TORONTO — Future Shop stores across Canada are closing effective immediately, resulting in hundreds of full and part-time jobs being lost.
Best Buy Canada, a subsidiary of Best Buy Co. Inc. that owns and operates both Best Buy and Future Shop stores, said in a statement Saturday that it will be closing 66 Future Shops for good, while 65 others will be converted into Best Buys.
The move will result in the loss of 500 full-time and 1,000 part-times jobs. The affected employees will receive severance, employee assistance and outplacement support, the company said.
Brandon Buchanan, a former Future Shop employee in Toronto who worked in the mobile audio section in 2012, said he was shocked to hear the stores are closing.
"That happened kind of suddenly, because a lot of the people I still know work here apparently, they showed up this morning and it was just locked out," he said. "I had planned on maybe coming back and checking it out for a job again now that I'm back in the city but I guess that's not happening."
Stores in Toronto were locked and covered in paper with signs posted telling customers to shop at nearby Best Buy stores.
The company added there will now be a total of 192 Best Buys in Canada, including 56 Best Buy Mobile stores, and the converted stores will reopen after a one-week closure.
"It doesn't surprise me actually because I know the same company owns both stores so at some point I expected them to merge into one," said Guy McLoughlin, a frequent Future Shop customer.
"I would always go to both stores anyways to comparison shop because occasionally one would be cheaper than the other. I guess I lose that option now but otherwise I'm just thankful we've got something like that still in Canada because if they went I don't know what would be left."
The decision to close the Future Shop stores was made after the company said it reviewed its "real estate footprint," adding a significant number of Future Shop and Best Buy stores are located next to each other, often in the same parking lot. Best Buy bought Future Shop in 2001.
"I don't like the fact that every store that we have in Canada it always ends up going south and it's not good for the economy, for us," said Michelle Derue, who tried to buy headphones at a downtown Toronto store on Saturday.
"The poor workers that are in these places that actually do get sold out to American companies — it's not a good thing for them, they've got families ... you should get some sort of advanced warning when things like this happen because Future Shop is a big store so they should've known this way before just today."
Best Buy Canada President and COO Ron Wilson said the stores will continue to have a "strong store presence" across Canada, adding the move will not change the fact that 80 per cent of customers are within a 15-minute drive to a store.
"Any decisions that impact our people are never taken lightly; our first priority is to support them through this change," Wilson said in the statement. "I want to express my appreciation to the employees who are leaving, for their contributions to Best Buy Canada."
The company also said that all Future Shop gift cards will be accepted at any Best Buy Canada location and online, while product orders, service appointments and warranties will continue to be honoured and Future Shop purchases to be returned or exchanged will also be accepted at any Best Buy.
Best Buy has been facing tough competition from discounters and online retailers, a victim of what’s known as “showrooming” — when people browse in stores and then buy the products more cheaply online from competitors such as Amazon.
Maureen Atkinson, a retail analyst with J.C. Williams Group, said the bigger impact will be on workers, many of whom will find themselves on the job market alongside former Target employees after the company closed its Canadian stores in January, affecting more than 17,000 employees.
"For the Canadian consumer there's probably very little impact. There still is a lot of competition in the marketplace and people are buying these things at everything from Wal-Mart to high end speciality stores," she said.
"I think it's not great if you work in retail. There's a lot of retail people out on the street given the Target closures too. So I think it's going to be a challenge employment-wise."
Some major events in the history of Future Shop
Future Shop closed its Canadian stores on Saturday. Here is a list of major events in the history of the retail chain.
1982: Hassan Khosrowshahi opens first Future Shop location in Vancouver, one year after immigrating from Iran.
1993: Future Shop goes public on Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges as Canada's largest electronics retailer. The company has 36 stores in Canada and two in the U.S., with plans to open 16 new locations within the year.
1999: After a failed expansion into the U.S., Future Shop pulls out of the American market. The retailer closes its 23 locations south of the border after shuttering five others the year before.
2001: U.S. retailer Best Buy purchases Future Shop in a $580-million deal. At the time, the Future Shop name is expected to disappear within three years.
Jan. 30, 2014: About 950 full-time employees are laid off at Best Buy and Future Shop stores across Canada as the company thins out management and combines some of its sales departments.
March 28, 2015 - Future Shop comes to an end. Best Buy Canada announces closure of 66 Future Shop stores, while the remaining 65 will be re-branded as Best Buy.
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