Best Buy drops plan to convert East Northport store to discount outlet

Best Buy has dropped plans to convert its East Northport store to the state's first discount outlet after failing to secure a long-term lease agreement with the landlord, the electronics retailer said this week. 

A Best Buy spokesman told Newsday in February that the store was closing temporarily March 2 to allow the space to be remodeled as an outlet and that it would reopen over the summer.

But on Monday, the spokesman said the closing last March was permanent.

"We were unable to reach a long-term agreement with the landlord at the ... site and are currently exploring alternative locations for a Best Buy outlet in the New York City area,” he said.

About 30 full- and part-time employees worked at the East Northport store, he said.

Opened in 2001, the 47,006-square-foot store was located at 3124 Jericho Tpke. in Huntington Square Plaza, a shopping center owned by the Sterling Organization, a West Palm Beach, Florida-based real estate firm.

Sterling did not respond to requests for comment.

The closed Best Buy store with an East Northport mailing address was actually in Elwood. Best Buy referred to it as its Commack store.

The closest Best Buy to the East Northport address is 5.5 miles away at 148 Walt Whitman Rd. in Huntington Station.

'Looking for value'

Best Buy's outlet stores sell clearance, open-box and refurbished electronics and appliances at up to 40% off, supporting “value-focused customers,” according to the company.

Since 2022, Best Buy has opened 10 outlets, bringing the total to 26 in 17 states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, according to the retailer’s website.

Best Buy is diversifying its store formats to boost profitability as it contends with declining sales.

Best Buy is opening outlets, which are being converted from existing regular stores or opened in new locations, partly because they boost profit on returned items, the Richfield, Minnesota-based retailer has said. 

“And these become kind of that treasure hunt phenomenon that we're seeing right now, where customers can come in, they can look for something that really matches their budget,” Corie Barry, chief executive officer of Best Buy Co. Inc., told analysts during a fiscal third-quarter earnings call Nov. 26.

As more customers shift to online shopping, Best Buy has been closing some of its regular stores as their leases come up for renewal and opening smaller stores, finding that it needs less space to sell merchandise, she told analysts in November 2023.

Over the past five years, Best Buy has closed about 120 regular stores in the United States, leaving 889, including nine on Long Island. The company also has 160 Canada Best Buy and Canada Best Buy Mobile stores.

This year, Best Buy completed the rebranding of 167 Canadian small-format electronics stores as Best Buy Express. Owned by Bell Canada, the stores were formerly called The Source.

Falling sales

Best Buy has had 12 consecutive quarters of declines in sales at its stores open at least one year, with a 2.9% drop in its last fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 2.

Its sales fell 3% to $9.45 billion in the quarter compared to the same period last year.

Best Buy's performance in the quarter was affected by softer-than-forecasted customer demand in September and October, Barry told analysts in November.

“We attribute this to a combination of overall ongoing macro uncertainty, customers waiting for deals and sales, and distraction during the run-up to the election, particularly in nonessential categories,” she said. 

Best Buy’s challenges are due in part to growing competition from Amazon, Walmart, Target and other stores, said Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at Manhattan-based market research firm GlobalData.

Overall demand for electronics also has been down, he said.

“It’s a big-ticket [item]. It’s expensive. A lot of people bought new televisions during the [COVID-19] pandemic, and that really compressed sales over the past few years,” he said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.