Best Buy Co. He said sales rose during the holiday season as consumers at home woke up to TVs and other electronics, but warned that their torrid growth would slow this year and said he has pushed plans to prepare the business for a more digital future.
The company is accelerating its plan to adapt to what executives think is a long-term shift toward online shopping and virtual technology services, including shrinking store staffing and usage. more store space to fulfill online orders.
The electronics retailer has laid off workers and reduced hours for some store workers in recent weeks. The company employed about 102,000 at the end of its last fiscal year, up from 123,000 at the start of the year, CEO Corie Barry said Thursday in a call with analysts. The decrease is mainly due to wear and tear, he said. He said about 5,000 workers were fired or opted to be fired after cutting their hours.
Dismissed workers have until Friday to find another position in the company or be eligible to be fired, according to an “overview of the notice of dismissal” offered to some workers and which has been consulted by Wall Street Journal.
“The customer has completely changed their way of thinking about shopping,” Ms. Barry said in a call with reporters Thursday. “We’ve been doing our best to adapt to the new reality.” After the intense holiday seasons, the company felt that “our workforce needed to be adjusted to match this new reality.”