Over the early May bank holiday weekend Best Buy launched its first UK store at Thurrock. From the moment the doors opened at 7 a.m. on the Friday untill they shut on Monday evening, there were queues to get into the store. Slick marketing and the lure of sharp pricing had done the job. Even at that early hour, more than a thousand customers queued in line, and the flow continued over the four days, with the average queue time estimated at half an hour. Traffic on the M25 was severely affected many times over the weekend and car park marshals had a task and a half keeping drivers placated.

Best Buy understandably described it as ‘an incredible Grand Opening weekend’ – in fact the biggest ever opening weekend by volume of sales for a Best Buy store anywhere in the world.

Not to be outdone, Currys claimed that its own megastore in Thurrock, which delivers the highest sales and gross profit of any of the group’s UK stores, also had a ‘cracking’ weekend – apparently only bettered by its opening weekend last year and Christmas. DSGi’s chief executive John Browett was relaxed about Best Buy’s debut: “There is nothing we have seen that will change our strategy.”

Best Buy’s second store, at Hedge End, Southampton, opened over the late May bank holiday weekend to similar acclaim, the hype further boosted by the availability of the new Apple iPad on its launch day.

The launch team now moves on to Merry Hill in the West Midlands, followed by Aintree, Croydon, and then Cribbs Causeway, near Bristol, which will open in spring 2010.

Best Buy has tended to be rather coy about announcing new locations and precise opening dates, but the plan reportedly is to open ‘eight or nine’ this financial year with a launch every four to six weeks. Scott Wheway, the former Boots and Tesco man who as chief operating officer is now heading up the drive in Europe, sees this as a ‘marathon not a sprint’ and refuses to give a target number of stores. That will doubtless depend on the customer reaction to its new website due to open for business in the autumn.

Expansion

Other major players with deep pockets have also announced expansion plans.

John Lewis will invest in further ‘At Home’ stores following the success of its first outlet in Poole that opened in October. Croydon in late summer will now be followed later in the year by Swindon and Tunbridge Wells, with a combined investment of £16 million. The Partnership has for some time seen electricals as a major growth opportunity and has recognised that its competitors have a much higher level of coverage in the UK. These smaller format shops will certainly expand its customer base and terminals in the branch will allow shoppers to browse the wider John Lewis range for home delivery or next day in-store collection.

The Co-op is also looking to take on its supermarket rivals by competing more aggressively in electricals. It is teaming up with the Group’s successful £50 million online electrical retailer to introduce pilot schemes in three of its larger stores in Bristol, Hove and Bridgend in South Wales. There will be a combination of in-store displays and ‘pods’ where customers can view an electronic catalogue of more than two thousand products. Dedicated advisors will be on hand.

And Asda has ambitious plans for its non-food Living stores. Currently trading from 24 locations, it wants to open 150 over the next five years.

Trading update

Finally, a quick update on trading from John Lewis. The World Cup boost has been late arriving, with sales of ‘electricals and home technology’ only picking up in the last week of May, when year-on-year turnover increased by 19%. However two new stores, in Cardiff and Poole, have opened in the past year, so the figures are not strictly comparable.

For the first four months of its new financial year (to May 29), such sales have increased by a more modest 7%, compared with ‘fashion’ up by 22% and ‘home’ by 20. All stores, bar Aberdeen, show year-on-year increases and online sales are up by 43%.