Best Buy

Image: Loungefly, Vera Bradley, Hot Topic, Box LunchSo you waited until the 11th hour and it’s now too late to order holiday presents online. Thankfully, there are several stores where you can still scavenge in-person for the perfect last-minute geeky gift for the fan in your life. Pro-tip to speed up your quest even more: order pick-up exists!Here are our last-minute picks for making spirits bright, featuring Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, Studio Ghibli, and beyond! Image: Loungefly, Vera Bradley, Hot Topic, Box…

Photo: MIA Studio (Shutterstock)The sci-fi author Stephen R. Donaldson said that “Everything dies, from the smallest blade of grass to the biggest galaxy.” A few years ago, I might have told you that’s true—about everything except Google and Meta’s ad businesses. My, how times change.Google and Meta control less than 50% of digital ad spending for the first time since 2014, a trend that’s poised to accelerate over the next few years, according to Axios. Citing predictions from Insider Intelligence, Axios reports Google…

Screenshot: AmazonOne of the big recent developments in the advertising industry are what’s called “retail ad networks.” Governments and tech platforms like Apple and Google are cracking down on data gathering, making third-party data a bit harder to get. That creates a business opportunity for big retailers and other companies that have large databases of information about their existing customers. Just about every major consumer-facing company you can think of has launched an advertising network over the last few years.…

Americans returned to their prepandemic habits on Black Friday as they spent more time and money in stores than last year, but some data show they were also cautious with spending as inflation weighs on their pocketbooks. The boost in store traffic over Black Friday comes after a surge last year from 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic when many shoppers favored buying online. Shoppers still bought items online this year, but many browsed in stores, reveling in a holiday tradition, according to early data. Some…

Black Friday is back—even if many of the door-buster deals aren’t.Millions of Americans are expected to visit bricks-and-mortar stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving as the Covid-19 pandemic recedes and people return to prepandemic habits. That is a reversal of the past two years, when they were largely stuck at home and did more shopping online. This year, however, many household budgets are pinched by high gas and grocery prices. With many stores closed on Thanksgiving, retailers are preparing for a big surge on…

Best Buy Co. and Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. reported mixed quarterly results but said sales wouldn’t fall as much as previously expected, signs that consumers are feeling the pinch of high inflation but still buying some electronics and sporting goods. Best Buy said profits fell and comparable sales dropped 10.4% in its third quarter, but the results weren’t as bad as investors had feared. The company slightly raised its sales target for the fiscal year…

Farewell, cloud friend. Photo: Florence Ion / GizmodoGoogle has started issuing refunds to former customers for games, add-on content, and subscription feeds purchased through Stadia. I just got my email about what’s happening with my dead games library. Star Wars: Shatterpoint Announcement Trailer02:27The First Things To Do In VR, Part 3Today 9:39AM“We’re getting in touch to let you know what to expect over the next couple of weeks,” Google writes. The company says it will attempt to refund the money to the original form…

Photo: Denis Charlet (Getty Images)Amazon will be throwing a lot of Prime Early Access deals at consumers over the next 48 hours, but it turns out not every “deal” offers as big a discount as it claims. Sure, the sticker might say 50% off, but price history is a volatile thing: If a product is advertised as 50% off the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), but it hasn’t actually been sold at MSRP in ages, then your deal might actually be considerably less.These sorts of slips are often accidental or due to…

Shoppers are finding more empty space on store shelves, but not because the retailer is out of stock. In many cases, the items are locked away to prevent theft.At a Best Buy Co. store in the suburbs of Houston, hundreds of items including Bose speakers and Fitbit activity trackers have been replaced by small blue signs that read, “This product kept in secured location,” and ask shoppers to find store workers for help. “There used to be a lot more on the floor itself than locked up in cages,”…

Best Buy Co. BBY 3.51% ’s profit and sales dropped in the latest quarter, as spending on computers and other home electronics dried up compared with earlier in the pandemic. Comparable sales, those from stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months, fell 12.1% in the quarter ending July 30 compared with the same period last year. Sales declined in almost all product categories, with the biggest drops in computing and…