Best Buy Sticks With Smartphones, With Store Closures as It Eyes Online, Big-Box Sales, CEO Says
Best Buy is sticking with smartphones even as it closes the remaining 257 stand-alone Best Buy Mobile stores by May 31, CEO Hubert Joly told a Thursday earnings call. The retailer began opening those stores “more than a decade ago…
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before the iPhone was even launched,” said Joly. “The mobile phone business was in a period of rapid growth and margins were high. Fast forward to 2018 and the mobile phone business has matured.” The company remains “committed” to the category, said Joly: “It makes more sense for us to grow this category in our big-box stores and online.” Hundreds of the big-box stores “now include dedicated vendor experiences associated with carriers and manufacturers like Apple, AT&T, Samsung, Sprint and Verizon and we're adding more of these this year,” he said. Same-store sales rose 9 percent in Q4 ended Feb. 3. The stock closed 4 percent higher Monday at $75.30.