NEW YORK – Best Buy says it is committed to “winning” the holiday season with price-matching, doorbusters and deals, as well as its earliest ever opening hours on Thanksgiving – even if that means profit pressure for the electronics retailer in the fourth quarter.
Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly has been cutting costs, adding employee training and matching online prices to get customers into stores as it faces competition from discounters and online retailers.
Best Buy and other retailers have been trying to combat so-called “showrooming,” when customers browse in stores but buy items more cheaply online. Lately, Best Buy has begun to embrace the term, however. TV ads that began running in November tout the stores as “Your ultimate Holiday showroom.”
Part of that strategy is opening at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day this year, compared with last year’s midnight opening.
Joly said that while Thanksgiving opening hours are not ideal, the company had little choice once competitors said they would be open on Thanksgiving. Target plans to open at 8 p.m. and Walmart stores, which are usually open during the holiday, will start offering their Black Friday deals at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
The Minneapolis-based Best Buy said net income for the three months ended Nov. 2 totaled $54 million, or 16 cents per share, for the three months ended Nov. 2. That contrasts with a loss of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue was nearly flat at $9.36 billion.
Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly has been cutting costs, adding employee training and matching online prices to get customers into stores as it faces competition from discounters and online retailers.
Best Buy and other retailers have been trying to combat so-called “showrooming,” when customers browse in stores but buy items more cheaply online. Lately, Best Buy has begun to embrace the term, however. TV ads that began running in November tout the stores as “Your ultimate Holiday showroom.”
Part of that strategy is opening at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day this year, compared with last year’s midnight opening.
Joly said that while Thanksgiving opening hours are not ideal, the company had little choice once competitors said they would be open on Thanksgiving. Target plans to open at 8 p.m. and Walmart stores, which are usually open during the holiday, will start offering their Black Friday deals at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.
The Minneapolis-based Best Buy said net income for the three months ended Nov. 2 totaled $54 million, or 16 cents per share, for the three months ended Nov. 2. That contrasts with a loss of $10 million, or 3 cents per share, a year ago.
Revenue was nearly flat at $9.36 billion.