250 Best Buy Mobile standalone stores will close on May 31 according to Best Buy, who announced the news officially, stating that the cost of running the stores was too expensive given the lack of revenue that they were bringing in for the company, which is reportedly around one-percent of Best Buy’s overall revenue. Worth noting is that Best Buy still plans to keep its Best Buy Mobile stores in Canada open and will continue to operate them, with there being 52 in total within the country. The closures will only affect the stores that are located in the U.S.
Though Best Buy plans to close down 250 stores across the U.S. it will still be selling phones and wireless plans alongside mobile phone accessories in all of its regular Best Buy stores which is good news for consumers as Best Buy usually has really good deals and prices on phones. Naturally, Best Buy has to spend quite a bit less to operate the mobile sections of its business inside its regular stores than the actual standalone locations, and sales are good for those mobile sections of the stores, so margins are much lower and an overall better fit for the company’s mobile-focused efforts going forward at this point.
While Best Buy shuttering these mobile locations will affect a fair number of employees, it confirmed that it will be assisting those employees with both internal and external job searches. From now until May 31 when the shops close for good, Best Buy will be trying to find jobs for the Best Buy Mobile employees in other positions around the company, and if any employees don’t find jobs within the company after that date then it will assist them in finding a new job somewhere else. What’s more is that it plans to offer severance to those employees who leave after the May 31 date in addition to helping them find a new job so the employees won’t be worse for wear. Though Best Buy will be helping affected employees find new positions, inside the company or not, it won’t be sharing how many employees are actually being affected.