Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) has moved ahead to reveal that it will soon be closing quite a significant number of its smaller-format mobile phone stores. Reports indicate that at the moment they are about 250 in number.
This information was unleashed by the CEO Hubert Joly on Wednesday and he did that through an internal memo. Some of the mobile stores are found within malls whereas others scatter throughout open-air strip centers.
Through his writing, Joly outlined that he felt pretty good about the fact that it was going to be possible for them to retain customers as well as transition them to the wide range of their sales channels.
According to the top official, the revenue collected from Best Buy’s standalone mobile stores is representative of about 1 percent of the electronics retailer’s overall sales. He delved deeper into the matter to outline that the square footage of the stores altogether added up to almost 1 percent of the company’s overall real estate footprint.
At this point in time, operating a store solely for mobile devices is less profitable as compared to sometime back..Joly thinks that it would be wise for the company to consider and embrace the thought of selling phones to customers in channels in which case they will gain access to the company’s whole range of connected devices.
It was way back in 2006 that Best Buy proceeded to launch its first mobile phone store and that was definitely prior to the fisrt unveiling of the iPhone.
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Best Buy is at the moment looking forward to give all its employees the opportunity to look out for other jobs internally but they might also choose to transition to an “in-home advisor” role. Those persons that will resolve to leave the company will be provided with Severance.
It was in the course of this year that a number of retailers moved ahead to make a joint announcement in which they revealed about their plans to shutter stores. Best Buy was quick to make its statement outlining that most of its operations within Canada won’t be impacted by the latest news by those retailers.
