Buy More is the electronics retail store featured in the television series Chuck, where Chuck Bartowski and Morgan Grimes work.
In the Chuck universe, it is located at 9000 Burbank Boulevard [1] in Burbank, California, 91506 (This address does not actually exist; addresses along this street in Burbank proper top out at 4300s, and then jump to the 10300s just over the line in the North Hollywood community of Los Angeles on the Los Angeles city street grid.) If Jeff's "resume" is to be trusted, he has worked at the Burbank Buy More for 18 years, since it opened in 1990.
In its trademark green and yellow colors, the store's motto is: "When you buy more, you save more. And when you save more, you can buy more. And when you buy more, you save more. It all starts when you BUY MORE." [2] Along with the regular sales staff; the "green shirts," the store's tech support staff, in white shirts and grey ties, is called the Nerd Herd, with a small fleet of lettered cars for use in service calls.
Note: It is an obvious parody of the blue-and-yellow Best Buy chain with its "Geek Squad" corps of tech support. In reality, as a filming location, the store's exterior shots in all of the episodes, except for the pilot, are of the Sprouts Farmers Market (previously a Mervyn's) at 6605 Fallbrook Ave in West Hills, Calif (located at 34.189041, -118.624363).
Buy More's main competitor is Large Mart, which has a franchise in the same shopping complex. (A Costco in the same shopping center as the "Buy More" is likewise used as the Large Mart exterior.)
Emmett Milbarge and Morgan Grimes have floated the concept of the realm of "Buy-Moria" from time to time.
There is a Bennigan's chain restaurant across the street from the Buy More. [3]
Burbank Staff[]
Management[]
- Chuck (Supervisor, Nerd Herd Division & owner as of Season Four finale)
- Moses Finkelstein (Owner until Season Three finale) the photo of whom is actually Paul Marks the Line Producer/Director of the show. He can been seen in the last episode, last scene in the Buy More under the Subway sign with the Production Manager, Doug Ornstein in the green shirt
- Mr. Mercer (HR corporate manager)
- Morgan Grimes (Assistant manager season 3, Manager season 4-5)
- Michael "Big Mike" Tucker (Store Manager season 1-3, Assistant Manager season 4-5)
Sales Staff aka Green Shirts[]
- John Casey (unofficial Assistant Manager on Big Mike's holidays)
- Fernando
- Bunny
- Roan Montgomery (Chuck Versus the Seduction Impossible)
- Agent Greta (Season Four)
- Kirk (Season One)
- Porter Bauer (Season One)
- Marvin Gadsby (Season One)
- Cecil Goldenberg (Season One)
- Christina James (Season One)
- Ruben Magno (Season One)
- Sal Sawaya (Season One)
- Skye Stoinitz (Season One)
- Leticia Williams (Season One)
- Sarah Yang (Season One)
- Michael (Season One)
- Joanna (Season One, Three)
- Shelly (Season One)
- Harold (Season One)
- Shari (Season One)
- Roxana (Season One)
- Steve (Season Four)
Nerd Herd[]
See: Nerd Herd
- Chuck Bartowski (Supervisor)
- Jeffrey Barnes
- Lester Patel (briefly Assistant Manager during Season Two)
- Skip Johnson
- Agent Greta (Season Four)
- Sam Lembeck (Season One)
- William DeBlasio (Season One)
Former Staff[]
- Harold Tiberius Tang (Green Shirt; briefly Assistant Manager during Season One)
- Anna Wu (Nerd Herd)
- Emmett Milbarge (Interim Assistant Manager; Store Manager till Season Three opening)
- Hannah (Nerd Herd)
*Note: Of the support staff, very few ever had lines prior to the series finale, Bunny, Kirk, and Skip were those who did. With the finale, the producers made sure each loyal Moron was given a line of dialogue.
Burbank Buy More[]
Manager's Office[]
In the pilot, the office was merely a partitioned space at the back of the store. For the remained of the series, however, the office was a room apart, holding the manager's desk, the store safe, and most prominently, Norman, the Marlin, purchased by Big Mike on e-bay, and hung on his office wall. The office became Emmett's after his coup, and then Morgan's in season 4.
Morgan's Office[]
Morgan's Office as assistant manager is actually a repurposed broom closet, located on one side of the store, and is the location of several important events in the Chuck universe. In Chuck Versus the Marlin, the Buy More employees are interviewed about the break in at the store, and in Chuck Versus the First Date, Big Mike offers Chuck the position of assistant manager in his office. It became Emmett Milbarge's office for a brief time during Season Two, before his death in Chuck Versus the Pink Slip, and Big Mike returns as store manager. When Diane Beckman becomes manager for two episodes, it serves as her office until when Morgan is promoted to manager, it then becomes his office.
Break Room[]
The Buy More break room is where the employees of the Buy More hang out during their breaks and have their lunches. The room is a single large space with several tables, vending machines, and employee lockers. The room is also used when Emmett Milbarge was interrogating the staff, for his office space, and for a first aid class, taught by Devon Woodcomb.
Behind the lockers on one wall of the break room, is a secret tunnel with a fingerprint security keypad which leads to Castle, and which is used for covert entry and exit from the Buy More.
Home Theater Room[]
The Home Theater Room is an entertainment center located at the back of the Buy More store. It is a small room outfitted with a large flat-screen television and a large couch, designed to offer shoppers a chance to watch films or play video games. Once the CIA comes to town, however, the system, including the flat-screen TV, is heavily modified to allow video conferencing with the CIA and NSA, access to almost every aspect of the US military and intelligence services, even as far as coordinating flight plans for US Air Force bombers, as revealed in Chuck Versus the Sandworm.
