Best Buy Preparing To Furlough 51,000 Hourly Employees

Best Buy the Twin Cities based company announced today that it is being forced to furlough 51,000 hourly employees due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the first two months of this quarter sales for the electronic retail giant dropped 5 % while the stores were closed to the public.

According to U.S. News the company stated that some corporate employees have volunteered for reduced work weeks and furloughs, while top mamagementand board members will take a pay cut. Even with all of this the company stated that they would retain about 82% of its full-time store and field employees.

Best Buy reported that sales were actually up 25% the week before March 20 when they decided to switch to curbside delivery as people were shopping for work from home equipment and more. But with the store closures since then, sales have now dropped by 30%. Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry said to U.S. News "The situation remains very fluid and there is still a great deal of uncertainty, particularly as it relates to depth and duration of store closures and consumer confidence over time."

Hopefully as with many businesses consumers will continue to buy products online and have them either delivered to their homes or do the curbside pickup at the retails stores.