Best Buy Reveals More Job Cuts
Best Buy Company announced on Friday it will shed some 2,400 jobs in the coming weeks as it continues to try and cut costs to cope with the changing face of electronic retailing. Included among the planned layoffs, the company said, are about 600 of the company’s Geek Squad staff, which provides technical support to Best Buy’s customers. The latest round of job cuts at Best Buy comes in addition to the job cuts associated with its plan to shutter 50 stores across the nation, announced in March, and represent about 1.4 percent of the company’s total workforce of over 165,000.
Best Buy’s Geek Squad offers in-home installation and repair service to Best Buy customers who purchase extended warranty plans. The layoffs announced Friday will reduce the total Geek Squad staff by about 3 percent. Best Buy is reeling from almost two years of declines in sales for existing stores, or those open a year or more, a vital health indicator for retail companies. Best Buy has become something of a showroom for Internet retailers over the last few years, as shoppers go into Best Buy to check out and select merchandise before heading home to find the best deals on the Web.
Mike Mikan, the current interim CEO for Best Buy, promised shareholders last month that he was working on a plan to make the company more “relevant, intelligent and nimble,” promising more details later this summer. Mikan assumed the post after former CEO Brian Dunn was let go following allegations of an improper relationship with a female staff member.
