Best Buy storms Florida coast - opening new stores on state's West Coast

Discount Store News, Nov 4, 1996 by Pete Hisey

Office supplies, a recent addition to Best Buy's mix, were moved from the front of the store in Tampa to the rear, after computers replaced by computer peripherals. And video, formerly merchandised in gloomy canyons at the rear of the store, has benefited from an innovation first introduced in Philadelphia, a wide-open presentation, with big-screen TVs lining the L-shaped rear corner, surrounding a darkened projection TV demo area.

The grand opening was one of Best Buy's most successful, with consumers lining up hours before the noon official opening time. Before the ribbon cutting, Best Buy presented a Sony 133-mega-hertz computer to 16-year-old Elio Navarro on behalf of the Make A Wish Foundation. Schulze noted that Best Buy has been involved with Make A Wish for several years, generally by donating a portion of each grand opening's proceeds to the foundation. "But we noticed that, after Disney, computers were the most common `wish' these kids had," Schulze said. "And as we know something about computers, it was a natural progression to actively granting some of those wishes." Sony donated the computer at Best Buy's urging.