Best Buy cuts hundreds of in-store jobs, anticipating slower sales of electronics

Best Buy Co. has cut hundreds of in-store jobs to manage costs in preparation for continued declines in sales of electronics.

The reduction in staff comes just weeks after the Richfield retailer lowered its sales projections for the summer, citing inflation and slowing demand for electronics.

"We're always evaluating and evolving our teams to make sure we're serving our customers," the company said in a statement Friday.

"With an ever-changing macroeconomic environment, including customers shopping more digitally than ever, we have made adjustments to our teams that include eliminating a small number of roles," the statement said.

The cuts represent a small percentage of Best Buy's workforce of about 105,000 employees with the company still hiring for open roles in its field teams.

Since the start of the pandemic, Best Buy has reduced its headcount most noticeably laying off about 5,000 mostly full-time employees early last year.

Late last month, Best Buy executives said they expected comparable sales for stores open at least a year to drop 13% during the May-through-July quarter. They earlier had expected an 8% drop.

In May, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told analysts that she and other leaders felt the company mostly was at the right number of employees, but she said Best Buy would continue to adapt to changes in customer shopping.

"We have been actively evolving the composition of our teams throughout the last two years as customer behavior changed and became even more digitally focused," she said. "The result is that our overall head count is actually lower than pre-pandemic. ... We will continue to learn, evaluate and evolve the model in light of the way the business and shopping habits are changing."

Best Buy is scheduled to report its earnings for the quarter Aug. 30.