CNN Money | Best Buy to close 50 U.S. stores, stock drops

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Best Buy’s stock took a dive on Thursday after the retailer reported quarterly results that included plans to close 50 big- box stores in the U.S. by 2013.

The company said it plans to open the same number of stores in China during the same time period.

Best Buy’s (BBY, Fortune 500) stock price dropped 8% as the company’s better-than-expected earnings report failed to trump the news about shuttering brick-and-mortar locations.

The retailer reported an adjusted quarterly profit of $2.47 a share. That was significantly higher than the projected $2.16 a share, from a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Best Buy currently has 1,105 big-box stores in the U.S., not counting the pending closures, according to company spokeswoman Kelly Groehler. In China, there are 185 stores under the company’s Five Star brand, she said.

The company plans to open 100 “mobile small format stand-alone stores” in the U.S. in fiscal year 2013. It also said 14 of the new stores in China will be “mobile store-within-a-store concepts.”

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/29/markets/best_buy/index.htm?iid=Lead&hpt=hp_t2

Re-posted by: Crosbie Real Estate Group

GlobeSt.com | Breaking With Tradition: Retail Adjusts to Reality

LOS ANGELES-One of the ways that property owners have adjusted to the downturn is to find new types of tenants for empty spaces. This is especially true in the retail sector, where department store and big box closings have left landlords with lots of space to fill and relatively few big national tenants looking for such space. GlobeSt.com West Coast editor Natalie Dolce talked with Ellen Berkowitz, a real estate partner at law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in Los Angeles, about solutions and approaches to the empty space.

Read more: http://www.globest.com/news/1881_1881/losangeles/308489-1.html

Posted by:  Crosbie Real Estate Group

Retail Traffic | Big-Box Giants Downsize to Drive Productivity with Smaller, Urban Stores

As U.S. chain retailers absorb the lessons of the Great Recession, many big-box chains have started to shrink average store footprints to reflect the growing importance of multi-channel shopping, adapt to urban settings and recognize the need to optimize portfolios.

Read more: http://retailtrafficmag.com/retailing/analysis/big_box_giants_downsize_03302011/

Posted by: Crosbie Real Estate Group