Best Buy to close nearly 260 mobile stores: Retail disruption

Best Buy announced the closure of all 257 U.S. Best Buy Mobile stand-alone stores by May 31, due to "changing economics in the mobile industry."

There is a Best Buy Mobile store located at the Mall at Fairfield Commons and another at Eastgate Mall in Cincinnati, according to its website. Best Buy began opening these stores in 2006, and the Mobile stores are typically located within shopping centers or malls.

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“Back then the mobile phone business was in a period of rapid growth and margins were high,” said Chief Executive Hubert Joly on the earnings call. “Fast forward to 2018 and the mobile phone business has matured, margins have compressed and the cost of operations in our stand-alone stores is higher than our big-box stores.”

The news came during Best Buy's fourth-quarter earnings. The company saw same-store sales at the consumer electronics retailer rise 9 percent, which was better than the retailer expected.

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