Best Buy Layoffs

Alpha8472
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Best Buy Layoffs

Post by Alpha8472 »

Best Buy fires nearly half of their employees with no notice. Recently Best Buy announced that their starting pay would be $15 per hour. However, they suddenly decided to get rid of about half of their employees after a period of record profits.

The company saw its domestic revenue rise to $40 billion in 2020. People were buying more computers, laptops, devices, game consoles, etc. due to the coronavirus situation. Now the company is laying off employees as their stores are suffering from long lines and increased sales.

The CEO of the company Ms. Corie Barry is a finance person who has a $31 million dollar net worth. She was also investigated for an inappropriate relationship with another Best Buy employee.
https://tcbmag.com/report-best-buy-to-r ... ail-staff/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L60fWLa4gu4
Last edited by Alpha8472 on February 11th, 2021, 11:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by storewanderer »

Not surprising. All part of the push to get people to shop online. For Best Buy, it is so easy to let people shop online for their 1-2 item purchases vs. spending labor in the store to do sales presentations, etc. in the store.

Next will be they can significantly downsize their storefronts. Perhaps they can keep a small number of "large" stores in a given market then transport products to the smaller satellite type locations to fulfill orders (not sure how secure transport of electronics like that is... maybe this isn't a great idea).
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by veteran+ »

Alpha8472 wrote: February 11th, 2021, 5:37 pm Best Buy fires nearly half of their employees with no notice. Recently Best Buy announced that their starting pay would be $15 per hour. However, they suddenly decided to get rid of about half of their employees after a period of record profits.

The company saw its domestic revenue rise to $40 billion in 2020. People were buying more computers, laptops, devices, game consoles, etc. due to the coronavirus situation. Now the company is laying off employees as their stores are suffering from long lines and increased sales.

The CEO of the company Ms. Corie Barry is a finance person who has a $31 million dollar net worth. She was also investigated for an inappropriate relationship with another Best Buy employee.
https://tcbmag.com/report-best-buy-to-r ... ail-staff/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L60fWLa4gu4
Seriously AWFUL corporation!

No wonder so many of their employees are nasty (including corporate customer service reps).
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by cjd »

I've never been to a Best Buy. Are they like a high end electronics and appliance store, with nice displays and showroom style atmosphere? I'm picturing them as being something similar to Currys in the UK. Or like The Incredible Universe was in the 90s?
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by babs »

cjd wrote: February 12th, 2021, 8:35 pm I've never been to a Best Buy. Are they like a high end electronics and appliance store, with nice displays and showroom style atmosphere? I'm picturing them as being something similar to Currys in the UK. Or like The Incredible Universe was in the 90s?
Not high end, and no showroom style atmosphere. Significantly smaller than Incredible Universe. Really nothing special. Last remaining national electronics store.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: February 12th, 2021, 8:35 pm I've never been to a Best Buy. Are they like a high end electronics and appliance store, with nice displays and showroom style atmosphere? I'm picturing them as being something similar to Currys in the UK. Or like The Incredible Universe was in the 90s?
They tried to do some showroom type stuff with the Magnolia format in the past, not sure where that is at anymore.

In some of their higher volume stores the displays can look nice.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by buckguy »

Their stores have been inconsistent for as long as I could recall in terms of layout, selection, and service. The one in DC where I bought my tv had one guy who knew the merchandise and a bunch of knuckleheads, but it was still better than the suburban location where I'd looked. I wonder how much they'll cut and whether anyone will notice.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by cjd »

Oh I see, so pretty similar to Circuit City then.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by babs »

cjd wrote: February 13th, 2021, 9:47 am Oh I see, so pretty similar to Circuit City then.
Yes, Circuit City with a more successful website. Otherwise, they are the same. Slightly better management and a better web business is why they haven't ended up like Circuit City yet.
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Re: Best Buy Layoffs

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: February 13th, 2021, 9:45 am Their stores have been inconsistent for as long as I could recall in terms of layout, selection, and service. The one in DC where I bought my tv had one guy who knew the merchandise and a bunch of knuckleheads, but it was still better than the suburban location where I'd looked. I wonder how much they'll cut and whether anyone will notice.
Yes, this. If you get lucky, go on the right day, at the right time, and intercept the right person, you may find someone who is knowledgeable. But the odds are relatively low and you really have to get lucky.

One thing I noticed in years past with Best Buy was they were sort of like a Home Depot sales floor (not a specialty department like appliances which is staffed with more knowledgeable staff). You will get asked if you are finding everything you need by about 15 different people, then when you actually ask one of them for help, they may or may not be able to tell you where to find the item and then if you ask more pointed questions they will likely be very lost. They seem very eager initially to help you find something but the interaction goes downhill fast after that. But once in a while you will get someone who actually can help you find an item and will answer your questions. Best Buy used to be similar.

Best Buy since COVID- is the opposite. Nobody seems to want to help and they don't hide it. After what the company is doing now I can't imagine it is going to get better. At this point you may get better service at the Wal Mart electronics department.
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