Casas Bahia

Via Varejo S.A.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Genre	Department stores
Founded	1952
Founder	Samuel Klein
Headquarters	São Caetano do Sul, Brazil
Number of locations	745
Area served	Brazil
Key people	Michael Klein, (CEO)
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewellery, beauty products, electronics, toys, tools, sports equipment, appliances, housewares
Revenue	R$ 17.228 billion (2015)
Number of employees	57,500 (2014)
Parent	Via Varejo
Website	www.casasbahia.com.br

Casas Bahia (English: Bahia Houses) is a Brazilian retail chain which specializes in furniture and home appliances. It was founded in 1952 in São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo, by Polish immigrant Samuel Klein, who began his career as a peddler selling products to migrant workers from the Brazilian Northeast. The chain is currently owned by Grupo Pão de Açúcar, which purchased it in December 2009.

Casas Bahia, unlike many of its competitors, does not rely on an internet presence as a cornerstone of its strategy—only in February 2009 it launched its online store, pressed by an increasing number of online sales in Brazil.

Rather, Casas Bahia makes the majority of its profit by charging interest on installment plan purchases, making it possible for low-income customers to purchase products which they would not be able to pay off in a single payment.

Another sales technique of the store is to locate cashiers in the back of the store, which requires clients to pass by all the products on the floor each month in order to pay their next monthly payment. Salespeople also consider the lines at the cashiers appropriate potential sales targets (which they refer to as bocas de caixa "open cashiers").

As of 2004, the company employed 22,000 people and was generating $2 billion in profits. By 2010, it had more than 500 stores in eleven states (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and even Bahia), besides the Federal District.