Best Buy downgrades CDs

The beleaguered compact disc, increasingly obsolete in the age of streaming, found itself in the bargain bin.

Richfield, Minnesota-based Best Buy, once one of the bigger music retailers with several aisles of CDs, now houses them in the $5.99 bargain bin. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, Cat Stevens, Billy Ocean, Lionel Richie — a nod to the aging demographics of those who still buy them.

“Does anybody remember the last time they bought a CD?” Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly asked rhetorically this year in confirming the retailer is “de-emphasizing” the category.

CDs have been in a free-fall for more than a decade. In recent years, Best Buy’s collection was reduced to a single row. Displays of iTunes gift cards are found easily and plentifully.

Best Buy is in the process of removing CDs altogether from its website. It only has a handful of audio systems with a CD player left in stores.

While CDs have been on the decline, vinyl has been on the rise, prompting Best Buy to still carry LPs.

More money troubles at Tesla

Tesla’s finances were once again in focus Monday following a report the company asked suppliers for refunds to help it turn a profit.

A memo provided to The Wall Street Journal showed the electric carmaker asked one supplier to return what it calls a meaningful amount of money on its payments since 2016.

The memo came from a global supply manager and said the request was essential to Tesla’s continued operations.

It’s not clear how many suppliers received the request.

A company statement said Tesla asked fewer than 10 suppliers for a reduction in total spending on projects started in 2016 and are incomplete.

The company said it is talking to suppliers about changes to future prices and design to help reduce costs.

Tesla stock fell 3.3 percent to $303.20 Monday, down from a peak of $385 in September, with many investors concerned about Tesla’s spending and ability to meet production goals.

Tesla is spending about $1 billion a quarter as it ramps up manufacturing of the Model 3 sedan, a lower-priced car that is key to Tesla’s plans of becoming a major mass-market automaker.

The 15-year-old company has reported only two quarterly profits and has never made a profit for a full year.

In June the company said it was eliminating 3,600 jobs, or 9 percent of staff, as part of restructuring.

At the beginning of July the company said it met a long-time target of building 5,000 Model 3s in a week, but industry analysts questioned whether Tesla can sustain that pace.

— From wire reports