Best Buy to lay off workers

[CatholicEdHead]

Source: StarTribune

Best Buy Co. Inc., said Tuesday it will resort to involuntary layoffs at corporate headquarters, even though 500 workers agreed to voluntary layoffs earlier this month.

The Richfield-based retailer told corporate workers in an e-mail and in meetings Tuesday that an unknown number of employees will be laid off on Feb. 19. The laid off workers will remain employed with the company for 30 days, and will get a less generous severance package than those who volunteered to leave.

The average, nonmanagerial employee who is laid off will receive six months pay plus health, dental and life insurance for a year, Busch said. The buyout package would have offered the same employee 7.5 month's of wages.

No store employees will be affected, said spokeswoman Susan Busch.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/business/38480479.html

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And the hits keep on coming.

[bluestateguy]

1. Shitty

But these employees are getting a better deal than a lot of other employees who are laid off out there, who are basically shitcanned, given 2 weeks severance and nothing much else.

[whistle]

2. No credit, no big ticket sales items sold

[LisaM]

3. Best Buy bought out our great local electronics store

That had existed quite well for a long time (Magnolia Hi-Fi). It was a great store. I knew it was bad when Best Buy bought it out - a symptom of the behemoths taking control of everything. Now Circuit City is gone and Best Buy is in trouble. Many, many of these companies simply overextended their reach. And who pays, the consumer and the employees.

[CoffeeCat]

10. By our Super Target...

...they've been constructing some large building, and I just saw today that it's going to be a Best Buy.

It isn't near completion yet. Major work to do.

I wonder if this project will be scrapped.

I can't imagine that they would be in the middle of layoffs, and building additional stores, too.

[tomreedtoon]

4. Yuppies buying freaking TOYS.

Including big-screen TV's, the latest laptops, cell phones that include tasers and rotisseries, and other stupid junk. It worked while the Bush Fairyland was in existence (buy! It supports the troops!) but we're living closer to reality now.

I remember when, to get stuff like this, you had to know electronics and build it yourself, and you were considered a freak for owning such an expensive toy. And guess what? We were. Then everybody bought the Chinese-made crap like crazy and claimed THEY were cool...they were one of the exploiter class. Guess what class you guys are when your mortgage went bust, idiots?

Now the biggest gadget any of us will be able to afford is an old cinder block we can place in our cardboard box and call it a "chair."

[CoffeeCat]

11. Your post illustrates so well...

...that our economy is this bloated, distorted, mutant monster of consumerism.

We were trained to want these electronics and toys. We were trained to believe that we were nobodies unless
we were watching the Superbowl on a frickin tv the size of a small theater screen.

Electronics is only one area. There are thousands of these "areas" that have stretched to absurd levels.

Let's take the cooking "area." It used to be that having a couple of pots and pans was enough. Now, you've got to have
the $500 name--brand set that the famous chefs use--or you're inferior.

How about the holiday decor "area." It used to be enough, to string up a few lights on your bushes. Now, we've got to have
icicle lights dangling from every peak, lights on the bushes, animated reindeer in the yard and giant, blow-up Merry-Go-Rounds
that move. Plus, we've now got decorations and lights for Halloween, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July.

In the car "area." It used to be enough to have a cute car that cost under $10k. Now, we're nobody unless we drive a $50,000
car that we could fit the Mormon Tabernacle Choir into.

The American economy has gone completely outer limits--in every disgusting sector.

We bought all of the lies. We filled our homes with junk, we bought our kids every damn piece of plastic crap they
wanted---and now we're all suffering.

I'm glad we're in a "correction" because the mutant monster that we created is disgusting and must go---if we expect to
evolve as a species and rely on each other--instead of material possessions!

Sorry for the rant...I just get frustrated.

Our entire economy is a mutant monster.

[tomreedtoon]

13. Interesting dilemma, though. Or maybe not a dilemma.

The trick is, for the economy to recover, people need to buy things. That's a basic law of life.

But the things they have been sold - the yuppie toys from cars to cell phones - don't make any money for our economy. And they're sold to rich people at high prices.

In the past, the economy grew by everybody - poor and struggling and middle-class - buying things they needed or wanted. Not out of a need to "keep up with the Joneses" or anything like that, but because they wanted to improve their homes and their lives.

Most of the mall culture, of which Best Buy and Circuit City were a part, sold expensive stuff to rich people. Not good items to ordinary people. Wal-Mart pre-empted that market, with results I hardly need to recount here.

We need ordinary people to buy things (once they have jobs). But we need them buying ordinary stuff. Not prestige, pretentious things. There won't be an economic recovery from selling those stupid iPhones to everybody. Selling them American-made clothes, though...if American-made clothes still existed...would help a great deal.

[DJ13]

5. Thats exactly the way Circuit City started down the road to bankruptcy

It starts at HQ with "voluntary" resignations, then it moves onto the sales floor with the longer term employees (read: making the most money) getting axed, then.......

[Geoff R. Casavant]

6. I'm sure this is just coincidence, but

this morning, for the first time ever, I received a robo-call from Best Buy with a "friendly reminder" that my RewardZone certificates were about to expire, and I should go buy something before they did.

[Glenda]

7. i expect them to hire again in several months...

after Circuit City is done liquidating, and the customers go to Best Buy


(I also expect to be flamed for a positive post :popcorn:)

[OhioChick]

8. You're probably right.

Our Best Buy is always crowded. :shrug:

[Azlady]

9. Best Buy as always been a busy store in my area -

I wasn't surprised when Circuit City went down but Bes Buy would be shocking. However, that leaves room for the Small Mom/Pop businesses to come back.... if the damn banks would let go of some of the money!!

[Imagevision]

12. This time last year Circuit City was looking pretty good...