Chris Havens

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22 Mar: Here’s How Curbside Pickup Works At Best Buy To Get Your Tech Essentials

We know our customers depend on Best Buy for the technology necessities valuable during this time when people need to stay home because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. That’s why we’re adapting to a new way of making our stores accessible while keeping things safe for our customers and employees: contactless curbside pickup. 

As of Sunday, March 22, customers are no longer allowed inside Best Buy stores. Our employees, however, will bring products ordered on BestBuy.com, through our app or over the phone, out to vehicles.

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28 Feb: Best Buy ranked No. 3 in training for second year in a row

Best Buy customers expect our employees to ask the right questions and recommend the right solutions. It takes training — lots of it — to be able to provide that kind of knowledgeable service.

That’s why Best Buy offers extensive learning and development programs, in a variety of formats, for employees at all levels. Last year, our people completed nearly 20 million online learning sessions, and our classroom trainings reached more than 100,000 employees. It’s simple: Learning is part of our culture.

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02 Feb: Tour Michael Johnson’s Selma, Best Buy Teen Tech Center [Video]

Ten seasons as a professional football player have given Michael Johnson the ability to give back to his hometown of Selma, Alabama.

One way he’s doing that is by sponsoring a Best Buy Teen Tech Center. In a Teen Tech Center, youth learn new tech skills, stay on-track with school, nurture positive adult and peer relationships and get exposed to new career possibilities.

Michael sees the Teen Tech Center as a way to provide access and opportunity to students in Selma.

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23 Sep: Corie Barry named to Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women

Fortune magazine announced on Monday that Best Buy CEO Corie Barry made its list of the Most Powerful Women in Business. She is No. 18 on the prestigious ranking.

It’s Corie’s first time on the annual list, which looks at a business’ size, its importance in the global economy and its health and direction. Also considered are career arc and social and cultural influence. Only 50 women in the United States were selected, and Corie is the youngest.

Corie became CEO in June, and she’s one of the youngest women to hold the role among Fortune 500 companies.

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20 Sep: What did they do this summer? Learned career skills

When the summer started, Teri Jones and Ted Ritts were shy. Super shy, they’d say.

But an internship — organizing a community block party for Level Up Studios, a nonprofit creative arts center in northeast Pittsburgh — would help with that. Over the summer, the pair would need to line up sponsors, ask for donations, schedule food and entertainment, and navigate the city permitting process. That meant talking to strangers, being persuasive and, on occasion, getting comfortable being told “no.”

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12 Sep: Detroit teens build community through technology

DETROIT — Earlier this summer, a group of teens fanned out across southwest Detroit with an assignment: Make a video that celebrates their neighborhood using every letter from A to Z.

So, they split up and illustrated landmarks by letter. For instance, C is for Clark Park. Then they took photos and video, learned how to do voice-overs and recorded them at the Best Buy Teen Tech Center. They’ll edit and aim to complete the video this fall.

“Once you get them going, they’ll learn and teach me,” said Francisco “Cisco” Tinoco, the center’s coordinator and ABC project assigner.

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27 Aug: Best Buy, pro athlete partner to bring Teen Tech Center to Selma

The first Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Alabama officially opened its doors on Tuesday.

Located on the campus of Wallace Community College in Selma (WCCS), the center is the result of a partnership among the college, Best Buy and pro football veteran Michael Johnson’s MJ 93-90 Foundation. Area teens will be able learn hands-on tech and workforce readiness skills, including music and video production, graphic design, robotics, virtual reality, coding and resume building.

The opening is a big milestone for Best Buy because it’s our 30th Teen Tech Center in operation, bringing us halfway toward our goal of 60 centers opened or identified by the end of 2020.

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24 May: At Best Buy, Pride is part of our business

We have a motto at Best Buy: You can be yourself here.

We want to create a culture that’s inclusive, embraces people’s differences and reflects our customer base.

That means creating a welcoming and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees. We do that through employee groups, benefits and resources. And, with Pride Month in June, we celebrate with our employees, customers and communities.

“At Best Buy, we believe an inclusive environment allows our employees to bring their best selves forward.

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08 Apr: A Completed Marathon on Every Continent, She’s Running for a Reason

After 6 hours and four minutes slogging through mud on a hilly, barren landscape, Karen Hohertz crossed the finish line to complete her marathon in Antarctica.

Those final steps, taken with tears in her eyes and pride in her heart, marked the completion of her goal to run 26.2 miles on every continent. It was a challenge she took on less than a decade ago.

“It was amazing, super fulfilling,” said Karen, who has worked at Best Buy for 30 years.

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05 Mar: Gender equality is a priority at Best Buy

In the U.S., women make up 51 percent of the population. Yet across the country, men hold a disproportionate share of senior-level roles in companies.

Best Buy is working hard to change that — at all levels of our business. Through recruiting and hiring, mentoring programs and resources, we’re creating a culture of gender equality.

“In growing transformational leaders, our commitment to diversity delivers shared success for our company and communities,” said Hubert Joly, Best Buy’s chairman and CEO.

That commitment is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business.

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16 Nov: 3 Best Buy stores shuttered by hurricanes reopen

Three Best Buy stores that had been closed because of hurricane damage reopened Friday, just in time for the busiest shopping week of the year.

Two of the stores are in North Carolina and sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Florence in September. The third store is in Puerto Rico and had been closed for more than a year since Hurricane Maria battered the island, causing widespread flooding, infrastructure damage and loss of lives.   

When disasters shutter stores, we look to find employees shifts at nearby locations, if possible.

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09 Oct: Best Buy volunteers help Phoenix students build laptops

As groups of students entered a Phoenix Convention Center meeting hall on Monday afternoon, 260 Best Buy volunteers cheered and gave high-fives.

The Best Buy employees were on hand to help the students build their own Kano laptop computers. The volunteer event helped kick off the company’s annual Holiday Leadership Meeting, where company leaders from across the U.S. come together to get ready for the holiday season.

Working with the kids “just makes you feel good, and it’s fun for us because we’re learning too,” said Jennifer Dieckhoff, general manager of a store in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area.