Best Buy informed its employees on Wednesday of plans to close all 250 of its mobile standalone stores in the United States by the end of May, a company spokesperson confirmed.
The stores are predominately located within malls and are much smaller than Best Buy's big box stores. The mobile standalone shops are mostly used for the sale of cellphones and accessories. These locations do not sell some of Best Buy's bigger ticket items such as televisions, computers and appliances. The standalone stores are only responsible for 1 percent of Best Buy's overall revenue.
Although thousands of employees will be affected by Wednesday's announcement, the company said the goal is to transfer employees currently working in standalone stores into Best Buy's big box locations.
Best Buy said that 85 percent of its standalone stores are within 3 miles of a big box store.
"Employees will have three months to work with internal recruiters, and field and store leaders across the country are rallying to help transition employees to big box stores and open in-home advisor roles," Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly wrote in a letter to employees, and shared with Scripps. "For those who leave the company after May 31, we will give them severance and assist them in finding roles outside Best Buy."
Despite Best Buy closing its mall locations, the big box stores will continue selling cellphones and accessories.
"We feel good about the opportunity to retain customers and transition them to another one of our sales channels. In summary, we are very excited by our Mobile business and its prospects for growth," Joly wrote.
