Today it was announced quite out of the blue that all Future Shop stores are immediately closing across the country. As late as last night there wasn’t any hint that this was in the works and everyone is surprised, even the poor employees who are now out of a job.
For those outside of Canada Future Shop is almost identical to Best Buy- in fact it is owned by Best Buy. The electronics chain sold everything from computers to televisions to movies, and even washers and dryers. They also had Best Buy style extended warranties and a computer and television servicing team akin to the Geek Squad called ConnectPro.
In hindsight the end of Future Shop should have been obvious. Many of the stores were located across the street from a Best Buy making it a questionable practice for Best Buy to keep both its own store and a Future Shop open in the same location. But Future Shop was more known than Best Buy in Canada so Best Buy decided a slow introduction in order to build the brand while still operating the popular Future Shop stores was the best strategy.
Half of Future Shops will be closed permanently and the other half will be converted to new Best Buys.
I used to work at Future Shop many years ago. I was a computer repair technician there. It was a very fun place to work. The employees were great and the work was interesting. It is sad to see this piece of my past dying away.
It is unfortunate that Future Shop decided to terminate all of their employees without any warning whatsoever. One day these employees had a job and the next they were out of job and on the street. Best Buy spokespeople claim they will take care of their employees but surprise terminations don’t seem very caring to me. If this large corporation actually cared about its people then it would have announced the closures a month or so in advance and given its employees time to find a new job.
I’m hearing that employees will receive severance but people on twitter are reporting the severance will be very little. One woman writes that her daughter will just receive one week of severance.
Not cool Best Buy.
So adios Future Shop. I enjoyed checking out your product displays and I had a great time working there years ago. Unfortunately brick and mortar stores selling easily shippable products like laptops or streamable products like movies are doomed to be a thing of the past. Enjoy the ones that remain for as long as they do.