Best Buy employee told me no Best Buy stores are closing

You may have heard last week that Best Buy announced that they are closing at least 50 stores, but they do plan on opening more of those small Mobile stores that have been appearing in Malls.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-buy-shutter-50-big-120457157.html

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83192&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1678071&highlight=

Anyway I was at a Best Buy near me this week and when one of the employees was talking to me I casually asked him if he had any word yet as to whether or not this store would be one of the 50 that are closing. He immediately said "No, no, there aren't any Best Buy stores closing" and I replied "Its all over the news, everyone has been talking about it".

He then said "I am a Team Leader and we have heard nothing about any Best Buy stores closing anywhere". After I reminded him that the news of the store closings was originally announced on the actual Best Buy website, he then changed his story and said "Oh yeah, what they are doing it closing stores in China" but he repeated "No Best Buy stores in the USA will be closing".

So I guess I should report this breaking insider news that I have received to USA Today, or perhaps Forbes. Its a shame the way Best Buy brainwashes their employees and tells them what to say. I doubt the store I was at is one that will be closing, but to deny that there was any announcement of Best Buy closing stores is an attempt to make your customers look uneducated and stupid. You have to be uneducated to shop there anyway.

I don't really purchase stuff at Best Buy anymore, I go there to look at the products in person to decide on whether or not I want to order them off Amazon or Walmart, who have them cheaper. The Yahoo news story I linked to above said many other people do that too.

 

Closed in UK too

 

I can't speak on behalf of anyone else in the company, but I know at my store, none of us were even informed of this until after corporate broke the news to the public. People were asking us if we were closing and we had no idea what they were talking about. Honestly, they probably didn't know, so they were trying to BS their way through it. But yeah, for me, I have voiced my complaint to the company that employees needed to be informed before this happened because we don't need to seem clueless when it comes to issues like this. We weren't brainwashed... we're just guessing... Honestly, when someone asks me if we are closing, I tell them no or at least not that I know of, we haven't been officially given a list of the stores that are closing. I'm simply hoping that my store isn't closing. So if you ask a Best Buy employee if their store is closing, they will most likely say no, because we just don't know right now.

 

Right, but I asked him this just a few days ago, which was at least a week after Best Buy's announcement. I guarantee he had to have heard the news by then. For him to straight up lie to me like that is an insult to the customers. He should have given an answer like you suggested, where he could have said he has not heard anything yet instead of trying to make me look like I don't know what I am talking about.

I am not surprised the company did not tell you guys until the last minute because they would not want that info leaked out early.