Best Buy will have an electrifying effect on UK

From the electric cars to the manically excitable Blueshirts, there’s something almost evangelical about Best Buy. But behind the cult is a steely determination to crack the UK market and get its proposition here absolutely right.

Make no mistake about it, today’s store opening at Thurrock is one of the most significant in UK retail in years. Never mind that it plans to take a measured approach to its opening programme. There is an absolute determination to become a real force in UK retail and with the twin forces of Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy Inc behind it, it has to be taken seriously.

Thurrock is a very good store and techies will take to it straight away. The challenge it faces as a new entrant will be in establishing the brand more widely and helping the more casual shopper understand what it’s all about.

UK shoppers are wary of staff in electricals retailers and think any approach from them will be about upselling. For Best Buy to succeed, it will need to show cynical shoppers that its consultative sell is a good thing, and that its ‘connected world’ actually means something to them.

It won’t change electricals retailing overnight, and will face a stiff challenge from rivals that have national coverage and have had time to raise their game, but Best Buy is a class act. And when it reaches scale it will become a real force in the UK, which for an electricals sector that isn’t growing means that in time something will have to give.

Bolland’s big questions

Next week one man will take on possibly the toughest job in Britain. A hugely political role where he’ll have to try to keep everyone in the country happy and where every move he makes will be under intense scrutiny.

Yes, on Tuesday Marc Bolland finally moves into the chief executive’s seat at Marks & Spencer. Unlike the new Prime Minister, he will at least be able to take his time before deciding on his key strategic moves, but he’ll know too that there are big questions which need to be answered - especially on the underperformance of the food business.

As a vastly experienced brand marketer, Bolland should be able to make the most of M&S’s biggest asset - being the most trusted brand on the UK high street. But as his predecessor has found, being all things to all women is a difficult - arguably impossible - undertaking in today’s retail environment. The biggest question facing him is whether that’s a workable strategy for the decade ahead.