Recession? What recession? Best Buy posted its financial results for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending February 28th yesterday and all things considered, business looked pretty darn good. In the 12 months leading up to March 1st — the same period of time that saw Circuit City tank and wither away — Best Buy added 213 new locations (net). Crazy. Q4 revenue rang in at $14.7 billion, 10 percent above Q4 in the company’s prior fiscal year. The big sellers? Laptops and cellphones. Profits did decline 23 percent to $570 million however; partially a result of bad exchange rates and $144 million in restructuring and impairment charges. Perhaps the most interesting takeaway was Best Buy’s statement that while traffic in its stores dropped in Q4, customer spending increased. Less people are shopping but those who are spend more money — surprising considering the fact that consumer electronics costs are constantly being driven down.
[Via The New York Times]
