Future Shop Closes All Canadian Outlets – Update
Doors are locked today at Future Shop but will re-open as Best Buy next Saturday. Photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Another big move in the business world as American-based Best Buy Co. announces it is closing all of its 131 Future Shop stores, including the outlet in Prince George, immediately and will reopen 65 of those stores as Best Buy outlets.
The company says about 500 full-time and one thousand part-time jobs will be lost, adding the affected employees will receive severance and help with seeking out new employment.
The Future Shop closures will leave Best Buy with 192 stores in Canada, 56 of those will be smaller Best Buy Mobile outlets.
The parent company in the U.S. said “a significant number” of its Future Shop and Best Buy stores are located near each other. Best Buy Canada President Ron Wilson says “we will continue to have a strong store presence in all major markets in Canada. He adds, “any decisions that impact our people are never taken lightly. Our first priority is to support them through this change.”
The announcement follows the recent closure of all Target Stores in Canada, including the Prince George store which closes April 1st.
Update: As indicated by a sign on the door of the Future Shop store in Prince George, that location is closed at this time. It will be re-opening next Saturday under the Best Buy banner as will 64 other locations across the country.
Employees at several Future Shop stores in Canada showed up for work this morning, only to find the doors locked. Parent company Best Buy is closing 66 of the stores in Canada affecting a total 1500 employees.
Comments
….so is the one here going to be a Best Buy?
I would think on line buying, steam game network are killing places like that. I never found Future Shop to be that good of prices or service anyways.
I guess we will find out in a week or so as that is when the newly branded stores are to reopen.
Posted on Saturday, March 28, 2015 @ 8:45 AM by benny
I would think on line buying, steam game network are killing places like that. I never found Future Shop to be that good of prices or service anyways.
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Prices and service were terrible there. I don’t expect Best Buy to be any better since they’re the same store.
Rumour has it, the stores that are re-branding are still laying off all their staff and nobody is going to be retrained. They will have the “opportunity” to reapply for a job at Best Buy, but without any of the seniority that they had at Future Shop.
Pretty sleazy, if true, considering that FutureShop has been owned by Best Buy for 14 years so the employees were basically Best Buy employees already.
Went to best buys website, says they have a store in prince…guess where?
American business strikes again….
Scenes on TV of employees arriving this morning for work at a Future Shop location only to find out that it is permanently closed and they no longer have a job!
Brutal. I had good service at Future Shop in the past, but I will shun Best Buy for sure for treating employees this way.
No going out of business sale?
Isnt that just sweet…now who will honour all of my warranty’s I bought and paid a good penny for…that is why I use visions most of the time…
they have closed the doors,
now willlay off staff,
bring in new staff to remark all the goods as Best Buy instead of Futureshop
and then hire new staff and the reopen…maybe
Just went to the Best Buy home site to see about the warranty issue…according to the web site our Prince George store is not going to be reopened…anyone else hear different…I paid good money for a warranty on a laptop that I might have to send to Vancouver and who knows when you will get it back….anyone else in this boat….
“now who will honour all of my warranty’s I bought and paid a good penny for”
Bestbuy will be honoring all warranties and gift cards for Futureshop.
They have not announced which stores are closing (yet), and story states that they will be closing the ones that are where there are already a Bestbuy. Which is not here. So you are good. People are completely making sh*t up. They HAVE NOT SAID that they are making people re-apply for their jobs (yet).
I always have had decent service and competitive prices at Future Shop, and will go and check out the Bestbuy. Bought a computer from them once, in Edmonton, and they were decent to deal with.
What will happen to the warranties thru Future Shop?
Oops. Should of read above comments first.
According to story on CKPG the PG location will reopen under Best Buy banner.
Between the taxes , fees , tariffs , user fees , premiums , tolls , the miriade of hiden gov money grabs and the banks . There is not enough disposable income to support a thriving retail industry . Safeway had to sell out . Target . Now future shop . They say a fish rots from the head down . No wonder steve is terrified to table a very much over due federal budget . Why would he be this afraid ? Because even he knows . ITS ABOUT THE ECONOMY STUPID . Maybe canadians will clue in and realize just how incompident this goof is .
