Best Buy headed to Pearl City

The electronics giant has been
shopping for its first Hawaii
location since last fall

---

By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Best Buy Co., a nationwide consumer electronics retailer that competes with Circuit City and CompUSA, will open a 45,000-square-foot store in Pearl City next spring.

The store will probably hire 125 people, the Minnesota-headquartered company said. Best Buy has been shopping for its first Hawaii location since last fall and said today it has leased a location at Kamehameha Highway and Acacia Road, near Home Depot.

The fast-growing company has 494 stores in 44 states.

The Honolulu store will feature a wide range of electronic products such as computers, digital cameras, music and video equipment and appliances.

One of the features of Best Buy's operations is that its sales personnel don't get commissions, said Connie Molby, a corporate spokeswoman at the company's Eden Prairie, Minn., headquarters. That means their priority is seeing that customers get what they want or need, she said.

"We just really want to provide the area with affordable consumer electronics and entertainment products in an easy and fun way," Molby said. There will be a lot of interactive ways for potential buyers to get to know products, she said.

Best Buy subsidiaries operate Sam Goody and Suncoast Motion Pictures stores in the islands.