Best Buy lays off hundreds of store workers in online push – WSJ

(Reuters) -Best Buy Co Inc is cutting store jobs across the United States as the electronics retailer looks to trim costs and shift its business more towards e-commerce, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The layoff would affect hundreds of jobs across Best Buy’s U.S. stores, the report said, adding that the laid off employees could, however, reapply for open positions within the company or receive severance.

This week, several store workers who specialize in selling more complex products such as computers and smartphones were told their jobs would be eliminated, the report added.

“As we shared last month, we’re evolving our stores and the experiences we offer to better reflect the changes in customer shopping behavior, as well as how we organize our teams,” Best Buy said.

As of January 2023, Best Buy had more than 90,000 employees in the United States and Canada, including about 58% full-time employees, 32% part-time workers and 10% seasonal staff.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Shweta Agarwal)