Best Buy Buyouts: 500 Employees Agree To Leave

In yet another sign of the dwindling retail and job landscape, one in eight employees at Best Buy Co. Incorporated's headquarters in Richfield -- about 500 in all -- agreed to take voluntary buyouts, the company said Thursday.

Whether that figure will be enough to prevent forced layoffs remains to be seen, as the company continues to analyze its revenue and expenses, spokeswoman Susan Busch said.

An exact number of buyouts won't be known until Jan. 16, the deadline to back out of the plan, but the losses represent a 12.5 percent reduction in the workforce at the corporate offices.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[wm1066]

I think the top brass still don't understand whats going on, when they lay off people they lay off people that BUY stuff, and now they dont' because they don't have a job, But the brass has to satisfy wallstreet so its the worker that takes it on the chin, never the top VP's that are in league with Wallstreet over their own company and its workers.

[ObamaYouBetcha]

MNMommy - read the Strib article and some of the comments there. One person posted about how Best Buy used to be housed in several office buildings in and around Eden Prairie. Rather than having to drive from building to building to attend meetings and do daily business, they built that new office building (after tearing down an EYESORE car dealership - thanks goodness!).

As a neighbor of that "Taj Mahal", I appreciate the fact that every day thousands of workers are putting money in our local economy by dining, shopping and spending. Seems like Best Buy is trying to sensibly downgrade their workforce, and I wish them all the luck.

[quiviran]

Having worked at a company that went through buyout downsizing and known people who took the buyouts, I wish them luck. Everyone who had taken buyouts that I saw later was just hoping to find a job as good as the one they left. It's a bad deal when you find a crackerjack executive assistant giving food demonstrations at Sam's Club.

[jukesgrrl]

I've known many people who have taken buyouts. Not one who was over 40 has been able to find a job in his or her field. And this is not a recent phenomenon. It's been going on since 2000. The economy is in a tailspin currently, but its been in a downturn for years.

[courageunderfire]

I refuse to step foot into a Best Buy because I have had numerous bad experiences shopping there.
I know that every retail establishment is hurting because of the economy, however, I do wonder if many other people have had the experience that my family has had and if they (like we) are putting their money elsewhere because of it?
I won't spend my money anywhere that I don't get decent service from, and I am just talking simple help and kindness. We have been met with no help, waiting a long length of time to get help only to be treated so rudely, we walked out after waiting 1and a half hours to buy a TV.

[wm1066]

Ya I know what you mean, you see all these store people running around but just try to ask them a question and they have to refer you to somebody else. And then their is the noise of TV's and Stereo's etc. nuff to drive you right out the door.

[hypnotoad72]

Knowledge isn't profitable. At least in the eyes of the blind.

[hopefull2008]

I think this business model is doomed. How long before everybody buys this kind of stuf online ?

[drymartini1]

Online has less employee costs and minimal inventory costs. they can order JIT inventory.

thats the way to go.

[MNmommy]

Maybe if they hadn't built themselves a dang Taj Mahal on 494 they wouldn't have been in this pickle, hmm?

[hypnotoad72]

LOL ; I know where you mean.