01.27.2009 — Best Buy will lay off an unknown number of employees at its corporate headquarters on Feb. 19, The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting.
Despite 500 workers voluntarily being laid off earlier in January, the No. 1 big-box retailer in the United States has to resort to these involuntary layoffs.
According to the Star Tribune, employees were notified of the layoffs via email and in meetings Tuesday. Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch says the layoffs will not affect store employees. Best Buy has 4,000 corporate employees and about 160,000 employees worldwide.
The voluntary layoffs, effective Feb. 12, will result in a 13 percent reduction of the company's total workforce. Workers who are laid off, according to the Star Tribune, will still be employed at Best Buy for 30 days, each also receiving a "less generous" severance package than employees who volunteered to be laid off.
Best Buy did say some employees could be eligible for different jobs at the Richfield, Minn.-based headquarters.
The company saw comparable store sales fall 1.3 percent in September and 7.6 percent in October. Best Buy also recently announced that Brian Dunn will assume the role of CEO, effective June 24, 2009, to replace Bradbury Anderson, 59, who plans on retiring.
Big-box retailers have obviously had a rough stretch of late here in the U.S. Circuit City and Tweeter, formerly two prominent big-box retailers, both filed bankruptcy and liquidated stores within the last few months.
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