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Best Buy: A Brief History Through Time

1966:

Richard Schulze opens Sound of Music stereo
store in St. Paul, Minn.

1981:

The chain hits on a low-price, no-frills format following
a fire sale at a tornado-ravaged store

1983:

Sound of Music changes name to Best Buy;
opens first superstore

1985:

Brian Dunn joins Best Buy as sales associate

1989:

Best Buy employs “grab-and-go” merchandising
within a non-commissioned, warehouse-style environment;
introduces yellow tag logo

1993:

Best Buy becomes No. 2 CE retailer behind Circuit
City

1995:

Best Buy implements standard operating platform
(SOP) to standardize and manage operations

1999:

Amazon.com

adds CE

2000:

Best Buy acquires Magnolia Hi-Fi; launches

BestBuy.com

2001:

Best Buy acquires Canada’s Future Shop, its first
international venture

2002:

Brad Anderson succeeds Schulze as CEO; acquires
Geek Squad

2003:

Best Buy dumps ill-fated Musicland music store
acquisition

2005:

Best Buy acquires Audiovisions, a California integrator;
begins national roll out of customer centricity
model

2006:

Best Buy opens first stand-alone Mobile store with
Carphone Warehouse; opens first in-store Magnolia departments;
opens Geek Squad City, a 165,000-squarefoot
IT repair depot; acquires Pacific Sales home improvement
chain; acquires Chinese CE and appliance
chain Five Star

2007:

Dunn promoted to president

2008:

Best Buy acquires Napster; enters European venture
with Carphone Warehouse; Lehman Brothers collapses,
economy follows

2009:

Dunn succeeds Anderson as CEO, reorganizes
management structure, cuts content delivery deals with
TiVo and Sonic Solutions, develops connected store
format, begins tests of electric car sales; Circuit City
liquidates

2010:

Best Buy launches private-label wireless-broadband
service, tests Shopkick location-based mobile
shopping apps, adds iPad and Kindle, extends IT products
and services to physicians, tests electric vehicle
charging stations

2011:

Best Buy plans reductions in store square footage
and expansion of online SKUs, rolls out in-store
gaming centers, adds third-party resellers to site, closes
Best Buy stores in Turkey and China; fiscal 2011
earnings fall 3 percent; full-year comps projected at
flat to negative 3 percent. The chain begins rollout of
Pacific Sales majap departments and launches holiday
shopping enhancements.

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