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Tag: best buy 2.0

  • Best Buy Hires New CEO Following Scandal

    Best Buy Hires New CEO Following Scandal

    Best Buy today announced that it has appointed Hubert Joly as the company’s CEO. Joly is currently the CEO of Carlson, a worldwide hospitality and travel company.

    “Hubert was an outstanding candidate for this position and I am confident he will be a great fit for Best Buy,” said Hatim Tyabji, chairman of the Best Buy Board. “Hubert’s range and depth of experience in transforming companies is exactly what the company needs at the moment, as is his energetic, imaginative and experienced leadership in executing strategies.”

    Retailers with large, physical stores have had a tough decade-long confrontation with internet-only retailers such as Amazon. Retailers who relied significantly on selling physical copies of media such as movies, music, and video games have, perhaps, been hit the hardest. The combination of lower online prices, subscription services such as Netflix and new video streaming services helped make Circuit City stores a thing of the past.

    In addition to these same pressures, Best Buy has dealt with a recent scandal causing a significant shift in the company’s top management. In April, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn resigned following allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. Best Buy founder and Chairman of the Board Richard Schulze was forced out soon after when it was discovered that he had known about Dunn’s relationship for some time. Schulze has since offered to buy back the company.

    In the midst of these changes, Best Buy began to focus more on services rather than products. The company has taken steps to reduce the number of big box stores that it operates, instead building smaller, more targeted stores.

    “I am honored and excited to lead Best Buy,” said Joly. “Best Buy has extraordinary assets — including its 167,000 employees, its huge customer base, its distribution and service capabilities, its well-recognized brands, and its history of innovation. I look forward to working with the Company’s management team and employees to pursue what are exciting growth opportunities for Best Buy – both online and offline, through a combination of competitive prices, superior service, new growth engines, and innovations, as we deliver to millions of customers the technology solutions that enable easy access to people, knowledge, ideas and fun.”

  • Best Buy Stores Makeover: Retailer Starts to Think Smaller

    Best Buy Stores Makeover: Retailer Starts to Think Smaller

    Best Buy stores makeover: Expect the size of the retail giant’s stores to shrink considerably in the near future. In an effort to combat the shrinking revenue from their numerous oversized locations, Best Buy is building a new prototype store near its Minnesota headquarters that will pull a page straight out of the Apple playbook. Instead of carrying every possible electronic gadget under the proverbial sun, the company will think smaller, carrying a more concentrated selection of devices in an effort to turn the tide of their floundering business.

    In addition to scaling down the number of items in their showroom, Best Buy will also feature something called Solution Central, which is essentially their version of Apple’s Genius Bar. Staffed by Geek Squad employees, customers can, in theory, bring their electronic problems to the location and have them apply their endless knowledge to the issues at-hand. However, despite their plan to implement a solution center for consumers, the company is rumored to be laying off over 650 Geek Squad employees across the nation.

    Since the company is saying goodbye to some of its technicians, does that mean Best Buy is getting out of of the at-home support business? According to company, “Best Buy 2.0” will still offer these service to its customers, though it, too, will become more streamlined. “We know that clients will always need us to come to their homes, and increasingly their needs are more complex. That’s why we’re evolving in-home support for a more specific customer segment,” the company said in a statement.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, all of these significant changes are a concentrated effort to save the company nearly $800 million over the next three years. And if they manage to regain some marketshare, that would be a positive, as well. In addition to possibly rolling out smaller versions of their stores, Best Buy will close nearly 50 underperforming locations.

    Smaller stores, less Geek Squad employees, limited in-home support — the Best Buy as its currently known may become a thing of the past. As brick-and-mortar retailers continue to struggle against their online counterparts, implementing such changes are the only way these companies can compete. Although I’ll miss the days of mindlessly browsing the store’s seemingly endless selection of movies, DVDs, and computer games, that time has admittedly come and gone. Best Buy is dead; long live Best Buy 2.0.