Best Buy Offers More Black Friday Excitement for Eager Holiday Shoppers

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY): WHAT: Best Buy stores across the country will open doors early on Black Friday to capture the excitement of the unofficial kick-off to the holiday shopping season. With the National Retail Federation reporting more than 70 percent of consumers have less than 10 percent of their holiday shopping completed, Best Buy will be overflowing with anxious shoppers grabbing the hottest gadgets to kick start their gift buying. Best Buy BlueShirts will help customers who are waiting in line that morning with advice on shopping strategies and gift buying tips. To help keep the door opening experience as organized as possible, tickets for Black Friday doorbusters will be handed out starting at 3 a.m. Creating a fun and organized atmosphere is extremely important for the Best Buy BlueShirts. Each store spends more than 400 hours prepping for the day, including a full scale rehearsal where employees anticipate crowds, map out best locations for doorbusters and place balloons as markers for shoppers to help make locating deals easier. WHERE/WHEN: Best Buy stores across the country will be open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time on Friday, November 23 (hours may vary). Doorbuster deals will be available from 5 a.m. to Noon. For more specific information on exciting events taking place at a Best Buy near you, send inquiries to: 612-292-NEWS (6397) newscenter@bestbuy.com MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES: Get footage of the fun pre-opening atmosphere with coffee, doughnuts and crowd entertainment Speak with customers in line about their shopping lists and Black Friday traditions Come early for an inside shot of the first Black Friday customers coming through the doors Interview Best Buy BlueShirts about how they prepare for ‘the busiest shopping day of the year’ and what they do to make Black Friday shopping easier on their customers MANAGER APPROVAL NEWS MEDIA POLICY: Best Buy is instituting a "manager-approval” news media policy for newspaper, TV and radio reporters that want to visit Best Buy stores from Sunday, Nov. 4 to Saturday, Jan. 5. This means that local reporters can work directly with Best Buy store managers to secure approvals for shooting in-store interviews or footage for news stories, without generating approvals from the Best Buy corporate PR department. Reporters must obtain approval from a store manager prior to shooting in a store. The decision to approve a request is up to the discretion of the individual manager. While we try to accommodate every request, please understand that our stores are extremely busy during the holiday season and our first priority is to serve our customers.