Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) may be starting to realize that consumer lifestyles sometimes don't fit into the neatly-packaged 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. workday. As such, the leading consumer electronics retailer plans to open its first 24-hour location in NYC's Union Square. What does Best Buy gain by this?
Well, the ability to see if gadget consumers (which we all are in one form or another) need to get their fix at all hours of the day or night. Already, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) ensures its supercenter big-box locations are open 24 hours a day, although it's hard to see consumers scrambling to buy that iPhone charger or flat-screen television at 3:00 am. Still, Best Buy's new 24-hour location will be just a sniff away from Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) 4th Avenue retail location.
The new pilot location will be open each week from 8:00 a.m. on Monday through 12:00 a.m. on Sunday -- with regular Sunday operating hours remaining the same. Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said, "Today's consumers have hectic lifestyles that don't always conform to traditional retail hours ... New York has long been known as the city that never sleeps, making Manhattan the perfect location for our first 24-hour store."
The short of it: Best Buy's 24-hour strategy will most likely be relegated to urban population centers. I can't see the retailer being successful outside of a few examples on the West and East coasts. Can you?
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