Best Buy logo and store on South Edmonton Common. Friday, May 20, 2022 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Best offer said on Friday it was laying off hundreds of store employees across the country as more customers shopped online and consumer electronics sales faltered.
An organization spokesman announced the layoffs, but declined to offer a particular number. The message was delivered first by The Wall Street Journal.
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In an announcement, Best Buy said it was “evolving our stores and the experiences we provide to higher reflect changes in customer shopping behavior as well as how we organize our teams to make sure we proceed to deliver our knowledge, services at one of the best possible way.”
The retailer described the job cuts as a shift in its priorities, saying Best Buy plans so as to add hundreds of customer-facing staff and put money into growing areas such as Totaltech’s membership program and healthcare business.
At the top of January, Best Buy had greater than 90,000 employees within the US and Canada. That is down from the nearly 125,000 employees it had in early 2020, based on the corporate’s financial records.
The US labor market stays strong and the labor market stays tight. The unemployment rate was 3.5% as more people returned to work after the Covid pandemic, based on a recent report from the Labor Department.
Nonetheless, retailers including Best Buy have taken a cautious tone as shoppers pull back from certain categories such as consumer electronics. Retailers have seen less sales of discretionary goods as consumers pay more for necessities as a result of inflation and again spend more on services such as booking flights or dining out at restaurants.
Best Buy is also tracking the period when many of its customers rushed to recent laptops, kitchen appliances and residential theater systems within the early years of the pandemic. Much of what it sells is big ticket items that folks don’t trade often.
Digital sales have also turn out to be a more significant part of its business. A few third of Best Buy’s U.S. sales got here from its online business within the fiscal 12 months ending late January, in comparison with 19% within the fiscal 12 months ending late January 2020. She said sales by phone, chat or virtually also increased.
Even so, the roughly 900 Best Buy stores within the US remain a vital part of the shift: Barry said greater than 40% of online sales happen in-store.