Well 18 months ago Best Buy began operating in the UK opening 11 stores in an ambitious plan to enter the European market. The company hoped to expand operations to over 200 locations within a few years and spread out across Europe! However only being open a little more then a year Best Buy has been pounded into oblivion. Best Buy has announced that they lost over 127-million dollars in that short 18 months and that the company could not sustain those kinds of losses another year.

Facing stiff competition from both physical retailers and online retailers Best Buy has announced that they will be closing all eleven stores. Up to 1,100 jobs will be lost and the company is expected to lose even more money as it liquidates its stock and sells its properties. On a side note the company is also distancing itself from European investment by buying out its European Partners shares in Best Buy Mobile.

It would appear Best Buy is never coming back to Europe and is pulling out in shame after being slaughtered. What do you think? If your a European are you happy to hear Best Buy is gone or are you sad, did you want to see Best Buy flourish in Europe? What does this say about Best Buy's global operations we all know they are losing money across the board but remain pretty successful in North America (Canada,US). Does Best Buy have a chance at expanding again in the future into new markets or does this spell the end of all global expansion?

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Looks like the electronics market has more/better competition in Europe than in the USA. Luckily, I live semi near a Fry's Electronics which is a lot better than Best Buy. I have relied on many sites such as TigerDirect, NewEgg, Amazon, etc.. for my electronics needs also.

It takes a 100 people to operate 1 store? No wonder they made a loss.

While I don't know the exact numbers per store it does seem to be a lot during some off hours.  I remember going into some Best Buy stores and seeing a lot of employees standing around or barely doing anything.  The store usually doesn't offer too many good deals and most of their selection and prices pale in comparision to Fry's Electronics in USA.  However, I am probably going to get a reasonably cheap refurbished HP desktop from their website in a month or two unless I find something cheaper on another site.

I think in Europe they might use the Internet more to shop for there electronics, this is just a guess. the best buy store that opened in my city (nottingham) was quite good and I've seen worse stores so this does come as a shock to me but it's not going to effect me either as I never actually bought owt from there.

another thing is people look online go into a store and buy an item (labtop or whatever). They do not look around.

Before people would go to a store and be directed by salespeople to more expensive products.

The main problem with BBUK was that there was zero advertising. I knew about BB before, because of my time online, but aside from people like me, or people who have travelled to the USA, no one would know about the company.

And I mean zero advertising. There was nothing on national news, which is understandable, because they only had 11 stores. But, I live locally to their first and primary store (in Thurrock, Essex), and there was never any local advertising, either. How can they expect to drum up business with such a small store footprint, and no advertising to back it up?

I'm sad about the loss of this business, because, regardless of what previous posts have said, the UK's electronic retail market is ridiculously under-competitive. Most of the chains out there are all operated by the same company, the only real option most consumers have is online.

Well I do like Best Buy but they tend to overcharge on many of their products.

Their prices were the same as every other electronics store i.e. vastly overpriced with £30 cables and such.

They need to figure out how the American prices for electronic goods can be so low there and do that here!

It upsets me that consoles are sometimes £100 more expensive and games £20 more.

This is the first I've heard about Best Buy in UK. Perhaps some advertising could have prevented its demise.