Good bye America go home and stay there.
Cheers
Notice on sign at Future Shop says it will re-open on April 4th as Best Buy. So that’s about it.
Ataloss. Most of the things you mentioned come under Provincial Jurisdiction. Your rush to blame Harper for everything leaves your credibility wanting.
I strongly suggest that you read up on the responsibilities of the various levels of Government, ie: Federal, Provincial, and Municipal,. This would allow you to make comments based on fact rather than fiction.
**The one thing that is a bar against all learning, and that will keep you in everlasting ignorance, is contempt prior to investigation.**
Yes that final statement is true . Putting tariffs on books (education ) and then taxes on top of that is just harpers way of putting more brakes on education . He needs a dumbed down electorate fighting over crumbs that the useful idiots imagine they will receive . I see your other hero baird has moved in with Mulroney at barrick gold (t.abx) . What a laugh . He’s never ever done anything in business before . If I owned any barrick gold stock I’d sell first thing Monday . They should rename barrick to Munk and the monkeys .
Purolator and Canada Post seem to be doing a huge amount of business delivering packages to Canadian consumers, packages that contain items that Canadian consumers ordered online from U.S.A. retailers!
The vast majority of Canada’s population lives within a 1 hour drive from the Canada/U.S.A border. There seems to be a never-ending line up of Canadian consumes heading south to spend their money looking for cheaper gas, cheaper milk, eggs and cheese, cheaper clothes and to Future Shops chagrin, cheaper electronics!
Canadian consumers complain that prices are too high in Canada, so they spend their dollars down south.
Canadian consumers want and demand Government services for everything under the Sun. We have more Government services and we have higher taxes and higher fees. We also demand and need higher wages in order to survive in our over-taxed Government supporting economy.
Retailers have to pay higher fees, higher taxes and higher wages to a Consumer base that takes it’s higher incomes and heads to the States!
……and we wonder why we are losing Retailers???
Some are quick to point their fingers at “steve” instead of realizing who the real dummies are! I’m willing to admit that I am part of the problem as I have purchased items online from the U.S.A. How many others are willing to do the same?
How many others just want to blame “steve”!
Right on Retired 02!
Stephen Harper is a lotta things but I am pretty sure he isn’t responsible for this LMAO
Blaming **Steve** is the lazy mans way of dealing with problems. Whatever goes wrong is because of **Steve**
Canadians work all over the world for various Industries and Governments, Universities, Banks, etc; however when Baird goes to work for a private firm, somehow there is something wrong. Hmmmm.
Could be that ataloss has an undiagnosed case of OFoSHA- Obsessive Fixation on Steven Harper Affliction. It might even progressed into a case of MMCoSHS- Massive Man Crush on Steven Harper Syndrome:P
Thornton hired newt Gingrich at the same time . Lyin Brian , newt the adulter , and the fancy lad . Comedy doesn’t get any better . Political hacks get flushed into the barrick septic tank . Lets hope for the share holders that they will not make any desitions .
Palopu, barrick gold is not a private firm . It is a publicly traded corperation . You don’t know much about business either , do you ?
What happens with future shop gift cards?
Ataloss, go take your meds! You are getting way too worked up! You need to slow down a bit. It’s obvious from your typing and spelling that your fingers are working faster than your brain!
It’s the weekend! Take a pill! Chill out Dude, before you burst a blood vessel, haha!
Time for the “Proudly Canadian” window decals to come down.
While Barrick is indeed publicly traded Baird going there is considered to be a move from the public sector to the private sector which I think I what Palopu meant. Barrick has operations all over the globe. In addition to Canada and the US they have stakes in mines or developments in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Australia, Papau New Guinea, Dominican Republic, Saudia Arabia and Zambia. Barrick is a company that has to constantly deal with foreign governments and bureaucracy. Seems to me it would be an astute hire to add someone with Baird’s background in foreign affairs to their international advisory board.
Thanks for your concern HG . Are you familiar with CPPIB ? You’ve heard of the Business/ politics revolving door ? Do you know how much money is in there ? It’s our cpp investment arm . It’s your money . So on top of the pension that the fancy lad gets , he , like so many others will slither down the path that you have paid for . Its such a shame how financially illiterate canadians are . That obviously applies to civic illiterateracy . If you can’t even read through typos and auto fills HG , then you have a bigger problem than I do .
