Best Buy to open first outlet in China
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-30 11:24
SHANGHAI, China - China's overcrowded consumer electronics market will get
yet a new dose of competition when U.S. retailer Best Buy opens its first outlet
in China, likely by year-end.
Best Buy Co. is teaming up with local partner Jiangsu Five Star Appliance
Co., China's No. 4 appliance and consumer electronics retailer, in opening a
store in Shanghai's busy Xujiahui shopping district.
"We will open the first store hopefully toward the end of the year by
December," Robert Willett, chief executive officer of a Best Buy unit called
Best Buy International, told reporters Tuesday.
"But we're only going to open when it's right," he said. "This is not a
race."
Best Buy, the biggest U.S. consumer electronics retailer, is only one of
scores of foreign retailers taking advantage of a lifting of limits on foreign
competition to try to woo consumers in the world's biggest potential market.
Despite intense local competition in the lower segments of the market,
foreign brands dominate in malls and shopping centers aimed at the country's
fast-growing middle class, who are able and willing to pay a bit more for better
service and quality.
Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minn., announced in May that it paid $180
million for a majority stake in Jiangsu Five Star, giving it an immediate
presence in Asia's fastest growing market.
China is also one of Asia's most saturated markets,
where appliance retailers and manufacturers compete amid brutal price wars.
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