I think everyone would agree that getting a truly clean PC would be nice. The problem with Best Buy's approach is the pre-optimizing of the PC first, and having only that version available. IMO, it's counter to the way they built their reputation - non-pushy, non-commission, knowledgeable/trained sales people. I just hope it's not a sign of the direction they think they can head now that Circuit City is out of the picture as a competitor.
I suspect instead that their thinking went something like this:
We want to provide this service for our customers, but we can't afford to do it post-sale. For one, it'll take longer, and for two, customers won't wait an extra 20 minutes to pick up their shiny new laptop.
So instead we'll provide both versions, and let the customer decide.
...and then, like almost every retailer in existence, they just screwed up their inventory management.
...and then, they noticed that one version is significantly more profitable and then they "screwed up their inventory management" so the profitable version is always more available.
However, the behavior of intelligent non-pushy sales is not what people want. Customers have voted with their wallets that they want the cheapest price "no matter what".
These days, most big companies use off handed tricks to boost their sales, whether that be selling Monster Cables or stacking magazine subs to the tickets. The notable lack of these tricks seems to be Wal-Mart though.