In Season 1, Chuck, Sarah and Casey use the Home Theater Room as their main communications base, before the construction of Castle. It is subsequently outfitted with a secret entrance to Castle, accessed through a hatch behind the couch. It is still occasionally used for mission briefings, and as part of Buy More sub-plots, notably in Chuck Versus the Break-Up when Morgan is forced to deal with a gang of unruly jocks who have taken over the Home Theater Room, and in Chuck Versus the Mask, when Ellie and Morgan find out about Chuck's relationship with Hannah after they discover the two making out in the Home Theater Room.
Video Wall[]
Although not often used directly by the team, the store's video wall is one of the Buy More's prominent features. Videos played often subtly reference the main plots or themes of an episode in the background: such as clips of What's Opera, Doc? run throughout Chuck Versus the Fat Lady in which a part of the episode occurs in an opera house. In Chuck Versus the First Date Casablanca can be seen (the plot of which the episode itself frequently parallels) while in Chuck Versus the Sensei a movie featuring ninjas is played, which mirrors the plot hinging on Ty Bennett and his history with Casey. And, significantly, Chuck first uses the wall to help out a man and his daughter in the pilot, demonstrating to Sarah what a genuinely nice guy he is.
Aisle Three[]
Aisle Three is almost always the answer as to where to find a given product in the store when requesting help of the staff.
In Chuck Versus the Pink Slip, Chuck is directed to Aisle Three for cheese balls. It is also where Ellie and Devon are directed when requesting baby gear, such as in in Chuck Versus the Bearded Bandit when Devon asks for baby pads.
Beverly Hills Buy More[]
The Beverly Hills branch of the Buy More is located at 10100 Wiltshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California, 90212, and is featured in Chuck Versus the Predator, when the Beverly Hills employees, angry that the Burbank branch will receive the new Roark Instruments R7 before them, cover the store in toilet paper.
The Beverly Hills employees then confront their Burbank counterparts, but Big Mike insists on no retaliation. When Fulcrum, Chuck, Casey, and Sarah break into the Buy More later to steal back Orion's Laptop, Casey punches Emmett who is standing guard in defense of the store, knocking him out. Big Mike believes this to be the work of the Beverly Hills Buy More, and he, along with Morgan, Jeff, Lester and Emmett, break into the Beverly Hills store and knock over most of the display shelves.
When Lester, Jeff, and Morgan use Orion's Laptop, believing it to be the R.I. R7, they target the Beverly Hills Buy More with a real Predator drone, believing it to be a highly realistic simulator. Chuck, however, manages to retrieve the laptop and cancels the air strike just as the Predator is about to arm its weapons.
Destruction[]
In Chuck Versus the Ring: Part 2 Big Mike gets a call from a mysterious man, Moses, telling him that because his sales are down the store will be closing.
A worried Mike talks with Jeff and Lester, and Lester suggests that the Buy More has a closing sale to make up the extra cash and prove that the store can sell inventory. Big Mike agrees and the sale is on. However, Buy More Beverly Hills employees appear at the store later and are angry about the sales, saying that all the products were to be moved to the Beverly Hills Buy More. Big Mike, Lester and Jeff hide, and he admits to them that Moses couldn't protect them anymore.
In the same episode, Daniel Shaw lures Chuck out of Castle for a final showdown, fighting Intersect against Intersect, after planting bombs all over the Buy More and threatening to blow up the store. The Buy More is evacuated by Big Mike, so that he can escape from the aforementioned Buy More suits. With the store empty, Shaw and Chuck fight it out, whilst a handcuffed Sarah watches. Chuck finally beats Shaw and Shaw is knocked out by Sarah. In the aftermath, a team of CIA cleaners dressed as firemen, are searching for the trigger to the explosives that Shaw set up. Morgan finds the trigger but accidentally drops it due to his broken thumbs, and everyone runs out of the Buy More as explodes.
Due to an earlier conversation with Big Mike, where Jeff and Lester suggested that blowing up the Burbank Buy More would be a good method of solving the problems with the Buy More suits, Big Mike shot down this idea, everyone now thinks that Jeff and Lester were the ones who destroyed the Buy More, their photos are posted on the evening news as persons of interest in the investigation.
Change of Ownership[]
After the Buy More substation was abandoned by the CIA, Chuck, using the cover of Carmichael Industries, bought the store and the Castle below it for the headquarters of his newly established freelance spy company.
In the series finale, the Buy More location was apparently purchased by Subway.
Buy More Events[]
- When Lester's aggressively senseless sales policy puts the Buy More out of $3,700, he organizes a massive kegger party at the Burbank Buy More and charges attendees by the head to make up the missing cash.
- Chuck Bartowski became the Missile Command world champion in a special event at the Burbank Boulevard Buy More.
- Both the Burbank and Beverly Hills Buy More stores are targeted by the MQ-1 Predator drone for an air strike when Jeff, Lester, and Morgan use Orion's laptop to program the drone, thinking it is a realistic flight simulator.
- Chuck purchases the Buy More using assets he gains from Vivian Volkoff and Hartley Winterbottom
References[]
- ↑ "Chuck Versus the Seduction", the rendezvous address phoned to Casey and Sarah's abductors
- ↑ Chuck Versus the Intersect, seen on a sign near Morgan late in the episode.
- ↑ "Chuck Versus the Marlin"}