We’re basically here to make an awareness of products we carry,” said Mike Baltierra, media supervisor for Best Buy in Fresno.

Freshmen Ryan Welch and Lauren Daniels, who both live on campus, saw the Ultimate Residence Hall while coming out of the University Courtyard Dining Facility, and said they would come back to ride the party bus.

Welch and Daniels said the demonstration had them thinking about buying a new television to use in their hall.

“I’ll be looking for SimCity when we go to Best Buy,” Welch said. Michael George, a senior sociology major, said he is now thinking about getting a laptop.

Best Buy also brought its rapid-response computer-support task force, called the Geek Squad. The Geek Squad offers in-home and in-store technical support to students at an additional cost. “Agent” Mat Benson said the 24-hour support is a nation-wide service students can find locally.

“We’ve helped students with things like broken laptops and wireless networks today,” Benson said.

Fresno State is only one of two California schools that had the back-to-school event.

Other schools visited were California State University, Sacramento and the University of New Mexico, Best Buy account supervisor Ryan Harpster said.

“This is to push electronics to make college life easier,” Harpster said.

Some of the hundreds of students who attended Monday received a free T-shirt, coupons for products bought at Best Buy and had a chance to enter in a contest to win some of the electronics that were in the Ultimate Residence Hall, which Harpster said totaled $12,000 in value.