Here's why Best Buy has such a hard time making money

TVs have become such commodities that the retail giant is forced to sell them at ever-lower profit margins. Best Buy's third-quarter revenue tumbled nearly 30 percent, in part because of Black Friday specials. As for the steady decline in TV prices, the Awl has some perspective (h/t Business Insider)

The problem with comparing the costs of television sets over time is that the thing that we think of as a "television set" has mutated over the generations. Even in the past decade, think of how the cathode ray tube sets have become extinct. Is it fair to compare the cost of 12" console television from 1948, with a Mahogany cabinet designed to centerpiece a room, able only to receive local programming during limited hours (like, say, a Stromberg-Carlson, retailing at $985 installed--or $9,524 adjusted), against a 25" console from 1986, which was designed less as furniture and more as appliance, able to access the hundred or so national cable networks in addition to the various local stations, round the clock (like, say, a Sylvania, retailing at $540--or $1,115 adjusted)?