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New Best Buy Store Designed With Women In Mind

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Oct 3, 2008 5:19 am US/Mountain

New Best Buy Store Designed With Women In Mind

By Catherine Tsai, AP Business Writer
AURORA, Colo. (AP) ― The new Best Buy store opening Saturday in suburban, southeast Denver feels just a little different from the chain's older, warehouse-like blue interiors.

Skylights let natural light fall on floors carpeted in blue and earth tones. There's wood paneling where gray metal shelving might typically be. And flat-screen televisions and appliances are placed in model rooms that look like they came from a customer's home.

It's the first Best Buy store in which the company asked 40 local female customers to work with employees, beginning last February, on ideas for the new store, said Ginger Sorvari Bucklin, Best Buy Co.'s director of Winning With Women.

With the universal appeal of MP3 players, digital cameras and laptops, women are making and influencing more electronics purchases. Chains like Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy are trying to make them feel comfortable, without alienating men.

"Best Buy has traditionally served men very well," Bucklin said. "Best Buy's roots 40 years ago was with high-end audiophiles. Because technology has changed so much, we know women make 45 percent of electronics purchases. This is about serving women better."

Female customers said they wanted to see how products fit into their own lives and what products could work together.

In one display, Apple laptops and iPods are displayed on dark wood cabinets topped with crisp white counters, with accessories like laptop cases in red and green from fashion-forward brands displayed nearby.

One section typically labeled "home theater" in other stores has been labeled "family room" here, because customers pictured home theaters as something for affluent homes.

There's a lower sink for children in the bathroom, lotion near the paper towels, and a private room for new mothers, with carpeting, a rocking chair, free diapers and softer lighting.

While costs for this store were higher than typical stores, Best Buy expects to make it back by building long-term loyalty with customers, Bucklin said. She didn't disclose costs.

Many of the changes are subtle and cater to all customers, such as store labels in English and Spanish, or shopping carts shaped like toy cars to cater to kids.

Store general manager Rhonda Cagnolatti said the store will offer gift wrapping during the holiday season because male customers requested it.

Employee training focused on treating all customers the same, she said.

"The one thing the women did say was make sure to give eye contact," she said.

"For electronic retailers the real goal is to treat both sexes more equally than they have in the past," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at market researching firm, The NPD Group Inc. "Those things that they believe are beneficial to women, I think in a lot of cases those things are going to make men feel more comfortable as well."

The new store has 90 full- and part-time employees.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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