Another Canadian iconic store disappears from the landscape.......

For anyone not familiar with Future Shop, they were the Canadian equivalent of Best Buy US. so much so, that Best Buy purchased them in 2001 in an amicable transaction rather than pursue their own expansion into Canada from scratch.

Since Future Shop had a very strong customer base, the decision was made to keep the stores and brand intact.
Future Shop was very popular with the Steelbook movie community, one of the pioneers in this marketing strategy, offering Canadian collectors unique and exclusive items not available anywhere else in North America, and at times worldwide.
Many of those now long Out of Print (OOP) steelbooks, are highly sought after by collectors.

Source National Post


Best Buy announced Saturday it is shutting down dozens of Future Shop stores across Canada, effective immediately, resulting in about 1,500 job losses.

Of 131 Future Shop locations across the country, 66 will be shuttered for good and the remaining 65 will be turned into Best Buy outlets. That will leave Best Buy with a total of 192 locations across Canada, including 136 big box stores and 56 Best Buy Mobile stores.

Best Buy bought the iconic Canadian electronics retailer for $580 million in 2001, but has operated both brands concurrently.

The company noted in its announcement Saturday that many Future Shop and Best Buy stores are located “adjacent to each other, often in the same parking lot.”

The FutureShop.ca website will also be consolidated into Best Buy’s.

About 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time positions will be eliminated as a result of this move, but Future Shop says affected employees will receive severance and other support.

Best Buy has also promised to invest about $200 million in its stores and web properties, and to hire more staff. It did not say whether Future Shop employees would be given special consideration for those positions; a spokesperson told the National Post that “in some cases employees will be offered the opportunity to reapply.”
On a closing note, like many retailers, they maintained a community forum, and had very strict rules which were rather generic, and open for interpretation by the moderators.
One of those rules pertained to the reference by name, or even suggestion of any other retailer than Future Shop in the forum being strictly forbidden.

I can fully comprehend the reasoning behind this, but to carry it so far as to moderate posts because of the inclusion of "Best Buy" in name or reference, and replacing it with "competitor"was really over the top.

It's really difficult to explain that you purchased a Best Buy Exclusive item through the Future Shop website, and having the said references replaced with "Competitor", including the link to the item, since it stated "Best Buy Exclusive" in the address line.
So to all those moderators from the now defunct Future Shop forum, I have only one thing to say:
Good luck moderating "Best Buy" now, you have your work cut out.