Login / Register15 Future Shop and Best Buy stores closing in Canada, including Surrey location
The Best Buy in South Surrey is one of 15 stores being shut down by Best Buy Canada Ltd.
Today (January 31), the Burnaby-based subsidiary of U.S.-based Best Buy Co. Inc. announced it is permanently closing eight Future Shop and seven Best Buy big box stores across Canada. An estimated 900 people will reportedly lose their jobs.
A news release from the company called the move the "first phase of a long-term transformational strategy to optimize the company’s retail footprint across the country".
In B.C., Best Buy stores in Queensborough, Nanaimo, Victoria, and Langford (Westshore Town Centre) are also closing "immediately". The Future Shop store in West Kelowna is going out of business.
Best Buy Canada says it plans to open new Future Shop small-concept "web stores" and Best Buy Mobile locations over the next three years. The company notes it still has over 120 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores and over 140 Future Shop locations in Canada.
"Employees affected by the Best Buy and Future Shop store closures will receive severance support as well as access to employee assistance programs and career transition support. Hiring priority will also be offered to previous employees across the country affected by today’s announcement," the release states.
Wages have not gone up much in the past 30 yrs so at some time people run out of money. They have leveraged as much as they can from their baby boomer houses and their kids don't have jobs which pay enough so the time has arrived.
Press releases may talk about how consumer confidence is doing so well but if you go to the malls not many people have bags in their hands.
The hard cold reality is that Consumer buying patterns have changed and more people are buying their electronic good through online purchases at a cheaper price (Amazon, eBay, Tiger Direct, NewEgg).
The latest Best Buy closures etc are not part of a government conspiracy to starve the masses so the right wing capitalist pigs can get fat off their spoils. It's a simple case of SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Businesses that fail to respond to the demand and prices that consumers want will eventually fail and close down. It's a tricky formula. But this is big reason why some business are successful and some become part of the history books.
I'm sure the fact that the two brands have been competing with one another, coupled with Future Shop's legendarily poor customer service, has been a significant factor in this. Real estate costs no doubt played a role as well – the press release actually describes the stores as closing “as a result of the current real-estate optimization plan”.
Better Service & Better Prices.
The way these Corporations treat Employees is a travesty, no notice of closure if your lucky you get 1 week per year of service as severance.
Employees are viewed as Servant under Employment & Common Law as well as Subservient Sheep by the Corporate Board.
Don't be a Sheep work on your own as a Consultant and/or start your own business and employ the Sheep :)
Prices in the USA are noticeably lower despite a dollar at PAR.
Canadian Border Service does not have the staffing to collect all the sales tax on every cross border purchase so... you often save the HST shopping in the USA.
Lastly, the retail staff in the USA provide a far better experience to their clients ( LIKE ME!!). Canadian retail managers need to up their game and train their staff to know something, and provide a helpful friendly experience. Otherwise.. why would you want to pay more to shop here?
As far as Best Buy and Future Shop go ( both BEST BUY companies), their staff are the most useless and unhelpful hourly workers ANYWHERE.
I've wandered around 2 Best Buy stores and a big Future Shop store and not been approached by any staff. I was browsing for at least half an hour. During that time, I saw staff doing inventory, chatting with each other, phoning friends ...but nobody was helping me look select TVs or computers.
When I talked to one of the staff, I asked him if they were on commission. I expected him to answer no, but he said yes they were. Then why do they ignore the customers? He explained that they only get the commission if they make above a certain level of sales, and that level many believe is too hard to achieve so they just hang about and collect the hourly wage portion of the compensation.
It's very bad management.
been doing this for a while now making decent coin
example bought mw3 for ps3 at target for 14.99 on black friday then returned it here in canada at bestbuy for 59.99
oh yeah
ride like the wind
thesmartone is right Ive done this a few times it works with other products too as long as the sku and barcode are the same you can purchase cheaper products from the states and return them to canada for a lot more, mind you, you usually get instore credit
and remember obama only has 4 years so around 2017 usa might not suck anymore
You're right, there have to be jobs in your city, particularly I think jobs that pay ok while not requiring a PhD
However, I don't cry for Best Buy. They were making nothing. They are resellers of other people's work. And they are being pinched not by discrimination or irrationality but by being uncompetitive with the new model of distribution of other peoples' work.
Something else will fill those spaces.
\The question is not to buy online or in stores. The question is to behave like other countries do, and try to save money where available. Who has ever compared the price of tv in the USA and in Canada? Dishnet in the states offers 200 channels for less than $30 a moth, taxes included. Bell in Canada gives you 30 to 40 channels for $4 a month. Some Canadians, the smart ones, use P.O. addresses in USA to buy cheaper, but I have never heard of an US citizen getting a postal box in Canada... Funny, no? I was looking for a case for my Galaxy Note 2 phone. Thousands to buy online, akways fom the USA, In Canada, I spent several days going to different malls and asking for such a case. Well, they hardly begin to have cases for the Galaxy Note 1, not even on sale. So, the stores hope, against any logic,to sell cases for a phone which is not even available as new anymore, and don;t even think of catching up with what people want now - cases for the new trendy phones! how come yogurts which cost 3 to 4 euros in Europe are sold in Canada for $9? is not it funny that Vonage is twice as expensive in Canada than in the USA? same service, same company... but on one side of the border, people who want prices to be competitive, on the other one, people agreeing to pay whatever! The two dollars have been at par or close too for 4 years now, but books are still 30% more expensive in Canada. And I could go on and on... Compare amazon.ca and amazon.com; two identical online stores, with amazon.ca being 30 to 50% more expensive. The LCBO is the biggest buyer of wine in the world -normal, it shops with a monopoly for 13,000,000 people; but the same wine, sold for 3 euros in France, will cost $15 to 20 in Ontario.
Suckers, I said. And the word is a lot to nice to describe the Ontarian mentality. Do you really enjoy to be abused? cannot you react? maybe that is a wake up call, one which is badly needed!
and now like so many other ugly behemoths they are dying off slowly, just like blockbuster, and soon to be the big 3 cell companies with their ridiculous overcharging.
canada needs to get its head out of north americas ass and get its priorities right... who even needs a NEW t.v. anyways? you can probably find last years model for $10 at the Salvation Army with how wasteful and gadget horny people are these days
a lot of people want new tvs, new computers, new cameras etc and green fields and meadows won't make Canada rich.
For those who say stores rely on someone else's work. they should read and learn a bit more about economics. If you want a computer, but none is available 5,000 miles around your place, don't you think the store close to you brings additional opportunities, therefore value to you?Canada puts itself in a dependant position to the states.
Why?
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