Best Buy Q1 profit falls 15%, beats Street

Richfield, Minn. Best Buy Co. Inc. reported Tuesday that its first-quarter profit dropped 15%, but the numbers still managed to top Wall Street expectations.

Profit for the quarter ended May 30 was $153 million, compared with $179 million in the year-ago quarter, this despite the exit of Best Buy’s biggest competitor Circuit City.

The company noted increases in same-store sales of laptops and mobile phones, as well as a rise in repairs. Same-store sales fell for digital cameras, appliances, video games and movies. Overall, same-store sales dropped 6.2% and dropped 4.9% in the United States.

Best Buy said revenue rose 12% to $10.1 billion as it opened 185 new stores and gained market share from the shuttered Circuit City Stores. The company said it had gained 2 percentage points of market share in the quarter and that its gains accelerated after the March 8 closing of Circuit City outlets across the United States.

Best Buy has cut jobs and slowed new-store openings as it works on remaining at the top of consumers' minds in the downturn.