A hardware enthusiast visited Best Buy’s car audio selection and was shocked by what he found. Or, rather, what he didn't find.
It’s a sight that Mike of Mike’s Shop (@stillmyshop) says is wildly different from what he was used to seeing in the past.
“When did in-store car audio [expletive] go to [expletive],” he says. “I’m at Best Buy and this is literally all they have.”
He films a display of several infotainment/stereo head units and a few speakers. Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Sony, and Kicker products are displayed on a single portion against a wall of the store.
Above these item displays are a bunch of product boxes, which he says provides a real-time view of the inventory at hand. “The in-stock product is that right there on that shelf, and it’s not much,” he says. He opines that this sight is starkly different from the glory days of retail before online shopping rattled brick-and-mortar businesses.
According to him, the wide assortment of options allowed shoppers to simply walk into an electronics/appliance store and get everything they’d need to outfit their car’s sound system to their liking.
He says this is no longer the case.
“So I’m used to back in the day you’d walk in and you could equip the whole car out of here," Mike says. "I guess now it just, all the competition with online, it’s just killing the store I guess maybe. But, this is terrible, he says.”
Is It The Internet Or Better OEM Car Stereos?
According to CEOutlook, dealer sales of audio equipment are projected to fall by 4% in 2026 compared to 2025. This is part of a growing trend of devoted car stereo equipment providers seeing less and less business. Auburn, Washington-based Car Toys reportedly filed for bankruptcy in March after being in business for 38 years. CEPro compiled a list of electronics retailers that offered in-person car audio product sales that have gone the way of the dinosaur: Circuit City, Computer City, Tweeter, Radio Shack, The Good Guys!, and The Wiz, are all out of business.
Several commenters said the lack of product options has less to do with retail economics than that automakers are putting much better audio equipment in vehicles these days.
“Because factory isn’t trash anymore,” one person said. Someone else agreed, writing, “manufacturers are build the car radios a lot better now.”
Someone else said that manufacturer designs of stereo systems also makes getting new equipment more difficult than it was on older cars. Consequently, fewer people are hooking up their rides with better audio rigs due to the increased difficulty of these installations.
“It’s because of more integrated and slightly better OEM system designs. Makes it harder to swap out depending on the dash set up parts went up, the equipment margins actually went down," one pereson explained. "Lower market demand as OEMs make just good enough just to difficult to swap out systems that tank demand.”
They also added that Best Buy has had a limited selection of products for years when it comes to automotive sound equipment.
Do Local Stores Have Better Options?
Big box retailers like Sears and Walmart have diminished their car stereo equipment options for years; these days it's practically non-existent.
If you’d rather go to a store in-person to peruse car stereo options, you may want to try nearby auto shops. There are plenty of options online where you can find car audio and video equipment as well. Subwoofers, speakers, amplifiers, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto units, equalizers.
So while you may not be able to rig out your car stereo at Best Buy to your liking, you can find everything you need elsewhere.
Motor1 has reached out to Mike via TikTok direct message for further comment. We'll update this if he responds.
