Best Buy's New Boss Plans Smaller Stores to Grow Bigger

Best Buy, the well-known electronics store chain, is trying to bounce back after years of weak sales — and its new leader has a surprising plan: think smaller.

Jason Bonfig will become CEO (chief executive officer, the top boss of a company) this fall, replacing current CEO Corie Barry. His big idea is to open smaller stores in towns where a full-size Best Buy wouldn't make sense.

Why smaller stores? Bonfig says putting a shop closer to customers gets more people through the door — and also encourages them to shop on Best Buy's app and website more often.

Here are the store sizes he's working with:

• Small-format stores: 12,000–15,000 square feet
• Medium stores: 20,000–25,000 square feet
• Largest stores (like New York City): over 40,000 square feet

This week Best Buy opened two new locations: an 18,000-square-foot store in Jonesboro, Arkansas (replacing one destroyed by a tornado), and a 28,000-square-foot store in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Why does the company need fixing? Best Buy has struggled recently:

• Its stock (a share, or small piece of ownership, of the company) has fallen about 20% since peaking at $138 in late 2021.
• Comparable sales (sales at stores open at least a year — a key health measure) are expected to range from a 1% drop to a 1% rise this year.
• Profit fell to $140 million in one recent quarter, down from $273 million a year earlier.

Bonfig blames much of the slump on the Covid period, when people stuck at home rushed to buy TVs and gadgets. That early buying spree left fewer customers needing upgrades afterward. The company was also hurt by tariffs (taxes on imported goods) and rising prices for computer memory chips.

Looking ahead, Bonfig wants to improve the shopping experience, upgrade TV selections, and use AI (artificial intelligence — smart computer technology) to help both customers and the company's own operations.

In short, Best Buy is betting that reaching more communities with the right-sized stores will bring shoppers — and growth — back.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/01/best-buy-ceo-jason-bonfig-smaller-stores.html