Don’t flatter yourself Ataloser, oops Ataloss! You definitely have bigger problems! ;-)
I see the juvenile schoolyard kids are at it again – “You’re wrong!”, “No you are!”, “No, I’m not. You are!”. “Na, na, nana, na!.”
Welcome ammonra! Join us! After all, you do fit right in, haha! ;-)
You’ll have noticed that I rarely comment anymore, Hart Guy. I got tired of banging my head against a brick wall. Thanks for the invitation, but no.
You guys can look forward to higher prices. Here in Kanata, we have a Best Buy about 100 yards away from Future Shop. They are roughly the same size and would be a little bigger than the Future Shop in PG.
Whenever I was looking for something, Future Shop was usually a few bucks cheaper on the exact same item. I have no idea why it was like this as they were co-owned. I would check out Best Buy, note the price, head to Future Shop and pick it up there to save a bit of money if they had it in stock.
How could an Egyptian God of fertility with the head of a goat possible get tired of banging ones head against a brick or any other wall . There’s just no truth in advertizing any more . Ammonra ? Is it really you ?
welcome back Peeps – oops, I mean Ataloss
“Employees at several Future Shop stores in Canada showed up for work this morning, only to find the doors locked” – wow…Nice way to treat your most valuable asset!
Always not good news when people lose work. Having said that, 02 must throw everything in his home that is made in the USA into the garbage. Have a nice weekend throwing stuff away ,,,pretty good chance every thing else is Chinese. Throw that away as well :) You are retired :) give you something to do.
People that indulge into this throw away society should stop and think what is most important in life.
monkeyseemonkeydo, 02 can correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that 02, who lives in Abbotsford, makes a habit out of going across the border for cheap gas, cheap groceries etc!
Futureshop went about their store closures in a pretty crappy way. There’s no dispute of that coming from me! But how can a person tell an American company to go home and stay there, if the person doing the telling indulges in cross boarder shopping?
Posted on Saturday, March 28, 2015 @ 11:07 AM by Hart Guy
Well written and oh so true.
Too many good Canadians support our american cousins’ retail businesses, in the name of saving dollars.
Hey I like saving money too, and will shop around to try and get the best value, but if you don’t support your own country by spending your money here, you are contributing to the problem.
Last year, the Conservative government went a long way toward discouraging shopping at home in Canada, by raising the limits on tax free purchases brought back to Canada from the u.s.a.
Why in hell would they do that?
Every Canadian dollar spent south of the 49th is a dollar not earning sales tax for our governments.
metalman.
Isn’t there any labour laws preventing these sudden closures in Canada? Also, should be laws in telling the employees first of closures before telling the media.
metalman, I’m a Conservative and I agree with you that the Conservative government certainly helped to discourage shopping at home by raising the limit. Not a good idea guys!
Unfortunately, the vast majority of our population, that would be all of those people living with a one hour’s drive of the border seemed fine with it. After all, they would be the ones best able to take advantage of the increase. The NDP, the Liberals and the Greens also seemed rather ok with the increase, or at the very least they had little opposition to it, perhaps out of fear of losing votes!
Small and medium sized businesses were forced to face yet another challenge to remaining in business!
They did it for political points, plain and simple.
The increases came at the time when people were complaining that prices for the same things were more expensive in Canada, especially in light of the overvaluation of the dollar that was occurring at the time. So the response was to let people buy more stuff where it was cheaper.
Posted on Sunday, March 29, 2015 @ 12:32 AM by DPJ
Isn’t there any labour laws preventing these sudden closures in Canada? Also, should be laws in telling the employees first of closures before telling the media.
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Nope. So long as the company pays the required wages they can close their doors whenever they like. Since they are not going bankrupt I think that every employee will receive their due pay. It would be a gesture of good will if they were paid more then the minimum they are owed but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I can’t blame Future Shop for the lack of notice. All it takes is one or two disgruntled ex-employees and their shelves would be bare!
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