Electronics retailer Best Buy
Amidst this chaos, Best Buy is simply doing business as usual. The company produced profits of $0.43 per share on about $9 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up from $0.39 and $7.9 billion last year, respectively. Same-store sales were up 3.7% and gross margins held steady at about 24%. The quarter was right in line with management's expectations, so the full-year forecasts remain unchanged.
The secret to Best Buy's success is a local focus on a multinational scale. Regional managers and local store owners have more leeway than most chain retailers' front-line people to adjust store environments and inventory to the sales trends and needs of the particular location, which gives the massive corporate beast surprisingly agile operations. Rolling out in-store Apple
Chief Operating Officer Brian Dunn said: "We have an amazing opportunity to pair the power of our scale with our local insights which are closest to the customer -- and we see many indicators that our growth propositions are working."
Keep that train of thought rolling, and it should be fairly easy to fend off any attacks from a rejuvenated Circuit City-Blockbuster complex, and make advances on big-box big boys like Target
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