Best Buy To Open 250th Mobile Store Next Month

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 9/30/2011

Minneapolis - Best Buy will open its 250^th Mobile store next month and is on track to have 275 of the stand-alone specialty shops up and running by Thanksgiving.

The company currently operates 240 freestanding Mobile stores, having added more than 30 new locations over the past two months alone, and plans to ultimately operate 800 stores within five years.

Best Buy also maintains Mobile departments within all 1,104 of its big-box flagship stores, and is devoting additional square footage to the areas.

In addition to smartphones, Best Buy says its Mobile stores and departments offer one of the widest accessories assortments in retail, including headsets and speakers, smartphone cases and the latest app accessories.

The company is also the first retailer besides Amazon.com to begin taking pre-orders today for the updated Kindle line.

Best Buy has targeted mobile as a critical growth category, and is looking to push its current 6 percent share into the double digits. The Mobile operation is co-owned and operated with European CE chain Carphone Warehouse.