Best Buy has started job cuts in stores across the U.S. as the retailer seeks to lower costs following its updated outlook for FY 2023 released July 27, 2022. (The retailer’s Q2 2023 ended July 30, 2022.) By Aug. 12, 2022, the retailer had slashed hundreds of store jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“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,” said a company spokeswoman in comments made to WSJ.
In its revised Q2 2023 outlook, Best Buy now expects comparable sales to decline approximately 13%, but revenue is expected to land approximately 7.5% higher than Q2 FY 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. These figures compare to 19.6% comparable sales growth during the retailer’s fiscal Q2 2022. Best Buy’s Q2 2023 results will be released Aug. 30, 2022.
“Our current planning assumptions for fiscal 2023 include a comparable sales decline in a range of around 11%,” said Matt Bilunas, CFO at Best Buy in a July 27 statement. “This compares to our previous guidance of a comparable sales decline of 3% to 6%.”
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The news of Best Buy’s job cuts in brick-and-mortar stores comes during a time of transition at the retailer. The cuts were made less than one month after Best Buy unveiled plans to open a 5,000-square-foot small-format, digital-first shop in Monroe, N.C. It has also been expanding into new categories such as health and wellness, outdoor living and transportation. Despite the recent job cuts, in February, Best Buy committed to hiring 1,000 new technology employees as it partnered with Amazon Web Services to further develop its cloud technology.
