Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Canada, Mexico, and China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates under both the Best Buy and Future Shop label. Together these operate more than 1,150 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, China , Mexico and Turkey. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Richfield, Minnesota, USA. On June 26, 2007, Best Buy announced a 40% increase in its operations, with plans to operate more than 1,800 stores worldwide, including 1,400 Best Buy stores in the U.S.
With the recent 50% acquisition of UK-based mobile phone operation The Carphone Warehouse's retail division, Best Buy announced that it would open branded superstores in the UK and other European countries. Best Buy will first open stores in the UK, with plans for up to 200 stores eventually, although the initiative has been delayed until Spring 2010 by the state of the retail market. It is also considering purchasing UK rivals Kesa Electricals (owner of Comet), DSG International (owner of Currys), or both. It is unknown whether these stores will rebrand if acquired by Best Buy. The first two Best Buy stores in the UK will open at The Junction retail park near Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock Essex, and near Southampton at Prupim’s Hedge End Retail Park. A 10 year lease has been signed for the Lakeside store with 50,000 square foot of retail space, while the Southampton store will cover 35,000 square foot. In total 20 locations are planned for 2009 which will all be big box format, however the company is looking for a flagship store in Central London in a prominent area such as Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street or Regent Street.
Best Buy was named "Company of the Year" by Forbes magazine in 2004, "Specialty Retailer of the Decade" by Discount Store News in 2001, ranked in the Top 10 of "America's Most Generous Corporations" by Forbes magazine, and made Fortune Magazine's List of Most Admired Companies in 2006.
On March 9, 2009, Best Buy became the primary electronics retail store (online and bricks and mortar) in the eastern United States, after smaller rival Circuit City went out of business. Fry's Electronics remains a major competitor in the western United States.
History
- 1966 – Richard M. Schulze and business partner James Wheeler open Sound of Music , an audio specialty store, in Saint Paul, Minnesota
- 1967 – Sound of Music acquires Kencraft Hi-Fi Company and Bergo Company. Second and third Sound of Music stores are opened near the University of Minnesota and in downtown Minneapolis. The Sound of Music ends its first year with gross sales of $173,000(USD)
- 1969 – Sound of Music stock first traded as publicly-held company; company enacts first employee stock option plan; three stores opened in the Twin Cities area
- 1970 – Sound of Music hits the $1 million mark in annual revenues
- 1979 – Sound of Music becomes the first suppliers of video and laserdisc equipment including Panasonic, Magnavox, Sony and Sharp
- 1981 – A tornado hits the Roseville, Minnesota store on June 14 . Sound of Music responds with a "Tornado Sale," and it becomes an annual event
- 1983 – Sound of Music’s board of directors approves a new corporate name: Best Buy Co., Inc.; opens first superstore in Burnsville, Minnesota, featuring expanded selling space, a wide assortment of discounted brand-name goods, central service, and warehouse distribution; stores begin selling appliances and videocassette recorders
- 1985 – Best Buy (symbol BBY) debuts on the New York Stock Exchange with an offering of 8.3 million shares
- 1987 – Best Buy’s brand logo changes to the yellow tag
- 1989 – Best Buy unveils a new “grab-and-go” store format
- 1990 – Best Buy eliminates commissions for standalone sales people, but retains bonuses for management and supervisors
- 1992 – Best Buy hits the $1 billion mark in annual revenues
- 1994 – Best Buy expands to the Maryland and Virginia markets.
- 1997 – Best Buy becomes the first national retailer to sell DVD hardware and software.
- 1998 – Best Buy sponsors Stevie Nicks Enchanted Tour.
- 2000 – Best Buy enters the online retailing business by launching Bestbuy.com; Best Buy acquires Magnolia Hi-Fi, a retailer of high-end consumer electronics; music Compact Cassettes are removed from most stores
- 2001 – Best Buy acquires the Canada-based electronics-chain Future Shop Ltd., which marks the company's entrance to the international marketplace; though fully owned by Best Buy, Futureshop remains to this day a separate entity operating independently from Best Buy Canada; Best Buy acquires Musicland, a mall-based retailer for music and entertainment software; Best Buy launches Redline Entertainment, an independent music label and action-sports video distributor
- 2002 – Brad Anderson succeeds Schulze as Best Buy's CEO; the company acquires Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer support taskforce; first Canadian Best Buy store opens in Markham, Ontario
- 2003 – U.S. Best Buy stores surpass the 600 mark; the company opens its first global sourcing office in Shanghai; the corporate offices are consolidated in one headquarters campus; Best Buy divests itself of Musicland; the company begins to segment their stores, which is considered a major part of the company's "customer centricity" transformation; the Reward Zone loyalty program is introduced in the U.S.
- 2004 – Virtucom Group of Syracuse, NY is hired to handle all online content for Best Buy which generates over $3 billion per year in revenues.
- 2004 – Geek Squad precincts are opened in every Best Buy store nationwide, offering in-store service during store business hours
- 2006 – Best Buy acquires a majority interest in the retail chain Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co., Ltd., China’s fourth-largest appliance and consumer electronics retailer. Best Buy opens its 800th store in Chicago, Illinois.
- 2007 – On January 26, 2007, the first Best Buy in China had its grand opening - touted as the largest Best Buy in existence. In March, Best Buy announced plans to purchase Seattle, WA based Speakeasy, Inc., a broadband and VOIP services provider. Best Buy becomes the first major retailer to exit the analog television market, carrying only digital products that became mandatory in June of 2009 by the FCC.
- 2007 – Best Buy launches mini-Geek Squad precincts in Office Depots in Orlando, Florida and Denver, Colorado. They also launched mini-Geek Squad precincts in Fedex Kinkos in Indianapolis, Indiana and Charlotte, North Carolina. These test markets and/or relationships with these companies ended in all markets late 2007 early 2008.
- 2008 – Best Buy opens 1,000th physical store on October 24, although the store which the company labeled as "store 1000" opened in August 2008.
- 2008 – Best Buy announces the opening of its first pilot stores in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Turkey, as well as another store in Shanghai. Best Buy decides to promote Blu-ray over HD-DVD, a move which ultimately contributed to Toshiba's Corps. decision to drop HD-DVD. In May it agreed to buy a 50% holding in UK-based mobile phone operation Carphone Warehouse's retail division, Best Buy also announced that it will open branded superstores in the UK and other European countries. On July 29, Best Buy announced that it will start selling musical instruments and related gear in over 80 of its retail stores, making the company the second largest musical instrument distributor in the US (the largest being Guitar Center). In early summer, Best Buy announced its addition of Best Buy Mobile to every store. On September 7, Best Buy became the first third party to sell Apple's iPhone, adding it to all Best Buy Mobile stores. In mid-September Best Buy announced its planned acquisition of Napster for $121 million.A different Best Buy logo began to appear in some stores and in some company websites. This logo has a tag with yellow outline. The "Best Buy" text is outside the tag. It is unclear if this logo will replace the current one.
- 2009 – Best Buy Canada in Partnership with Carphone warehouse opens a Best Buy Mobile "Store Within a Store" at all Best Buy locations. During October 2009, the website BestBuy.com had a facelift. The font used in the site was changed to the f
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