We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.
If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.
Best Buy to Reopen 800 Stores, Call Back 9,000 Furloughed Staff
Read MoreHide Full Article
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY - Free Report) has announced the reopening of its stores safely. Effective Jun 15, more than 800 stores in the United States will allow a restricted number of customers without any appointment. As part of the social-distancing practice, the company will limit the number of customers inside the stores to 25% of capacity, equivalent to roughly 60 or more customers in a store based on the size. Moreover, stores will have floor signage in order to aid customers and employees maintain six feet of distance. In addition, management announces to bring back more than 9,000 of the furloughed full- and part-time store staff and Geek Squad Agents.
Best Buy’s other safety guidelines include necessary self-health assessments with temperature checks, employees and customers wearing protective gear, frequent sanitization within the store, and acrylic shields at checkout counters. It has also announced dedicated shopping hours for elderly and vulnerable customers. Apart from these, the company will start resuming in-home consultations, which are being conducted virtually since March.
Meanwhile, the company will continue to offer curbside pickup and in-store consultations. In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Best Buy proactively shifted to a contactless curbside-only operating model for all domestic stores on a temporary basis. This helped the company retain nearly 80% of last year’s sales in the last six weeks of first-quarter fiscal 2021 despite store closures. Impressively, customer satisfaction scores for curbside pickup remained robust and Best Buy witnessed domestic online growth of 155.4% to $3.34 billion during the first quarter of fiscal 2021. As a percentage of overall Domestic revenues, online revenues grew to 42.2% compared with 15.4% in the prior-year quarter.
Notably, Best Buy is focused on improving the buy online, pickup in store services. Moreover, the company has been innovating digital experiences to resonate well with customer needs online and physical shopping through curbside pickup and the in-store consultation process. Its ‘Building the New Blue’ strategy has also been progressing smoothly.
Price Performance & Zacks Rank
A glimpse of Best Buy’s price performance shows that its shares are down 6.1% year to date compared with the industry’s 20% decline.
SpartanNash (SPTN - Free Report) , also a Zacks Rank #1 stock, has a positive earnings surprise of 76.3% for the last reported quarter.
Office Depot (ODP - Free Report) has a long-term earnings growth rate of 6.8%. Currently, it carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential
The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.
Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.
Image: Bigstock
Best Buy to Reopen 800 Stores, Call Back 9,000 Furloughed Staff
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY - Free Report) has announced the reopening of its stores safely. Effective Jun 15, more than 800 stores in the United States will allow a restricted number of customers without any appointment. As part of the social-distancing practice, the company will limit the number of customers inside the stores to 25% of capacity, equivalent to roughly 60 or more customers in a store based on the size. Moreover, stores will have floor signage in order to aid customers and employees maintain six feet of distance. In addition, management announces to bring back more than 9,000 of the furloughed full- and part-time store staff and Geek Squad Agents.
Best Buy’s other safety guidelines include necessary self-health assessments with temperature checks, employees and customers wearing protective gear, frequent sanitization within the store, and acrylic shields at checkout counters. It has also announced dedicated shopping hours for elderly and vulnerable customers. Apart from these, the company will start resuming in-home consultations, which are being conducted virtually since March.
Meanwhile, the company will continue to offer curbside pickup and in-store consultations. In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Best Buy proactively shifted to a contactless curbside-only operating model for all domestic stores on a temporary basis. This helped the company retain nearly 80% of last year’s sales in the last six weeks of first-quarter fiscal 2021 despite store closures. Impressively, customer satisfaction scores for curbside pickup remained robust and Best Buy witnessed domestic online growth of 155.4% to $3.34 billion during the first quarter of fiscal 2021. As a percentage of overall Domestic revenues, online revenues grew to 42.2% compared with 15.4% in the prior-year quarter.
Notably, Best Buy is focused on improving the buy online, pickup in store services. Moreover, the company has been innovating digital experiences to resonate well with customer needs online and physical shopping through curbside pickup and the in-store consultation process. Its ‘Building the New Blue’ strategy has also been progressing smoothly.
Price Performance & Zacks Rank
A glimpse of Best Buy’s price performance shows that its shares are down 6.1% year to date compared with the industry’s 20% decline.
The company currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Key Picks in Retail
Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM - Free Report) has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 37.2% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
SpartanNash (SPTN - Free Report) , also a Zacks Rank #1 stock, has a positive earnings surprise of 76.3% for the last reported quarter.
Office Depot (ODP - Free Report) has a long-term earnings growth rate of 6.8%. Currently, it carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential
The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.
Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.
See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>