Apr 10, 2009 11:03 PM
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Tomorrow might not be the best day to go to Best Buy, as two independent sources (one of which we've used in the past) have warned us of extensive store-level layoffs. UPDATE
One industry source described the firings as "huge," the other as "massive." I think we get the point. In the wake of Circuit City's death, Best Buy is firing a lot of store-level employees starting in meetings at 7am tomorrow morning (which is not a huge surprise, as 4,000 members of Best Buy corporate-level have already been offered buy-outs).
Apparently, store management was informed today. The unlucky employees to be fired will be informed tomorrow (Saturday).
UPDATE: One source has updated that "Salaried management positions (GMs, Sales Managers, Operation managers, etc,) will be looked at being cut...It's a nation-wide [cutback] to further reduce overhead, and the stores have already been prepped for it, but announcements will happen tomorrow. Many cuts are being given the opportunity to drop to $12/hr, but maintain a position."
UPDATE 2: We've gotten a lot more confirmation since this story was published. One leadership-level employee clarifies that few to no specific layoffs are necessarily happening, but to stay, you'll of course need to take a paycut:
"1) No employees are getting fired(to my knowledge), everyone is being retained.
2) Some employees are getting their pay cut to $12.00 (me), but Best Buy will be "bridging" the gap between your current pay and the drop for 9 months. So say you made $14 an hour, you will now get a check at the beginning of each month for $14 - $12, $2 * 38 hours a week * 4 weeks a month. Really not a bad deal, think of another company that has ever done this, giving you 9 months to get promoted or find a new job. [Ed note: I really don't understand corporate metrics]
3) None of the changes go into effect until June.
4) The positions that are being cut are sales seniors (a sub-supervisor role), and they are merging some departments to have one supervisor control multiple areas. These changes will be announced later in April.
5) No changes to management have been announced yet.
6) Employees were also offered a severance package, not a very good one. 2 weeks of pay per year of employment with at least 6 months of COBRA."
Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.
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