The first Best Buy has opened in the U.K. and executives reported brisk business at the store in Essex.
The 50,000 sq ft store situated in a retail park in Thurrock, approximately 40 minutes’ commute from London, opened its doors Friday (April 30), days after Billboard.biz had a preview of the first Best Buy in the U.K.
The store has a catalog of 1,500 CD music.
In a statement, the company said it had thousands of customers on the first day of trading. It opened at 7am and offered special deals for eager customers, ahead of a British holiday weekend that ran Saturday (May 1) to Monday (May 3).
“Today is on track to be the biggest ever opening day for a Best Buy store anywhere in the world by volume of sales,” said Paul Antoniadis, CEO of Best Buy Branded Operations, in a statement. “Everyone on the Best Buy team is delighted with the start of this new chapter in Best Buy’s story.”
The company did not disclose further details of its opening sales performance.
Best Buy had a special offer on the “Avatar” Blu-ray and DVD combi pack at £9.99 ($15) and also sold its first 3DTVs, including a Samsung model priced £1,999.99 ($3,000).
Best Buy will also open stores at Hedge End, Southampton and Merry Hill, West Midlands in June, followed by Aintree, Liverpool later this summer and Croydon, south London this fall. A further U.K. store will open in Cribbs Causeway, Bristol in Spring 2011.
Best Buy acquired 50% of the Carphone Warehouse’s European and U.S. retail interests for £1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) in 2008, creating Best Buy Europe.
