As Best Buy appears to be getting back on its feet, The Wall Street Journal reports the retailer is set to dump at least one retail idea-- "Richfield," the store model "inspired" by the Apple take on retail.
According to the WSJ CEO Hubert Joly halted plans involving the Richfield model when he took over the retailer and, 6 months later, "his finger is still on the pause button."
How come? Joly's answer is "fixture changes [are not] a wise use of capital." The retailer also has bigger plans to concentrate on-- namely beating the showrooming trend, changing product mixes in different stores and store-within-store deals with the likes of Samsung.
A July 2012 idea championed by then interim CEO Mike Mikan, the store redesign was to house less gadgets within a smaller footprint, a "Solution Central" (read "Genius Bar") help desk and several self-service points replacing checkout lines.
Go Best Buy Loses Interest in Being More Like the Apple Store (WSJ.com)
First announced at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, the Beagle announced as an eReader costing all of €9.90 through subsidies from mobile carriers. Such plans are still not in place yet, even if if the company promises it will "announce details of the packages offered soon."
Mind, it's still too early to start predicting doomsday scenarios for the company, not when it has a warchest worth $145bn... but as Wall Street starts gnashing its teeth, even CEO Tim Cook admits the juggernaut is slowing down after the “tremendous successes” of the past years.
The former BUT CEO (and once 16th-best French tennis player) replaces acting CE Dominic Platt, who reverts back to Financial Director, while Darty France managing director Bruno Cremell should step down by "mutual agreement" by end May 2013 following hand over procedures.
