Best Buy Co. has cut hundreds of in-store jobs to control costs in preparation for continued declines in electronics sales.
The job cuts come just weeks after the Richfield retailer lowered its sales forecast for the summer, citing inflation and slowing demand for electronics.
“We are constantly evaluating and developing our teams to ensure we are serving our customers,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
“In the face of an ever-changing macroeconomic environment, including customers shopping more digitally than ever, we have made adjustments to our teams, including the elimination of a small number of roles,” the statement said.
The cuts represent a small percentage of Best Buy’s approximately 105,000 employees, with the company still hiring for open positions on its field service teams.
Best Buy has cut its headcount the most since the pandemic began, 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 for at least a year to decline 13% in the May-July quarter. They had earlier expected an 8% drop.
In May, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry told analysts that she and other executives felt the company had the right number of employees for the most part, but said Best Buy will continue to adapt to changes in how customers shop .
“We have actively evolved the makeup of our teams over the past two years as customer behavior has changed and become even more digitally focused,” she said. “The result is that our total number of employees is actually lower than before the pandemic. … We will continue to learn, evaluate and evolve the model as business and shopping habits change.”
Best Buy is expected to report its quarterly results on August 30th.