Samsung continues massive retail expansion into Canada and EU with Best Buy partnership

[Justin Kahn]

Samsung has been actively increasing its retail presence world wide as of late, and news from the The Wall Street Journal suggests the company will continue to do so. After announcing to launch 1,400 mini shops inside Best Buy locations across the US last year and plans to convert over 60 Carphone Warehouse locations throughout Europe, Samsung is set to continue its push in the EU and Canada, according to company executives.

In Canada, Samsung plans to open up a number of mini kiosks inside Best Buy and Future Shop (a Best Buy subsidiary) locations. The number will increase Samsung's presence significantly, launching in 90 different locations by sometime in the Spring.

The WSJ also reports that Samsung will continue its push overseas as well, with plans to open an additional 75 or more retail locations across Europe, more than tripling its current presence there.

Based on previous reports, the Best Buy "store-in-store" kiosks are run by Samsung staff and the deal will continue as is for three years before Samsung and Best Buy re-evaluate the situation.

Samsung's Galaxy S5, one item expected to fill the shelves in all these new locations, had some interesting new potential features surface recently including a swipe-style fingerprint scanner.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55718-samsung-continues-massive-retail-expansion-into-canada-and-eu-with-best-buy-partnership.html

 

[misor]

(I know that circuit city had ceased its business operations and is now in the hands of another company)

I don't know the financial status of Best Buy but is Samsung interested in purchasing it and make it an amazon-like company or is it just a "plain partnership" like what's in the article?

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

(I know that circuit city had ceased its business operations and is now in the hands of another company)

I don't know the financial status of Best Buy but is Samsung interested in purchasing it and make it an amazon-like company or is it just a "plain partnership" like what's in the article?

Sounds like a partnership. People think Best Buy is going to go under because of the 'showrooming' effect, but in reality they're doing ok. I believe they're still the biggest seller of PCs in the world. Regarding financial status, they lost 1.2 billion last year, but they made about the same in 2011 and 2010. (Yahoo finance has income statements). Best buy has done well moving into the mobile market, and this will probably only help.

I worry Samsung is getting so big that people will start to consider them the alternative to Apple, when in reality there are some really nice Android phones out there that aren't Samsung. People are already saying 'are you going to get an iPhone or a Samsung?' I'm no Samsung hater (I've got a TV and some monitors by them) but I don't think they're the best phone to buy and people don't even look at the others.