TORRANCE : Best Buy Co. to Open Store at Old Gemco Site
Best Buy Co. Inc. will make its Southern California debut this fall when the consumer electronics chain opens a store in the former Gemco building at Hawthorne Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
The building has been vacant since Gemco went out of business more than five years ago.
The Torrance store will be the first of six to eight stores that the retailer says it will open in California by the end of the year. Best Buy currently has 152 stores in 18 states.
Last week, the Torrance Planning Commission unanimously approved plans to renovate the 10 1/2-acre site. Merchandising Development USA Inc. owns the property, which it will lease to Best Buy. Another retail store would sublet part of the site, but Best Buy executives said they have not yet signed a subleasing agreement.
Best Buy sells electronics, computers and home appliances. Store employees are not paid on commission, and shoppers can help themselves to the merchandise stacked on the sales floor.
Best Buy will begin hiring 100 to 250 full- and part-time workers in September, company officials said.
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