Best Buy announced the national rollout of health and fitness products at its 600 Best Buy stores across the country. A 30-foot-long in-store health and fitness presentation area enables consumers to sample many of these devices before they buy. Items include heart rate monitoring watches, pedometers, special MP3 players, earbuds,
headphones, yoga mats, scales and blood pressure monitors from manufacturers such as Gaiam, GoFit, H2O Audio,
MIO, Polar, Sportline and Yurbuds.
Available products include personal gear related to running, walking, swimming and yoga as well as other fitness accessories.
Best Buy's national expansion follows a successful pilot program launched a year ago, during which the company tested a broad selection of health and fitness gear in 40 stores in select markets.
“We were encouraged by the enthusiastic response we saw from our customers during the initial pilot of these health and fitness products,” said Chris Koller, vice president of the Portable Electronics Solutions Group at Best Buy. “We clearly tapped into a desire for Best Buy to provide the latest and greatest technology to enhance health regimens, and to help people discover how they can integrate these devices with other personal technology to monitor and share their progress, and to stay motivated.”
Consumers interested in health and fitness products will have access to trained Best Buy Blue Shirts to help them better understand how technology can support their personal wellness. Whether helping to download exercise data to a home computer or creating a customized home gym complete with a treadmill, TV and surround sound, Best Buy's Blue Shirts are equipped to assist consumers with product demonstrations and in-store interactive tools to show how the technological devices can help maximize their workout routines, track their results and create an environment to stay motivated.
Koller says, “The whole category of Health and Fitness has really evolved in the last several years to truly take advantage of our connected world offering with personalized experiences that can help keep consumers motivated and easily track their workout progress. With the nationwide rollout, we aim to arm our consumers with the latest tools available for enhancing their fitness conditioning, while also providing the technical support needed to keep them on track to meet their goals.”
This marks Best Buy's second push into fitness. In 2005, Best Buy
introduced a new store concept called eq-life, which married health,
wellness and technology. The stores were aimed mostly at female
customers 35 and older, and had a range of offerings, from hairstyling
to fitness equipment and blood-pressure monitors. It opened four
stand-alone eq-life stores but the locations were eventually closed.
