HHGregg’s Connected Society Pivot to Appliances Hasn’t Paid Off, Will Shut 40% of Locations
Most tend to focus on the Connected Society headwind that is rippling through brick & mortar retail apparel companies like Macy’s and Kohl’s, but there are other retailers that are being hit. Consumer electronics retailers, like Best Buy and HHGregg, have seen their business raked over the Amazon coals and pivoted to appliances, an already competitive landscape with Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sears, Sears Hometown and Wal-Mart. While HHGregg attempted to bob and weave against the Connected Society headwind that is serving as Amazon’s tailwind, it jumped from the frying pan into the fire as it traded one competitive landscape for another.
Struggling appliance and electronics retailer HHGregg is planning to close 88 of its weakest stores as part of an effort to stay afloat.The Indianapolis-based company on Thursday announced it would shutter stores in 15 states and close three distribution centers.
The closings, which do not include any Indiana stores, will be completed by mid-April and result in about 1,500 layoffs. HHGregg has about 5,000 employees.
HHGregg’s decision to eliminate 40 percent of its stores is the latest move in an increasingly desperate attempt to right the company’s course. It comes just three days after the New York Stock Exchange delisted HHGregg for failing to meet the minimum listing requirement.
The company in recent months has tried to reinvent itself as a high-end appliance store. It’s the seventh-largest appliance retailer in the U.S. behind according to the consumer electronics trade publication Twice.
