US firm bestbuys starts UK recruiting

gemmacarolyn

Excellent news! I went to visit Best Buy last time I was in the US, but I hesitate to purchase expensive goods from a place I can't return them to if they go wrong. Having one here would solve that problem! )

zinzanbrooke

Is it just me, or have people missed that BestBuy announced a huge drop in profits year on year from $228m to $52m, and have blamed a lot of their loss on a significant decline in the price of the company’s stake in The Carphone Warehouse.? So, with operating income down 22% and overall profits down 78% (compared to last year), a 5.3% drop in sales and announcements about significant reductions in spending were going to be put in place for 2009/10 - who's still confident that BestBuy will take over the UK market.?

BestBuy also announced that effective from 15th Dec '08, nearly all of its corporate employees are eligible for a voluntary separation package in order to reduce its corporate expenses significantly. This package provides an incentive for employees who choose to leave the company by offering a significant increase in the company's base severance offer. BestBuy also stated that involuntary reductions in corporate staff may be required, depending on the outcome of the voluntary program.

There's a lot of talk of wishing for Currys to go bust, but without the competition between Currys, Comet and other electrical retailers, where do you think prices are going to go.? Do you think the company left standing at the end of it is going to continue to decrease prices and increase ranges - NO WAY.!

Competition is good for consumers, and for business. It makes companies work harder to be the best in the market and therefore, get the customers through the door. So, the more businesses have to compete, the better deal a consumer will get - it's the nature of the beast.

So wise up, less competition = less bargains on offer and less customer service needed by a company to keep a customer coming back.

twe

When Index went down did Argos put there prices up in the next catalogue that they released? Same thing here, if Currys goes down I doubt prices will go up at Comet, specially with people purchasing more and more over the Internet...

zinzanbrooke

twe wrote: »

When Index went down did Argos put there prices up in the next catalogue that they released? Same thing here, if Currys goes down I doubt prices will go up at Comet, specially with people purchasing more and more over the Internet...

No, perhaps Argos didn't put their prices up when Index went under, but that's because almost everyone is a competitor to Argos, not just catalogues. Argos sell TVs, fridges, jewellery, torches, bikes, kids games and clothes - not just electrical items. So if Argos had put their prices up then Currys, Comet, Littlewoods Direct, Halfords, H Samuels and every other retailer that sold the same goods would have laughed their asses off and profited from it.

And if you hadn't heard, Comet's sales were so poor that they are now considering charging manufacturers for shelf space in their stores - does that sound like a solid business plan to encourage manufacturers to do the best business with them.? If Comet charge upto £15,400 for one item to be displayed in their UK stores, and a manufacturer has 50 items - which manufacturer is going to think spending upto £770k just to have their items displayed is a good idea.?!?!

Comet (KESA) also plan to ask for a further 2% discount on manufacturer invoices and a 0.5% fee to tell the manufacturers what the sales and stock situation is like in their stores. Sounds like Comet want to lose a lot of manufacturers' ranges if they've hit such bad times that they're charging for companies to stock their shelves and see what's been sold.!

Sooner or later they'll only supply own brand items....

fairydust

In the linked article it says Swindon, yet gives retail park information for Staines.... I'm guessing Swindon was a typo? Shame... guess where I live.... lol