Content about Hennepin County, Minnesota

Minneapolis -- Best Buy on Wednesday announced major changes to its leadership organization. The company is removing the senior-most layer of the U.S. operation is being removed; resulting in what it called “a leaner structure intended to improve the company’s agility.”

Minneapolis -- Best Buy announced Tuesday it is expanding the Best Buy Mobile brand and store-within-a-store concept into 14 Five Star stores throughout Nanjing, China, this summer.

The expansion of Best Buy Mobile into the Chinese market is the first evolution of Global Connect, a partnership that was formed in November 2011 between Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse.

Fresh off the resignation of CEO Brian Dunn and the revelation that the company lost a not-so- insignificant sum of $1.7 billion last quarter, Best Buy’s recent announcement to close 50 stores by the end of 2012 probably didn’t come as a surprise to anyone in our industry. What may have been surprising to some — myself included — is their plan to roll out 100 Best Buy Mobile stores.

Minneapolis -- Following a disappointing second quarter, Best Buy is looking to reposition itself as a tech leader with plans to hire more than 200 information technology professionals, with more than 100 new positions to be posted in the next several weeks.

Best Buy said Thursday it is looking to recruit skilled professionals from across the IT landscape, including e-commerce, business analytics, application development, engineering and project management.

Minneapolis — Mill Valley Kitchen, a new restaurant concept from former Excel Bank CEO, Craig Bentdahl, is opening on Tuesday, June 7, in the Ellipse on Excelsior development in St. Louis Park, Minneapolis. 

The design of the 5,000-sq.-ft., farm-to-table restaurant was handled by Minneapolis based design firm, Shea Inc. 

Minneapolis -- Best Buy Co. said Thursday that it plans to open hundreds of wireless device stores, as well as expand online and in China in an effort to be more competitive as consumers up their online shopping. The chain is also scaling back the size of its signature namesake format. 

In an analyst conference Thursday, the retailer unveiled plans to shrink square footage at big-box stores by 10% over the next three to five years, a move that Best Buy said will eventually save $70 million to $80 million annually.

Minneapolis -- Best Buy said in fiscal 2012 it will concentrate on growing its smaller-format mobile chain and restructure parts of its supply chain processes to cut costs and improve efficiency. The retailer plans to open about 150 Best Buy Mobile stand-alone-stores in the United States, for a total of some 325 locations by year-end.

Best Buy plans to open about six to eight Best Buy-branded large-format stores in the United States, along with 18 Best Buy stores in Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico during the year.