Best Buy CEO Should Be Fired in 2012: Poll

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Best Buy's (BBY) CEO Brian Dunn should get the axe in 2012, according to TheStreet's poll.

There's little Dunn has been able to do since he took the reins in 2009 to transform the company's image as a "showroom for Amazon (AMZN)." As a result, 34.8% of voters said he should be fired in the new year.

A shame, since Dunn is a Best Buy lifer, having started his career with the electronics retailer in 1985.

Dunn has been unable to revitalize the big-box format even with its biggest rival, Circuit City, out of the picture.

Last week, Best Buy reported a 29% plunge in third-quarter earnings, with gross margin falling by nearly a percentage point from the year prior due to aggressive promotions and discounts during the Black Friday weekend.

But these discounts did little in the way of revenue, with same-store sales up just 0.3%.

To keep his job, Dunn will need to resort to a more dramatic restructure of Best Buy's business model. The company has closed its namesake stores in China and has ended its pilot of big-box stores in the U.K.

Best Buy is also reducing its square-footage in the U.S. by 10% over the next three to five years.

Shares of Best Buy have declined more than 33% year to date; the stock has fallen more than 40% during Dunn's tenure.

Sears' (SHLD) Lou D'Ambrosio came in second in the poll with 34.8% of the vote; Gap's (GPS)Glenn Murphy received 31.2%; Pacific Sunwear of California's (PSUN) CEO Gary Schoenfeld received 10.5%; and Aeropostale's (ARO)Thomas Johnson got 6.4%.

-Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.