I have just returned from a few days in America and I must say I am glad to be back, as the places I visited were suffering from the economic downturn.

I started out in Detroit and was shocked to see whole shopping malls virtually empty. There was even a closing down sale at Macy’s.

Further south, in Mississippi, it was even worse. One independent retailer told me: “They say the recession is nearly over, but I think it’s the start of the depression.” He once had a flourishing business, but now the supermarkets sell electricals cheaper than his buying prices. Now he relies entirely on service work.

I was less than happy to be told my flight from Baton Rouge was subject to a six-hour delay. I decided to cheer myself up by taking a taxi to the local Best Buy.

However, the driver was bemoaning the fact that a fifth of the people in Louisiana were in such poor circumstances that they had applied for food stamps. En route we passed the massive, plush HQ of the evangelist Jimmy Lee Swaggart, a cousin of my musician friend Jerry Lee Lewis.

The store manager at Best Buy, Gregory Newman, is to be congratulated on combining the best of the group’s concepts with good old southern hospitality. I received a very friendly greeting when I entered the store and every area was busy.

I heard a saleswoman in the mobile phone section say: “Of course we don’t get commission, so you are getting independent advice.”

Meanwhile, a Geek Squad technician was helping a colleague close a sale by promising to install a 50in LCD TV after 7pm that night.

The cleverest promotion was the way Best Buy was offering to recycle “anything electrical”. Each customer could bring two items and although most were free, a sign said: “Some products require a $10 charge, but we’ll give you a $10 Best Buy gift card to offset that cost.”

Of course, that really means we put money in the till now in advance of a future purchase and the customers will have to keep coming back as they are limited to disposing of two items at a time.

The store also had a perfect Apple shop within a shop and it had a crowd of people attending a regular Saturday “demonstration” of the latest Apple products.

If Best Buy is as good as this when it opens in the UK, it will completely change the way in which goods are sold in the big stores.

As I headed for the airport again, I couldn’t help but think that Jimmy Lee Swaggart was a pretty good Apple salesman himself.

He recorded countless gospel LPs and CDs in a piano style similar to his wilder rock’n’rolling cousin and has sold more religious records than any other artist in the world. Now his followers can buy a special iPod that contains all Jimmy’s music for just $3,000.

As I did  not get to CES this year, I had to rely on ERTonline.co.uk and the internet for information.

Every time I checked an AV forum or searched for CES on YouTube, up came George Mead, LG’s TV marketing manager. George was everywhere and didn’t he tell his story well? Whenever an oldie like me gets on TV, I am always very hesitant, but young George is full of confidence and is absolutely unstoppable.

How refreshing to see someone so young and enthusiastic in such an important job. He would be a great speaker for a Retra conference.

Graham Knight