Best Buy to Open Fayetteville Store

Best Buy will open a 45,000-SF store in Fayetteville by spring, says Connie Spelter, a company spokeswoman.

The store, Best Buy’s first in Northwest Arkansas, will occupy the building on Joyce Avenue that previously housed a Service Merchandise store. Renovation began in early December.

The architect for the project is The McIntosh Group of Tulsa, Okla. The contractor is Kellogg & Kimsey of Sarasota, Fla.

Best Buy sells electronics, home office equipment, entertainment software and appliances. The company, which is based in Eden Prairie, Minn., has 413 stores in 41 states. The Fayetteville store will be Best Buy’s fourth location in Arkansas. The company has two stores in Little Rock and one in Fort Smith.

Although Best Buy has traditionally been strong in the retail electronics sector, the company, along with many other retailers, has been hit with lagging sales in late 2000.

Best Buy’s third-quarter profits dropped 27 percent as consumer spending slowed and the company spent more for promotions. Best Buy is also facing higher costs to open new stores.

Best Buy made a profit of $57.3 million, or 27 cents a share, in the third quarter, which ended Nov. 25. In the third quarter of 1999, earnings were $78.4 million, or 37 cents a share.

Overall revenue was $3.7 billion in 2000, compared with $3.1 billion in 1999.

Comparable-store sales rose 5.9 percent in the third quarter of 2000. Although that’s a good increase, it’s less than in the third quarter of 1999, when sales at locations more than a year old rose 9 percent.

Best Buy plans to open a total of 10 new stores toward the end of its fiscal fourth quarter and an additional 60 stores in fiscal 2001.

The Service Merchandise store in Fayetteville was one of several the company closed in early 1999.