Future Shop is Gone!

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nickbits

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2008
4,122
1
81
Number1 said:
I agree, some locations had both stores within feets of each others.

I always preferred future shop for some reason.
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I did too actually buy that probably had more to doh with it being there first. I didn't realize they had both stores so close in some areas. Makes sense to close some. In Windsor they are spread out, or at least they were when I lived there.
 
mmntech

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
Best Buy has owned Future Shop for over a decade now. I'm actually surprised it took them this long to consolidate the business. There's a few areas where they had stores literally across the street from each other.

I was never a fan of Future Shop. I think their staff were on commission, because they always used to harass you. Haven't been there in years. Still, its sad to see another fairly iconic Canadian retailer go bust. They were one of the first big box electronics stores, and the only one that survived the Dot Com bubble.
 
Imp

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Number1 said:
I agree, some locations had both stores within feets of each others.

I always preferred future shop for some reason.
Click to expand...

I've always preferred Best Buy. They seem to leave me alone more and because they only arrived in the past decade-ish, most stores I've been to are big box format -- lot of FS shops I went to were "traditional" stores crammed full of stuff. The one that used to sit near Yonge and Dundas was hilarious.

It's kind of about time given that BB bought FS long ago. It felt like their websites were offering nearly identical products for sale over the past year for things I went looking for.

In Toronto, at Bay and Dundas, there's a Futureshop literally across the street from a Best Buy. Looks like they're closing the Best Buy from the news -- my guess is that the FS has smaller square footage and the FS has a more "prime" location. Lot of layoffs though.
 
yllus

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
20,577
432
126
Future Shop had a commission-based salesforce while Best Buy wasn't; as a result, FS employees usually made far more money but BB employees were pushed just as hard.

Despite the stresses of the job, I had a fun few years working at Best Buy around 2001 or so. Their business model is antiquated, though - I'll pay a certain amount in a convenience fee of sorts to get something right now from a retail location, but usually I can wait. How they solve that puzzle is a billion dollar question.
 
Number1

Number1

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,881
549
126
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,719
13,851
126
www.anyf.ca
This is quite sudden too. Sucks for all the employees. :/ This seems to happen way too much now days. Though I have to admit, I tend to buy online way more than locally and that's what's killing the local retail stores, it's just so cheap to buy online now and often more selection.

What's amazing is how much money retail companies pour into building stores only to close them years later. Like look at Target. That was barely a year. Future Shop lasted a decent time mind you. But still, it feels like that building is practically brand new, but guess it's been at least 10 years now. I remember when they built it, I was excited thinking it would be a computer store where you can buy motherboards and other components like that, but it's basically just a glorified Walmart electronics department.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,719
13,851
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Imp said:
Shit... 1500 jobs lost.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fut...ross-canada-some-to-become-best-buy-1.3013534

That's on top of the 15k-ish from Target closing. Oil sands are tanking, lot of layoffs seem to be going unreported by the media. Good times ahead!
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Yeah it's getting bad. So many jobs lost, none created. Companies are just too greedy.

Lot of these places that close were probably not in the hole, I'm sure they were in the black, but the CEOs decided they were not making enough, so they closed. They always want more.
 
mmntech

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
Imp said:
Shit... 1500 jobs lost.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fut...ross-canada-some-to-become-best-buy-1.3013534

That's on top of the 15k-ish from Target closing. Oil sands are tanking, lot of layoffs seem to be going unreported by the media. Good times ahead!
Click to expand...

The economy has been tanking since the end of last summer, but none of the three major parties have really acknowledged it. I think that's because nobody knows what the solution is. Going to be interesting for whoever gets elected later this year. Liberals and NDP will toss around their rhetoric but they're just as lost as the Conservatives are. You just need to look at the state of things at the provincial level for proof.
 
Number1

Number1

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,881
549
126
Red Squirrel said:
This is quite sudden too. Sucks for all the employees. :/ This seems to happen way too much now days. Though I have to admit, I tend to buy online way more than locally and that's what's killing the local retail stores, it's just so cheap to buy online now and often more selection.

What's amazing is how much money retail companies pour into building stores only to close them years later. Like look at Target. That was barely a year. Future Shop lasted a decent time mind you. But still, it feels like that building is practically brand new, but guess it's been at least 10 years now. I remember when they built it, I was excited thinking it would be a computer store where you can buy motherboards and other components like that, but it's basically just a glorified Walmart electronics department.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shop

I went to future shop to get my electronic, to wallmart to get the cheap stuff.
Hopefully Best Buy is here to stay.
 
R

Remobz

Platinum Member
Jun 9, 2005
2,564
37
91
Red Squirrel said:
This is quite sudden too. Sucks for all the employees. :/ This seems to happen way too much now days. Though I have to admit, I tend to buy online way more than locally and that's what's killing the local retail stores, it's just so cheap to buy online now and often more selection.

