Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Business
  3. Deals

Macy’s enters new territory with Best Buy partnership to sell, gasp, electronics

Lulu Chang
By

best buy sony over 250 hi res listening stations
Image used with permission by copyright holder
What do you do when your business falls upon hard times? Shut down and rebrand, if you’re taking a page out of Macy’s handbook that is. When it comes to the venerable giant and its traditional approach to the retail of apparel, handbags, and home good items, Macy’s is leaving its tried and true department store identity behind in favor of a new partnership with Best Buy.

No longer will you only be able to buy boots and bedding at Macy’s — now you’ll also find consumer electronics in their stores. By combining forces, these two storefronts hope that they’ll somehow find a way to remain relevant in an age driven increasingly by e-commerce and free two-day shipping.

Recommended Videos

Beginning in early November, around 10 Macy’s stores across the U.S. will “test licensed consumer electronics departments under the Best Buy name,” effectively creating mini-Best Buy locations within the department store. So now, in a sea of cardigans and pumps, you’ll be able to find phones, tablets, wearables, audio gear, and other such electronic devices you’d typically find, well, not at Macy’s. While it’s yet unclear what other brands will be offered, Samsung is a sure bet, and it seems pretty safe to assume that other labels will be appearing inside Macy’s stores as well.

Related

The move comes as Macy’s battles declining sales as more and more consumers pivot towards gadgets and gizmos. And as the Wall Street Journal reports, Macy’s “has come under pressure from investors to make better use of its real estate,” leading to the shuttering of 35 to 40 stores, representing about 5 percent of their total locations.

But with this new Best Buy partnership, Macy’s hopes that it can begin to compete again with other retailers and offer customers more of what they want in addition to their traditional stock of goods. “Our customers have expressed interest in electronics for self-purchase and gift-giving, and this collaboration with Best Buy reinforces Macy’s as a shopping destination throughout the year for the products that are most in demand,” said Macy’s president Jeff Gennette in a statement.

And if there’s one thing that retail understands, it’s that the customer is always right.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
CyberPowerPC is selling a gaming PC with the first discrete Intel graphics card
Intel Iris Xe DG1 graphics card.

CyberPowerPC, a well-known computer manufacturer, has surprised gaming enthusiasts with a new prebuilt desktop that can now be found in Best Buy. On the surface, it's a budget gaming PC like any other, but looking deeper into the hardware reveals an unprecedented choice. The system comes with a discrete Intel Iris Xe DG1 graphics card -- a GPU that most people have never even heard of. This raises some questions and might make people wonder: Are there now three, and not two, contenders in the graphics card arena?

The question can be put to rest almost as soon as it's raised -- Intel is not currently in a great place to compete with AMD or Nvidia. However, despite the fact that Intel's Iris Xe was never meant to end up inside a gaming system, CyberPowerPC still found some use for it. The resulting desktop is being sold at Best Buy for the low price of $750. Aside from the surprising choice of GPU, the other components are what you'd typically find in a budget gaming desktop. CyberPowerPC's aptly named Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop comes with an Intel Core i5-11400F processor, a 500GB SSD, 8GB of memory, and a set of gaming peripherals.

Read more
What is Best Buy Beta? Everything you need to know
Best Buy BetaÙ

Best Buy Beta, the tech retailer's new premium membership, is rolling out right now in select markets across the U.S. This new subscription service is shaping up to be a must-have for business owners, techies, and frequent Best Buy shoppers in general, covering virtually all of your tech needs from free installation and extended warranties to customized purchase advice and exclusive members-only discounts. It's only available in a few states right now but will be expanding to other markets very soon, so if you're curious about Best Buy Beta, then here's everything you need to know.
What is Best Buy Beta?

Everybody is familiar with Best Buy as a go-to place for things like laptop deals, discounted 4K TVs, and other big-ticket electronics, and even in an age of online retail when many people prefer to do the bulk of their shopping online, this big-box brick-and-mortar store hasn't slowed down a bit. That's largely due to the fact that Best Buy offers excellent post-purchase support (such as on-site installation) and in-person repair services through Geek Squad, advantages that you normally don't get with online-only outlets.

Read more
The best new laptops of CES 2021
best laptops ces 2021 thinkpad x1 titanium 3 1

It's not in Las Vegas, but the all-digital CES 2021 event has no lack of exciting new products to check out. This year, a deluge of new laptops has been launched, ranging from new work-from-home gear to powerful new gaming laptops.

So far, the biggest laptop trends are commercial laptops for remote workers and experimental new form factors for mobile computing. Powered by the upcoming and exciting new components from Intel, Nvidia, and AMD, laptops have never been so interesting.

Read more