BESTBUY closed 50 stores 2 in Alberta

BESTBUY closed 50 stores 2 in Alberta (Alberta Times) BESTBUY announced on Saturday that it will close 50 doors before the end of this year...

(Alberta Times)

BESTBUY announced on Saturday that it will close 50 stores before the end of this year. These closures include seven in California, six in Illinois and six in Minnesota, two of which are in the state. Employees at the state's two stores in Peoria and Casa Grande learned of the closures Saturday morning. Both stores were closed on Saturday and reopened on Sunday for final sales. BESTBUY said last month it would close some of its so-called "big box" stores, laying off 400 people and cutting costs by $8 million, and replace them with 100 smaller, more compact mobile telecom stores. Faced with challenges from online shopping companies such as Amazon, BESTBUY is trying to avoid following the path of Circuit City, which went out of business in 2009. BESTBUY has 1,400 stores in the United States, and has closed two this year, one in Missouri and one in this state. Some of the 50 stores will be closed on May 12, and will be completed by this summer at the latest. BESTBUY said that after the store is closed, employees will be transferred to other departments of the company. Last Tuesday, after BESTBUY CEO Brian Dunn resigned, the board of directors began investigating his "personal conduct." The company lost $170 million in its most recent quarter, in part due to restructuring costs.