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Best Buy opens first UK store tomorrow

Website arrives in autumn

Best Buy is opening its first store in Thurrock, Essex tomorrow morning, but it will not have a working ecommerce site until autumn.

The Essex shop is one of four due to open this year. It promises 50,000 square feet of floor space.

But Best Buy will not have a functioning website ready until the autumn - a spokeswoman said it was busy reworking its website for the UK market.

As well as flogging a wide range of computing and electronic goods, Best Buy hopes to make cash from services like its Geek Squad who offer technical support as well as buying advice. The company stresses that the Geeks are not on commission.

Next on the list are stores in Hedge End near Southampton and Merry Hill in the West Midlands, due to open in June, followed by Aintree near Liverpool.

Given the moribund state of technology retailing in the UK we can only hope that Best Buy shakes things up - visitors to the shop's press day seemed impressed with the range of goods and staff knowledge.

The retailer also offers a price promise - if you find the same item for a lower price within 15 miles of the store they will match the price and give you ten per cent of the difference. Given Best Buy's out-of-town locations, this should reduce price matching problems. ®

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