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Best Buy To Close All 250 of Its Smaller, Mobile Phone Stores (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the makes-sense dept.

Best Buy is planning to close all of its roughly 250 smaller-format mobile phone stores, CEO Hubert Joly said to employees Wednesday in an internal memo, which was reviewed by CNBC. From a report: The stores, which are about 1,400 square feet in size compared with Best Buy's bigger boxes of 40,000 square feet, are scheduled to close by the end of May, he said. The mobile stores are almost exclusively located within malls, with a few scattered throughout open-air strip centers. "We feel good about the opportunity to retain customers and transition them to another one of our sales channels," Joly wrote to workers. "85 percent of existing standalone Mobile stores are within three miles of a Big Box store."

15 comments

  1. Say it ain't so! /s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good riddance to bad rubbish.

    1. Re:Say it ain't so! /s by cayenne8 · · Score: 1
      Hmm....isn't there *some* way that this is the fault of "AI"??

      I mean, from what I'm readin, AI is the sole source of unemployment that is starting to wreak havoc with employment....?!?!

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:Say it ain't so! /s by the_skywise · · Score: 1

      "Alexa, as CEO, how can I save the company money"
      "Ok Hubert, I googled some responses for you the first one reads: "BEST BUYS MOBILE PHONE STORE SUX0RS"
      "Alexa, Stop! That's a brilliant idea!"

  2. The model to compete with..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I thought all of the other chains closed because of Best Buy's perfect sales model. Don't tell me that it was flawed all along! How can I justify selling out...err.... re-envisioning our company to our shareholders now?" - Every idiot CEO wanting to be the next Best Buy.

    Good riddance.

    Yes, I know that it's only the smaller stores, but one can hope that other stores will see this and change course.

  3. Is that wisdom? by RobertNotBob · · Score: 1

    Sometimes, citing justification for your actions calls attention to the wisdom of your actions. - Sure. - But sometimes, it just calls attention to how foolish that you have been all along. -- quote :: "85 percent of existing standalone Mobile stores are within three miles of a Big Box store." :: - Who allowed that to happen in the First Place?

    --
    ___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
    1. Re:Is that wisdom? by pz · · Score: 1

      Inside a city, where the bulk of the US population lives, 3 miles is a vast distance. If you have to go 3 miles to get to a store, that store is doomed, as its competitors will have five or ten in the same distance.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    2. Re:Is that wisdom? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Sometimes, citing justification for your actions calls attention to the wisdom of your actions. - Sure. - But sometimes, it just calls attention to how foolish that you have been all along. -- quote :: "85 percent of existing standalone Mobile stores are within three miles of a Big Box store." :: - Who allowed that to happen in the First Place?

      I don't see it as wise, because if I'm shopping in a mall, and you're not there, there will be 3 dozen other stores vying for my mobile phone business. I'm not going to go drive 3 miles to your store for a phone if someone makes me a good deal right there where I am. And if you're not there, I'm not going to go out of my way to find out your prices.

      3 miles is far away. Unless you're right beside the mall, you're out of the running. So yes, you might want to close the stores where there's a real best buy across the road or even in the mall, but 3 miles away means another stop and with the 3 dozen other companies vying for my business in the mall, you're not doing yourself any favors if I have to go to my car, give up my (hard won/nicely located) parking spot, drive to your store and find out your offers.

  4. What?!?! by heezer7 · · Score: 1

    You mean copying RadioShack didn't work????

    1. Re:What?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To RadioShack's credit the stores still at least had those parts drawers for when you absolutely needed an electronic part right now. But yeah those mini bestbuy stores were doomed from the start, just as radioshack has been for decades since they turned their focus to being a cellphone store front rather than catering to the electronics enthusiasts. With the uptake of electronics today like arduinos, raspberry pi's and other small micro controller platforms think of were RS could have been had they not turned their back on that market.

  5. With the rest in where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "This isn't the strip center you're looking for" /* hand wave */

    Move along, now.

  6. We feel good about this opportunity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to lose customers. (Let’s try again)
    to offer employees less internal competition (um,huh. Maybe no)
    to sell less (damn)
    to have the customer come to a place where they can be sold more crap (hey now!)
    to spin this downsizing and cluster for employees as exactly the opposite of the death spiral it actually represents (Bingo! We have a winner!)

  7. Who can explain this? by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    Best Buy's 2018 Q1 earnings surpass Wall Street's projections... So they're closing stores. WTF?

  8. The only things i bought from Best Buy by Revek · · Score: 1

    Were parts. Video cards network cards and such. Since they no longer sell these I have no reason to ever go in one again. I can buy a TV nearly anywhere.