Major retailer closing 17 stores this week after CEO announces bad news – see if yours is getting the boot
BEST Buy is shuttering the doors of 17 stores this week as part of its mass closures that have been to take place throughout 2023.
The move comes as the company rethinks its business strategies amid online shopping rising in prominence among shoppers.
The closures were decided "through our normal stringent lease review process,” Best Buy CEO and director Corie Sue Barry said during an earnings call on March 1.
The 17 closures were scheduled to occur this week, with further shuttering happening across the next two years until the beginning of 2025 including “20 to 30 large format stores” this year.
Best Buy plans to implement an even larger format in its new stores starting with 10 outlet stores.
It also has plans to do remodeling at some of its locations that are staying open.
Read more on Best Buy
"This format has more premium experiences in a 35,000-square-foot selling area, showcasing the very best of Best Buy," Barry explained in the earnings calls.
"Stepping back, we expect the evolution of our store portfolio and operating model to drive sales to lift and efficiencies over time."
Barry also noted that Best Buy is being wary of the digital changes in the world right now and the outlet stores come as a way to tackle rent and labor costs.
"Most importantly, these changes are necessary to relieve the pressures of a changing world, a world in which customers are in control and increasingly more digital, and the cost to operate physical stores such as rent, and labor are not likely going to come down."
Most read in Money
LOCATIONS CLOSING
Not every closing location is known at the moment, but there were several stores that closed on March 4, according to Axios.
- Farragut, Tennessee
- Hixson, Tennessee
- St. Joseph, Missouri
- Two stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota
- Shakopee, Minnesota
- Blaine, Minnesota
- Temecula, California
- Pflugerville, Texas
- Algonquin, Illinois
The retail apocalypse has gotten the best of Best Buy as the retailer also said in its recent earnings call that it expects overall sales to fall this year.
Although Best Buys' stores and sales may be at risk, the retailer has been actively fighting for its survival by making updates to its website in the past year to edge out competitors like Amazon and Walmart.