What's amazing is how much money retail companies pour into building stores only to close them years later. Like look at Target. That was barely a year. Future Shop lasted a decent time mind you. But still, it feels like that building is practically brand new, but guess it's been at least 10 years now. I remember when they built it, I was excited thinking it would be a computer store where you can buy motherboards and other components like that, but it's basically just a glorified Walmart electronics department.
Click to expand...

I will give you a little story. My cousin visited me awhile back and wanted to go shopping for some computer parts. The local Best Buy had some items (not that cheap) but many were not in stock or not carried at all. Luckily, I had Amazon premium with free 2 day shipping. So he shopped online and got all his computer parts at cheaper prices within 2 - 4 days.

Shopping online was easy, cheaper and more effective.
 
sandorski

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,801
6,357
126
Not too surprised. There's a FS in the Mall near my place and across the street a standalone BB. I just hope they move the BB into the Mall cause I hate XMas shopping outside a Mall. Only went to the FS a few times a year, mostly just XMas shopping, so it's not a huge loss for me.

That said, the Mall I go to also has/had a Target, which makes this situation a big hit against it.
 
sandorski

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,801
6,357
126
Remobz said:
I will give you a little story. My cousin visited me awhile back and wanted to go shopping for some computer parts. The local Best Buy had some items (not that cheap) but many were not in stock or not carried at all. Luckily, I had Amazon premium with free 2 day shipping. So he shopped online and got all his computer parts at cheaper prices within 2 - 4 days.

Shopping online was easy, cheaper and more effective.
Click to expand...

PC Parts are just better Online. Box Stores hardly ever have anything in Stock, often only having a handful of Video cards for eg, usually not even a full line of Nvidia or AMD, perhaps 1 or 2 Low/Mid cards being sold at ridiculously high prices and/or a previous generation.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,719
13,851
126
www.anyf.ca
Remobz said:
I will give you a little story. My cousin visited me awhile back and wanted to go shopping for some computer parts. The local Best Buy had some items (not that cheap) but many were not in stock or not carried at all. Luckily, I had Amazon premium with free 2 day shipping. So he shopped online and got all his computer parts at cheaper prices within 2 - 4 days.

Shopping online was easy, cheaper and more effective.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's pretty much how it goes. Often I try to find oddball items locally and end up having to buy online because I simply can't find them locally. I don't have the luxery of 2 day shipping here though so I have to wait. Most amazon orders take months for some reason. I have stuff I ordered in like February that I'm still waiting on. For computer parts I usually order from NCIX or Tigerdirect though, and I've had the oddball item that actually did make it in a few days which always amazes me. Not even sure how they do that. It takes a day just to drive to Toronto and that's without stopping anywhere except to eat once. The shipping companies are stopping at every town in between.
 
Last edited:
Imp

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Red Squirrel said:
This is quite sudden too. Sucks for all the employees. :/ This seems to happen way too much now days. Though I have to admit, I tend to buy online way more than locally and that's what's killing the local retail stores, it's just so cheap to buy online now and often more selection.
Click to expand...

I was just reminded that Tiger Direct died a few weeks ago - was it a full closure or just physical stores?

Speaking of online, does Canada have one central warehouse? I've been noticing a lot of similar products between different stores that are "online only" or "drop ship only". These stores also aren't owned, as far as I know, by one umbrella stem.

mmntech said:
The economy has been tanking since the end of last summer, but none of the three major parties have really acknowledged it. I think that's because nobody knows what the solution is. Going to be interesting for whoever gets elected later this year. Liberals and NDP will toss around their rhetoric but they're just as lost as the Conservatives are. You just need to look at the state of things at the provincial level for proof.
Click to expand...

Debt of 163% relative to income, job losses country-wide, but houses keep getting more expensive, can't go wrong there!
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,719
13,851
126
www.anyf.ca
Imp said:
I was just reminded that Tiger Direct died a few weeks ago - was it a full closure or just physical stores?
Click to expand...

From my understanding it was just the Tiger Direct stores, which they only had a few down south, so not really affecting. I always wanted to go visit one if ever I have a chance though, but guess that's out of the question now. :p

Have not ordered from there in a while though, so I wonder if closing the stores also means the warehouses. I actually always thought Tiger direct was Canadian but turns out they just happen to have a store(online) here too like Newegg does (Newegg.ca) So what does that leave us with as far as actual computer parts stores in Canada, NCIX? Hopefully they stick around.
 
sandorski

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,801
6,357
126
Red Squirrel said:
From my understanding it was just the Tiger Direct stores, which they only had a few down south, so not really affecting. I always wanted to go visit one if ever I have a chance though, but guess that's out of the question now. :p

Have not ordered from there in a while though, so I wonder if closing the stores also means the warehouses. I actually always thought Tiger direct was Canadian but turns out they just happen to have a store(online) here too like Newegg does (Newegg.ca) So what does that leave us with as far as actual computer parts stores in Canada, NCIX? Hopefully they stick around.
Click to expand...

Does anyone actually shop at Newegg.ca? I've checked them out a few times over the years and was never impressed.
 
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