Best Buy to lay off hundreds

Best Buy to lay off hundreds

Best Buy is cutting hundreds of employees as it shifts attention to online sales.

Citing sources familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported the layoffs will mainly impact store workers specializing in electronic products such as smartphones and computers. Those jobs, according to the report, will be handled instead by a “small number of similar roles.”

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WSJ reported the laid off employees can opt for severance pay or re-apply for other open positions at Best Buy.

In a statement, Best Buy said it is “evolving our stores and the experiences we offer to better reflect the changes in customer shopping behavior, as well as how we organize our teams to ensure we continue to provide our expertise, products and services in the best way possible.”

At the end of January, Best Buy had more than 90,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada.