RICHFIELD, Minn.–Best Buy logged double-digit sales and earnings gains for the third quarter ended Dec. 1, despite a volume decline in major appliances.
The retailer's total revenue for the quarter increased 17 percent to $9.9 billion from the year-ago period on a 6.7 percent same-store sales gain. This helped to drive a 52 percent net income gain to $228 million, or 53 cents per diluted share, from $150 million, or 31 cents per diluted share, for the same period last year.
White goods was a soft spot for Best Buy, which had a 1.8 percent same-store sales decline for the quarter. "This decline was driven by a midsingle-digit decline in the domestic segment due to a challenging industrywide environment," the company stated. This decline was partially offset by a low double-digit gain in Best Buy's international business, in which appliances represent a larger portion of the business especially in China where Best Buy operates its acquired Five Star chain.
