Manchester Best Buy One Of A Few Still In Business In Connecticut

MANCHESTER, CT — The Manchester Best Buy is one of 10 stores left in Connecticut after a closure this month in New Haven County.

The Manchester store sits at 120 Slater St. in the Buckland Hills retail district.

The latest casualty is in Orange. Calls to the store Thursday were met with a message declaring it closed and customers were directed to a store locator or a "virtual" consultation.

The closure comes on the heels of a company declaration that 20 to 30 stores will be closed by the end of fiscal year 2024. The Best Buy in Orange was at 53 Boston Post Road. Another recent closure in Connecticut was in 2021 in Enfield.

In an earnings report released March 2, Best Buy officials said that domestic revenue came in at $13.53 billion, a number 9.8 less than the previous fiscal year, primarily driven by a comparable sales decline of 9.6 percent.

According to the report, from a merchandising perspective, the largest drivers of the comparable sales decline on a weighted basis were computing, home theater, appliances and mobile phones. The drivers were partially offset by growth in the gaming and tablet categories, according to the report.

Domestic online revenue of $5.14 billion represented a decrease of 13 percent on a comparable basis, according to the report.

With the Orange closure, the Best Buy lineup in Connecticut looks like this:

• Manchester
• West Hartford
• Newington
• Simsbury
• Wallingford
• North Haven
• Waterford
• Trumbull
• Norwalk
• Danbury

Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Corie Barry said in the earnings report, "Throughout Q4 and FY23, we remained committed to balancing our near-term response to current conditions and managing well what is in our control, while also advancing our strategic initiatives and investing in areas important for our long-term performance."

Barry continued, "We believe the macro and industry backdrop will continue to be pressured in FY24 and we will continue to adjust. At the same time, we remain incredibly excited about our industry and our future – there are more technology products than ever in peoples’ homes, technology is increasingly a necessity in our lives, and technology innovation will continue. Our initiatives to deliver our omnichannel retail model evolution, build customer relationships through membership, and remove cost and improve efficiency and effectiveness will allow us to deliver even more experiences no one else can and capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us."