RadioShack may test a high-end, mobile phone store format in USA this year. An analyst at Deutsche Bank claims RS is building three test stores to open by October and then will hope to have 10 by the year's end, 150 in the next 12 months and 400 in three years, if successful. 

RadioShack will target higher-end, non-mall real estate, and hopes to replicate the look and feel of Apple Stores by hiring same designers. RadioShack stores may add brands (T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T) not found Continue reading...

Government patent agency Rospatent now admits Best Buy entered its license application for Future Shop, a Canadian subsidiary in 2006. (Worse yet, Rospatent says it is still reviewing the 2006 application.)

Best Buy has never publicly voiced any intention to open stores in Russia. Yet.

After less than a year, Best Buy's first China store (Shanghai)
is among the top-10 revenue generators out of 1,300 stores worldwide.

GO Best Buy International

As China’s Olympics closes in style, retail giant Gome reports half year net profits nearly doubled from the same period in 2007 while revenue increased 17.57%

         By mid-year, the retail network of Gome covered 198 cities in China with 828 stores.

Go GOME

Best Buy will land Express kiosks in a dozen USA airports by Sept. 1st that sell phone accessories, digital cameras, MP3 players, laptop chargers, headphones and storage devices.

Partnering with kiosk maker Zoom Systems, Best Buy hopes this pilot can extend its brand into another retail space (captive buyers at airports) and into the booming kiosk business (pioneered by vendors Sony and Apple).

The one thing retailers now know about kiosks is they work: Macy's rolled out its CE kiosks to 40 Continue reading...

The largest CE convention in Europe with 1200 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors, IFA Berlin will feature networked entertainment technology.
         Sony will introduce plug-in adapters to wirelessly connect Bravia TVs to internet. Philips will show stereo systems that stream music throughout the house. Sonos will offer its new multi-zone digital music system.
         Sharp, Samsung and others will present flat-panel Continue reading...

Best Buy will add musical instruments to as many as 85 of its stores by year-end (and probably more locations in the near future). They will use about 2500 square feet of retail space at each site to include roughly 1000 different products with brand names such as Fender, Gibson, and Roland. 
         It’s an $8 billion musical-instrument market in USA and in one swift move Best Buy becomes the 2nd largest retailer in this segment.
  & Continue reading...

European Union's consumer chief proposes to make it easier and safer for the bloc's 490 million consumers to shop online in any corner of the 27-nation EU.
        Some 150 million EU citizens click on Amazon.com and EBay for shopping but only 30 million buy goods and services from another EU state, spending an average 800 euros per head.

        EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva will also start work on Continue reading...

Best Buy has its own 5-point growth strategy to double sales to USD$80 billion over the next five years.

• First, ride the CE industrys growth of 6% over time.
• Second, open new stores and developing categories where it presently has limited share (e.g., Apple computers, major appliances, and mobile phones-- reinvigorated by a new business model with Carphone Warehouse).
• Third introduce new categories (e.g., musical instruments).
• Fourth develop completely new business models (e.g., national rollout Continue reading...