OTHER TECH

Episode 2: "Chuck Versus the Helicopter, Part II"

Chuck's hilariously inept buddy Morgan (Joshua Gomez) tries to talk CIA Agent Casey (Adam Baldwin) - the latter posing as a Buy More employee - through role-playing with a difficult customer. Casey ends the tutorial by unleashing a secret-agent fighting move on Morgan, prompting Chuck to observe: "That's not in the Buy More manual." Best Buy Guy: There's not really a Best Buy manual per se, but on occasion the supervisors and managers like to say, "That's not according to SOP," which means Standard Operating Procedure. Once a month on Sundays, the entire Best Buy staff has to come into the store for a meeting. On occasion they really enjoy talking about "overcoming reservations" of customers. They make the employees do role-playing with each other in the most ridiculous situations.

Episode 5: "Chuck Versus the Sizzling Shrimp"

Buy More manager Big Mike drags all the floor employees into his office. "Sales are down, people - there's too much horsing around," he says, proposing a 24-hour sales competition: First prize is an iPhone, second prize is a pizza, third prize is keeping your job . . . and fourth prize is getting fired. Big Mike later reveals that the whole thing was just a sham to get everyone to work harder.

Best Buy Girl: There used to be this really horrible girl that was my supervisor at Best Buy. Every 20 minutes on the floor she'd come up and ask, "How's PSP and PRP doing?" (That's the performance service plan, and performance replacement plan - the in-store extended warranty plans.) If you weren't doing well at selling, she'd threaten you with being fired. Then she came up with a competition with prizes and stuff for whoever sold the most of either. The loser, she said, would have their hours cut or be fired. Eventually one of the girls got so stressed out about it, she quit. When the managers got word of what was going on, my supervisor said she never told anyone they'd be fired. Then she was fired that day. Now I'm pretty sure she works at a McDonalds. Best Buy Guy: There are competitions between different departments in our store. The seniors and supervisors in each department are all allowed to carry Blackberries on them at all time - so department leaders will ping one another and gloat about how their PRP and PSP sales are doing. Generally on Saturdays, the managers will buy a pizza lunch for whichever department rocked it out that week in sales. We aren't commissioned, but who says you can't motivate the employees?

Episode 7: "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater"

Sadistic assistant manager Henry Tang proposes some fascist "Rules and Regulations for the Buy More Break Room." As part of his evil plot, he even takes control of the store's master remote for the TV screens. In desperation, Morgan leads a rebellion to steal the remote from Henry's padlocked employee locker only to be betrayed and sent to the "hole" of customer service for his crimes. Best Buy Girl: Unfortunately, no such thing as a master remote - although it would be pretty hilarious. We do have a huge decked-out staff room - as does every Best Buy. There are lockers in there but they aren't assigned, and every night we're told that if anything is left in them, the stuff will be thrown out.

Episode 10: "Chuck Versus the Nemesis"

It's Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving when shoppers descend on their local big-box store - and the Buy More crew has its hands full trying to control the voracious hordes. Unbeknownst to them, Chuck is trying to conduct a CIA operation in the store while not blowing his cover. Finding himself surrounded by bad guys, he's forced to utter the word "pineapple," the store's special code word for "evacuate everybody in a screaming panic." Chaos ensues.

Best Buy Girl: There's no term such as "pineapple" used at Best Buy - but on occasion, the staff would joke about yelling "fire" on our busiest days to get rid of customers. Best Buy Guy: I think the best story that I have ever heard come out of Best Buy regarding a Black Friday incident would have to be from two years ago. The entire store was packed - lines going out the front doors and through the parking lot. Two ladies were both trying to pick up the very last in stock of a certain camera model. One of the ladies started to freak out and tried to grab the camera away from the one holding it. The store employee who had been helping the one with the camera tried to calm both ladies down and separate them . . . but ending up getting punched in the face during the struggle.