My laptop literally just bricked itself this morning and I am actually losing my mind because I have a huge presentation for my marketing class on Monday and I dont have time to wait for shipping from Amazon or whatever. I went straight to the Best Buy down the street here in Orlando and honestly everything they had was either way too expensive or just totally sold out of the mid-range stuff like I just need something reliable for around 700 bucks but everything there was like 1100 or some cheap plastic crap for 300. I feel like their prices have gone up so much lately or maybe they just hide the good deals online but the floor staff was no help at all they just kept trying to push the totaltech membership on me which I dont want and it was just super frustrating and a total waste of time.

I saw there is an Office Depot literally across the parking lot and I never really think of them for computers since I usually just go there for pens or printer ink but I looked at their site on my phone and some of the prices for the HP Pavilions and Lenovos seemed lower? Or maybe I am just misreading the specs because I am stressed out and cant think straight right now. Does Office Depot actually tend to be cheaper for laptops than Best Buy or are they just clearancing out old models that are gonna be slow in a year? I really need to get this sorted by tonight so I can actually finish my slides and not fail this semester. Im just so done with Best Buy honestly their whole vibe has changed and it feels like a ripoff now so if I can save 50 or 100 bucks at Office Depot I am sprinting over there right now.

Is the hardware actually the same or do they get special cheaper versions like Walmart does sometimes? Just want to know if its worth even walking over there or if I should just bite the bullet and overpay at Best Buy just to get it over with...