- Best Buy is the latest retailer to close its stores nationwide as part of an effort to contain the coronavirus.
- Best Buy stores will remain open to employees only. Consumers can purchase items online or via the Best Buy app whereupon a Best Buy employee will deliver it directly to a consumer’s car.
- Best Buy didn’t indicate when its stores might re-open.
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Best Buy isn’t fully closing, but the nationwide electronics retailer recently announced that its stores will no longer be open to the public. Joining dozens of other retailers, including Apple and Nike, Best Buy is simply the latest company to close its doors as part of an effort to contain the coronavirus from spreading even further.
As to the specifics of Best Buy’s semi-shutdown, here’s how things will work for the foreseeable future: Starting today, only employees will be allowed in-store, and any orders consumers place via the Best Buy app or website will be processed and subsequently delivered to buyers curbside.
If you didn’t place an order online but know exactly what you want, you can tell a Best Buy employee who will go inside and check if the product in question is in stock. If it is, you’ll be able to purchase it while remaining in your car. Incidentally, the same process will be used for returns and exchanges.
“Only employees will be allowed in the store,” the company said in an email blast and press release yesterday, “but we are determined to serve you as fully as we can. Unfortunately, we are temporarily unable to continue our product trade-in and recycling services.”
Best Buy also announced some changes to its in-home services which include TV installations, repairs, and hauling old equipment away. Starting tomorrow, those services will no longer be available.
Beginning Monday, March 23, we will no longer deliver these large products into your home and will, instead, offer free doorstep delivery. This means we will take the item as close as we possibly can to the front door of your home without bringing it inside. We know that this change will be inconvenient, and we are truly sorry. It was made with our employees’ and your best interests at heart. If you have an order scheduled for installation in the next 30 days, please expect an email or text from Best Buy about your delivery options.
It’s worth noting that Best Buy employees aren’t being forced to work in-store. Rather, anyone working at Best Buy is choosing to do so voluntarily and will receive a temporary pay increase.
Some other sizable retail outlets that have already closed down include Calvin Klein, Urban Outfitters, Sephora, REI, Pottery Barn, Patagonia, Anthropologie, American Eagle, and many more.
