Best Buy gets into health, fitness

MINNEAPOLIS — After testing a pilot program in select stores last year, Best Buy is addressing the health needs of its customers by rolling out health devices and fitness products at 600 Best Buy stores across the country and online at BestBuy.com.

Customers can find the products on display in a 30-ft.-long in-store health and fitness presentation area, which enables consumers to sample many of these devices before they purchase them. Such products available include state-of-the-art heart rate monitoring watches, blood-pressure monitors, pedometers, scales and other products from leading manufacturers.

Other products include yoga mats, headphones and special MP3 players.

“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, VP 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.”