Best Buy to Close 50 Stores and Lay Off Hundreds of Employees

According to a CBS Money Watch/ AP story from earlier today, Best Buy is planning to close 50 of its ‘big box’ stores and open up to 100 so called mobile stores in fiscal 2013.

A manager with the Wichita Falls store said she was not aware of any plans to close the local store and deferred to their corporate offices for further comment.  A press release just issued by the company reads as follows:

We are taking the necessary steps this next year to evolve our total retail store strategy, and make it even easier for customers to shop with Best Buy and access our services. To achieve this, one of our first steps will be the closing of 50 U.S. Best Buy stores to fuel growth initiatives that will include Connected Stores that provide better service and product interactivity. We are deliberate and thoughtful when we make such decisions. We are working to ensure the impact to our employees will be as minimal as possible, while serving all customers in a convenient and satisfying way. We will announce details about specific store locations and timing for closings once they are finalized

Corporate officials say they will not comment further at this time.