Best Buy’s Big Leap

The Best Buy Co. Inc. (Richfield, Minn.) has announced plans to open 75 new stores in the United States and Canada under its Best Buy and Future Shop brands during its next fiscal year.

The consumer electronics leader said that by the end of fiscal 2005, it will have opened about 60 domestic Best Buy stores, with most of the new stores opening in markets where it already has a presence. It said it also expects to relocate about nine domestic stores during the year.

Of the 13 Best Buy stores to be opened in Canada, seven are targeted for the Montreal area. The company’s Future Shop unit anticipates opening two new Canadian stores, as well as relocating five existing stores.

The company said the majority of the new stores are expected to be opened in the fiscal third quarter, prior to the holiday shopping season.