Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Best Buy accused of discrimination"

          Six former and current employees of Best Buy Co. Inc. sued the electronics retailer Thursday, alleging the company has purposefully excluded women and minorities from top-paying jobs as part of a sales culture catering to white men.
          The civil complaint, filed in a San Francisco federal court, seeks to be certified as a class action so it can potentially represent thousands of women, blacks and Hispanics who work in Best Buy's 731 stores nationwide.
         Cheryl Chappel, who is black and who recently transferred from a Best Buy store in Chico to another in San Diego County, said she has been trying to be promoted to a better sales job for more than two years only to be rebuffed because of her gender. "I was told by several managers that I didn't need to be on the sales floor. I was told females can't sell," Chappel told reporters at a news conference.
          Another attorney involved in the case, estimated white men manage more than 80 percent of Best Buy's stores. Fewer than 10 percent of Best Buy's store managers are women, lower than Wal-Mart, where 14 percent of the store managers are women.

Note: For more information on this case, please visit our companion website www.bbdiscrimination.com.