Skip to main content

Best Buy to close down all 250 of its U.S. mobile phone stores

Best Buy Black Friday Deals
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Best Buy is closing all 250 of its U.S. mobile-phone stores by the end of May, 2018.

Despite predictions of growth in the smartphone market for this year after a lackluster 2017, the company has decided that the phone-focused stores provide little value to its broader business.

Recommended Videos

The 250 outlets are mostly located in shopping malls and are much smaller than its 1,000 big-box retail stores, which the company said will continue to sell handsets. The closures shouldn’t prove too inconvenient for most Best Buy shoppers as 85 percent of the phone stores are reportedly within three miles of one of its big-box sites.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

For affected employees, however, the situation is far more troubling, though the company is promising to help with job searches before the stores close down.

In a letter to employees this week that’s been seen by Reuters, Best Buy chief executive Hubert Joly said that in the 10-plus years since the company opened the first of its smaller stores, “the mobile phone business has matured, margins have compressed, and the cost of operations in our mobile stand-alone stores is higher than in our big-box stores.”

With additional pressure coming from online marketplaces, Best Buy has worked to enhance its own online store in recent years in a bid to compete. Free shipping, price matching offers, and try-before-you-buy schemes have also been part of efforts to attract more customers.

When sales of phones and computers at Best Buy fell at the end of 2015, Joly pinned the blame on manufacturers for failing to bring exciting new devices to the market, which meant customers were reluctant to upgrade.

This year, however, analysts at IDC are forecasting market growth, though admittedly it’s developing markets that could see much of that extra business. IDC said changes and development in software and components will likely drive sales in the mobile marketplace in 2018.

“Improvements in speed, power, battery life, and general performance will be critical in driving growth at a worldwide level as the smartphone evolves into a true all-in-one tool,” IDC research manager Anthony Scarsella said.

Other data from Statista suggests the number of smartphone users in the U.S. will continue to grow in the coming years, with Best Buy believing its big-box stores are best placed to pick up some of that extra business in place of its struggling mobile-only stores.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The best thing about Samsung’s new budget phone is ruined in the U.S.
The side of the Samsung Galaxy A54, showing the buttons.

When Samsung revealed its next midrange Galaxy A Series phone, the Galaxy A54 5G, I was excited to see it. Not only does the phone resemble the flagship Galaxy S23 series without the flagship prices, but the specs themselves seemed quite respectable too. Though it’s not the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, the Exynos 1380 processor is quite fast and snappy, plus you get a 50MP main shooter, a 5,000mAh battery, and more. And you have some awesome color choices to pick from ... as long as you’re not in the U.S., apparently.

One of the most exciting things about the Samsung Galaxy A54 5G for me are the colors. It comes in Awesome Violet or Awesome Lime Green, along with basic black and white colors. Both Awesome shades are vibrant, fun, and look amazing. But don’t get too excited — your options are limited in the U.S.
No colors for you!

Read more
The Pixel 7’s best camera trick is coming to the iPhone and all Android phones
Erasing items in Magic Eraser.

The Google Pixel series of phones, specifically the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7, have an exclusive feature called Magic Eraser. With Magic Eraser, you can get rid of unwanted objects in a photo, such as people in the background or things like power lines. As of today, Magic Eraser is becoming available to all Android phones and iPhone users through Google One.

Magic Eraser debuted on the Pixel 6 lineup, which includes the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and the more affordable Pixel 6a, which is still available to purchase (the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro have been discontinued). If you have a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, you also have the Magic Eraser feature. One of the reasons I had always wanted a Pixel device is because of Magic Eraser, and it is something that I desperately wished Apple would implement.

Read more
The Nothing Phone 2 is real, and it’s coming to the U.S. this year
Nothing Phone 1 Glyph Interface lights.

The Nothing Phone 2 will be coming to the U.S. this year, CEO Carl Pei said today. The company previously launched its first entry into the smartphone market in Europe and Asia due to resource constraints.

“We decided to make the U.S. our No. 1 priority in terms of markets,” CEO Carl Pei said in an interview with Inverse. “We couldn't do it earlier because we were only in our second year and our hands were tied building the team as we were building the products. Now as we're on a more solid footing, we can take a step forward.”

Read more