Best Buy 2014 Annual Report Download - page 12

7
Intellectual Property
We own or have the right to use valuable intellectual property such as trademarks, service marks and tradenames, including, but
not limited to, Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Dynex, Five Star, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Init, Insignia, Magnolia, Pacific Sales,
Rocketfish, and our Yellow Tag logo.
We have secured domestic and international trademark and service mark registrations for many of our brands. We have also
secured patents for many of our inventions. We believe our intellectual property has significant value and is an important factor
in the marketing of our company, our stores, our products and our websites.
Seasonality
Our business, like that of many retailers, is seasonal. A higher proportion of our revenue and earnings is generated in the fiscal
fourth quarter, which includes the majority of the holiday shopping season in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Working Capital
We fund our business operations through a combination of available cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and
cash flows generated from operations. In addition, our revolving credit facilities are available for additional working capital
needs, for general corporate purposes and investment opportunities. Our working capital needs typically increase in the months
leading up to the holiday shopping season as we purchase inventory in advance of expected sales.
Competition
Our competitors are primarily traditional store-based retailers, multi-channel retailers, internet-based businesses and vendors
who offer their products directly to the consumer.
Some of our competitors have low cost operating structures and seek to compete for sales primarily on price. In addition, in the
U.S., online-only operators are exempt from collecting sales taxes in certain states. We believe this advantage will continue to
be eroded as sales tax rules are re-evaluated at both the state and federal levels. We carefully monitor pricing offered by other
retailers and investing in price competitiveness is one of our ongoing priorities. In addition, we have a price-matching policy in
the U.S. that allows customers to request that we match a price offered by certain retail store and online operators. In order to
allow this, we are focused on maintaining efficient operations and leveraging the economies of scale available to us through our
global vendor partnerships.
In addition to price, we believe our ability to deliver a high quality customer experience offers us a key competitive advantage.
We believe our dedicated and knowledgeable people, integrated online and store channels, broad product assortment, range of
focused service and support offerings, distinct store formats, brand marketing strategies and supply chain are important ways in
which we maintain this advantage.
Environmental Matters
We are working to transform our company in many ways, including lessening our environmental impact. In the U.S.,
consumers recycle more electronics through Best Buy than any other retailer. We set a goal to collect one billion pounds of
consumer electronics and appliances for recycling from June 2008 through December 2014. In fiscal 2014, we collected about
118 million pounds of consumer electronics and 112 million pounds of appliances, bringing our overall total to approximately
930 million pounds.
We offer a large selection of energy-efficient products to help customers save money by using less energy. Our U.S. Best Buy
customers purchased more than 20 million ENERGY STAR® certified products in fiscal 2014 and realized utility bill savings
of more than $76 million. This energy saving equates to over 1 billion pounds of CO2 avoidance, or the equivalent of removing
more than 98,000 cars from U.S. roads.
We are continuously working to make our stores and distribution centers more sustainable and to increase efficiency within our
supply chain. In calendar 2010, we set a goal of reducing our absolute carbon emissions in North America by 20% by the year
2020 (over a 2009 baseline). During fiscal 2014, our retail stores, distribution centers and corporate offices reduced more than
15,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions through energy efficiency measures.