Best Buy Co., Inc., announced on Tuesday that it will offer a voluntary severance package to nearly all of the employees at its Richfield corporate headquarters.
“Based on the recent changes we’ve seen in consumer behavior and the potential for worsening consumer spending, we need to prepare our organization to operate in a wide range of potential macro-economic scenarios in the coming year,” Vice Chairman and CEO Brad Anderson said in a statement.
The nation’s largest retail electronics company employs roughly 4,000 workers at its corporate office, and all but Anderson and his handful of charges will be eligible for the voluntary severance, said spokeswoman Susan Busch.
The packages will depend on an employee’s time of service at the company and position.
Busch said the company expects the average package to offer seven-and-a-half months of pay plus one year’s worth of health, dental, and life insurance, as well as subsidized outplacement services.
The deadline for employees to accept the buyout is January 5, and reductions will start in the middle of February.
Retail store staff and international corporate employees do not figure into the severance.
Best Buy reported that earnings for the fiscal third quarter ending November 30 were $52 million, down from $228 million last year.
