Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A memoir and an inspirational book are on the way from Serena Willams, Betches gets acquired, and Best Buy CEO Corie Barry argues that technology is a "need," not another form of discretionary spending.
- Consumer behavior. Best Buy CEO Corie Barry doesn't think her company should be lumped in with discretionary consumer spending. Technology isn't a nice thing to have, but a human right, she argued at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit last week.
I interviewed Barry, a two-decade veteran of the $46 billion-in-revenue electronics retailer, onstage in Laguna Niguel, Calif. In a conversation that covered a "contradictory" macroeconomic environment and her path from CFO to CEO, Barry made the pitch for Best Buy as more than a place to check out new gadgets.
"We live in a really misunderstood industry. There's this idea that it's discretionary—but who here will go today without using some kind of electronics?" she asked. "This is a need."
The Consumer Technology Association, the organization behind the electronics trade show CES, added technology as an eighth pillar of human security at a September event in partnership with the UN Trust Fund for Human Security, Barry pointed out.
"It's so essential to being connected to the world," she said.
Best Buy sees itself as part of that essential need, as evidenced by such business decisions as its push into health care. The company started selling blood glucose monitoring systems this month, its first time selling a prescription device. "The future of health care will be enabled by technology," Barry said, explaining why the retailer has expanded into this category.
Others, however, are less convinced that the overall Best Buy business has moved beyond discretionary spending. Wall Street is made up of "the most pragmatic thinkers by nature," she argued—those likely to poke holes in a company's lofty ambitions.
Analysts and investors may be more focused on current consumer behavior than the role of technology in society. Shoppers right now are spending conservatively after moving up purchases for home theaters and offices in the early days of the pandemic. "Bigger ticket items in electronics are right now not where people are as interested," Barry said.
Long-term, that doesn't dissuade Barry from her vision for Best Buy. "Yes, right now people are pulling back," she said. "But the future will only be more enabled by technology. And we're the last left standing."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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