Best Buy, Mall of America

Best Buy has to be my favorite retail store. I can’t figure out why that is either, I mean everything is overpriced, the sales associates are not knowledgeable about their products and they have turned the Geek Squad into a joke. Despite all of that I still enjoy making a trip to Best Buy almost every weekend and this weekend was no exception.

You could almost call me a Best Buy connoisseur - I’m very familiar with how they do business, the company’s history, how the stores are laid out and why. I have a few friends that actually work for Best Buy Corporate (which isn’t saying much since the company is based out of Richfield) and at times I know more about what’s going on in the company then the retail employees. Best Buy is a retail giant that’s going to be around for a long time, they know how to target their demographic far better then stores like Circuit City, Sam Goody, FYE, and CompUSA, that’s why their so successful.

You can believe that Best Buy does it big in Minnesota, most of the stores are flagship quality and they often test new ideas here before implementing them in other areas. An example of this was the new Blaine location that I wrote about earlier this year. Sure enough, a lot of the changes that Best Buy was ‘testing’ at the Blaine store have found their way into the new Mall of America location. In addition to those changes the new store at MOA sports a brand new logo for the company and a (currently) one-of-a-kind musical instrument store, like a miniature Guitar Center within the Best Buy. The opening of a Best Buy store in Mall of America is a big deal because out of that entire mall there were only a few specialty electronics stores, I think they needed a place like Best Buy to fill the gaps and I have no doubt they were thinking the same thing.

The new 45,000-square-foot store inside the nation’s largest shopping center will be one of 8 within 10 miles of Mall of America and it’s the 2nd store in Minnesota that’s located inside of a shopping mall, a trend that Best Buy hopes to grow over the next couple years. Mall of America has also dedicated its events rotunda to Best Buy for future performances such as the celebrity appearance of Earvin “Magic” Johnson and musical guest New Kids on the Block that went on during the grand opening celebration Friday.