Best Buy founder’s plan to turn things around: Shrink the ‘big box’ and be more like Apple

Best Buy (BBY) founder Richard Schulze sees the writing on the wall: the era of big-box consumer electronics stores is coming to an end. The Wall Street Journal reports that Schulze wants to dramatically pare down his stores’ floor space, cut prices to remain competitive with Amazon (AMZN) and to make “in-store customer-service experience is as good as” Apple’s (AAPL). WSJ reports that Schulze’s plan is dauntingly ambitious and will involve shuttering at least 50 big-box stores and cutting costs by $800 million by 2015. Such changes would could have a negative impact on Best Buy’s bottom line, which is why Schulze is considering taking the company private again so that he can focus on the big picture and make necessary changes without facing pressure from Wall Street.

Read