Effective Saturday, March 28th, all Future Shop stores in Canada have closed.
The news was delivered to employees across the country early Saturday morning as they were showing up for their shifts.
Best Buy — which purchased Future Shop in 2001 for $580 million — said it was shutting down 66 Future Shop stores effective immediately. Another 65 stores will be closed for a week while they’re converted to Best Buy stores.
The Peterborough location will reopen as a Best Buy store on Saturday, April 4th. However, kawarthaNOW has learned that Peterborough sales staff have lost their jobs and will have to re-apply for new positions as non-commissioned sales staff.
In a news release, the company has indicated that Future Shop and Best Buy are consolidating under the Best Buy brand. Best Buy claims it conducted a review of its operations that found a significant number of its Future Shop and Best Buy stores were located adjacent to each other, often in the same parking lot, and this led to the decision to close the 66 Future Shop locations.
As a result of the consolidation, Best Buy says approximately 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time positions will be eliminated. The affected employees will receive severance, employee assistance, and outplacement support.
Canada’s largest consumer electronics retailer, Future Shop was originally founded as a Canadian company in 1982 by Iranian entrepreneur Hassan Khosrowshah. In January 2013, Best Buy announced the closure of 15 stores (seven Best Buy and eight Future Shop locations) in Canada, leaving the company with 131 stores.
According to information posted on the Future Shop website, all outstanding online orders and home deliveries will be fulfilled. For reserve and pickup orders made at a permanently closed location, customers will need to reorder the item at a Best Buy location. Future Shop sale prices, product returns, exchanges, gift certificates will be honoured at Best Buy locations. For more details, visit www.futureshop.ca.
Responding to the closure, Scott Stewart, General Manager of Kawartha TV & Stereo, explains that his store can service most major brands of electronics no matter where they were purchased.
“If someone has bought a product from Future Shop and has a issue with it, bring it to us and we will take care of it,” Stewart says. “We have always had a on-site full service department.”
