China Electronics Wholesaler

Business Week reports that Best Buy Co. significantly reduced its estimated earnings for 2009 on Wednesday. In a statement, Chief Executive Brad Anderson said, "Best Buy simply can't adjust fast enough to maintain our earnings momentum for this year." He added the changes in consumer behavior made this "the most difficult climate" they have ever seen.

For October, same-store sales -- an important indicator that compares the sales this year versus last at existing locations -- slid 7.6 percent. Best Buy now forecasts that it will wind up fiscal 2009 with a 1 percent decline at these locations.

While Best Buy carries a broad range of consumer electronics, this news comes in the wake of some optimism we reported being expressed by Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. With spending so dramatically down, it's difficult to imagine the videogame industry coming through the season unaffected. In particular, it will be important to see how console hardware sells over the next six weeks. Pachter noted this as well, saying, "If hardware sales turn down in October, we will begin to consider that the video game consumer has been impacted by the looming recession." We'll get an answer soon enough. October NPDs should be out later this week.