Minnesota’s Best Buy Posts Incredible 2nd Quarter Online Earnings

News about many heritage, old school stores hasn't always been positive recently, but that sure wasn't the case for Minnesota's own Best Buy earlier this year!

The coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout from the shutdowns that happened across Minnesota and the entire country was devasting for many businesses, with some still struggling to recover and teetering on the brink of calling it quits.

But that sure wasn't the case for one of Minnesota's most well-known brands. Best Buy, headquartered only an hour or so north of Rochester up in Bloomington, just posted some insane numbers for the second quarter of 2020. At least when it came to online sales, that is.

According to this CNBC story, Best Buy's online sales were up 243 percent during the second quarter this year compared to 2019. 242 percent?!? That's a pretty amazing increase. Even in-store sales at Best Buy were strong in Q2 (as all the investors say), coming in with a 5.2 percent increase, which beat Wall Street's expectations of a 2.1 percent increase, the story said.

So what's behind those huge online sales numbers? Well, the pandemic, mainly. The story says things like tablets, computers and appliances pretty much flew off store shelves earlier this year-- because we were all staying home and needed those items to work, do distance learning, and make more meals at home than we used to before the pandemic.

Best Buy corporate leaders also noted in the story that the $1,200 stimulus check we all received this spring helped fuel their sales numbers, as did the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits provided by the federal CARES Act.

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