Best Buy shines on back of flat panel TV and digital music sales

Best Buy, the US' largest electronics retailer announced a 38% jump in first quarter profits and sales up 14% on the back of a huge surge in flat panel TV sales and a further bounce in digital music sales. Oh and they cut costs too - go figure!

Revenue jumped almost 14% to $6.96 billion from $6.12 billion, helped by the net addition of 117 new stores in the past 12 months.

Sales at stores open 14 months, a key retail measure, grew 4.9%. Best Buy said the gain was driven by an increase in the average size of each transaction. The company also said consumers bought more at its Web site, and online revenue grew more than 30%.

But the big question on everyone's lips is will sales of such big ticket items slow as interest rate hikes bite and gas remains so expensive. Probably!