Office Depot Signs Up Geek Squad

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 5/31/2006

Orlando, Fla. — Best Buy’s Geek Squad will begin offering its services in 11 Office Depot stores in this area starting this weekend.

The deployment is part of an outsourcing test of Best Buy’s nationwide IT support program.

Geek Squad’s presence in the Office Depot stores will be similar to Best Buy locations, where “agents” are stationed at “precincts,” or help desk areas, a Best Buy spokesperson told TWICE. It is expected that the Geek Squad teams will also offer on-site services to homes and offices as they do for Best Buy.

While retailers have established outposts within other chains’ stores — most notably Blockbuster’s 2001 rollout of RadioShack shops — this weekend’s test marks the first time that a national CE retailer is sharing a branded service program with a direct competitor.

News of the test, which was reported by Piper Jaffray retail analyst Mitchell Kaiser, follows word from Kaiser that Best Buy is also planning to open a 165,000-square-foot central Geek Squad repair facility near Louisville International Airport in Kentucky, a major UPS hub.