GuspazGuspaz MVM join:2001-11-05 Montreal, QC |
Guspaz
MVM
2013-Jan-31 12:43 pm
Futureshop/Bestbuy abruptly shut down a dozen storesFutureshop and bestbuy today abruptly shut down a dozen stores across the country (mostly in Quebec) this morning. Even employees didn't know, they showed up at work this morning only to find signs on the door telling them to go home. Futureshop has yet to give any reason for the shutdowns.
One of the affected stores is my local one, at the Forum, across the street from my workplace. It was the only place in this part of downtown Montreal to buy videogames and electronics in decent selection, so myself and my coworkers are left wondering where the heck we're supposed to shop now. The closest store selling a full slate of videogames is now $5 in transit fares away. |
|
donoreo Premium Member join:2002-05-30 North York, ON |
donoreo
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 12:46 pm
|
|
|
to Guspaz
I was just reading that on CBC web site and I was like What the... But BestBuy been in trouble for a while so it was bound to happen. The company, which is closing stores in the British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario markets, will open a substantial, but unspecified number of its smaller Future Shop web stores and new Best Buy Mobile locations over the next three years across the country. |
|
vue666 (banned)Let's make Canchat better!!! join:2007-12-07 |
vue666 (banned)
Member
2013-Jan-31 12:58 pm
I hate to hear about people losing their jobs.... I guess folks prefer to shop online at Newegg, NCIX, TigerDirect, etc.... |
|
eksterHi there Premium Member join:2010-07-16 Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, QC
1 recommendation |
to Guspaz
Doesn't surprise me... I mean, what kind of a person thinks that it's a good business to own two different stores that offer the exact same thing for the exact same price and place them next to each other everywhere? Twice the space does not mean twice the profit. |
|
donoreo Premium Member join:2002-05-30 North York, ON |
donoreo
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 1:02 pm
said by ekster:Doesn't surprise me... I mean, what kind of a person thinks that it's a good business to own two different stores that offer the exact same thing for the exact same price and place them next to each other everywhere? Twice the space does not mean twice the profit. A lot of them were located beside each other before BB bought FS. I did not think it made sense to keep both brands going. |
|
|
to Guspaz
That might explain why the Centreville store started to carry household appliances a few months ago, having moved almost all of their disc media to a smaller space on the second floor. Before that, only the Forum store sold appliances . It might have been advanced preparation for closing the Forum store. |
|
|
to ekster
said by ekster:Doesn't surprise me... I mean, what kind of a person thinks that it's a good business to own two different stores that offer the exact same thing for the exact same price and place them next to each other everywhere? They'll often have things at different prices, actually. Which in a way makes it worse, because you walk across the parking lot and get the higher priced one to price match + 10% of the diff. |
|
bt |
to donoreo
said by donoreo:A lot of them were located beside each other before BB bought FS. I did not think it made sense to keep both brands going. They've also built new ones beside each other, though. |
|
Wolfie00My dog is an elitist Premium Member join:2005-03-12 |
to Guspaz
It's more than just the FS/BB redundancy, IMO. I find it hard to think of anything for which FS or BB would be my first choice, unless they're having a sale, and even a lot of their sales have been crappy lately, like the awful after-Christmas fiasco. I think they're suffering a bit of the same fate as the old-style department stores. As people become more knowledgeable shoppers, they tend to gravitate towards the specialty stores for many items, which have bigger selections and often better quality and better prices. Being at BB/FS lately has felt like being in a Walmart -- and I don't mean that in any sort of good way! |
|
|
to vue666
said by vue666:I hate to hear about people losing their jobs... It is never good to hear people losing jobs. But people also dont like higher prices or poor sales job (lies?) from FS/BB stores. Mots of the stuff like electronics is mainly for men who dont go for that touch and feel type shopping. Buying online is getting big every year. I am all for online shopping and small stores like NCIX. I am wondering why did it take so long. |
|
TOPDAWG Premium Member join:2005-04-27 Calgary, AB |
to Guspaz
To bad for the workers but at the same time I know the BS they pull to make money and yep the workers are part of it so to damn bad. |
|
|
GuspazGuspaz MVM join:2001-11-05 Montreal, QC |
to milnoc
The Forum location has never carried appliances (other than air conditioners on a seasonal basis). The Pointe-Claire location does, though. Washers/driers/refrigerators/etc. and such. |
|
|
to vue666
said by vue666:I hate to hear about people losing their jobs.... I guess folks prefer to shop online at Newegg, NCIX, TigerDirect, etc.... When a video card of the same make and model is $75 at newegg and $275 at Future Shop, where would you buy it? |
|
|
to Guspaz
Damn! They got the South Surrey BB. That was the one store where I never had an out of stock issue. It was always dead in there so you just knew there would be stock available. |
|
donoreo Premium Member join:2002-05-30 North York, ON |
donoreo
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 1:47 pm
said by Thingamajig:Damn! They got the South Surrey BB. That was the one store where I never had an out of stock issue. It was always dead in there so you just knew there would be stock available. That explains why they closed that one! |
|
digitalfuturSees More Than Shown Premium Member join:2000-07-15 GTA |
to Guspaz
Closing 12-15 of 197 stores just means some stores are not profitable. Like any purchase these days, it pays to shop around.
I've bought PC hardware, consoles and games for years from BB, between sale prices and the points, they have the best deals. On game release days, the game has always been delivered day of release from pre-order. But I buy peripherals and accessories from Amazon.ca because they have the best selection if you include their affiliated resellers, and the best prices. Same for bluray movies. |
|
|
to Guspaz
I believe the Forum location once sold vacuum cleaners on the ground floor. But the last time I was there was probably six to eight years ago, so I can't be sure. Anyway, because of online shopping, big box stores are on their way to becoming obsolete. I usually shop for my big ticket audio/video items at a privately owned place called Codell Audio, and shop online for all of my computer stuff and most of my clothes! There's no better feeling for a guy than to order your stuff from L.L. Bean, knowing it'll fit you perfectly most of the time (including the shoes), it's easy to return stuff that doesn't fit, and you never have to drag your sorry ass to a huge department store looking like a deer caught in headlights! As for the job losses at FF/BB, I can't say I feel sorry for them. They work either for their sales quotas or their commissions. They rarely work for their customer. |
|
koiraHey Siri Walk Me Premium Member join:2004-02-16 |
to Guspaz
Future Shop Erin Mills closing. Here we have a Best Buy on the south side of Dundas and FS on the north. FS is a bit more out of the way and not so much traffic.
Redundancy is the operative word |
|
|
to Guspaz
That sucks. I loved the Atwater Forum FS, bought a lot of stuff there, it was the closest one to my home. The Centreville location sucks, it's too small and the employees are kinda unfriendly. I never bought computer stuff there but it was good for videogames and TVs/monitors. I will miss it. |
|
|
to cpsycho
said by cpsycho:When a video card of the same make and model is $75 at newegg and $275 at Future Shop, where would you buy it? Future Shop, after price matching. |
|
Riamen Premium Member join:2002-11-04 Calgary |
to Guspaz
They closed the MacLeod Trail store here in Calgary. It was a fairly new store that opened in 2011. It had a decent music department that I'm going to miss. |
|
vue666 (banned)Let's make Canchat better!!! join:2007-12-07 |
to ekster
said by ekster:Doesn't surprise me... I mean, what kind of a person thinks that it's a good business to own two different stores that offer the exact same thing for the exact same price and place them next to each other everywhere? Twice the space does not mean twice the profit. In HRM the Bay and Zellers where in the same mall (Mic Mac Mall).... In the US there is a K-Mart often nearby to a Sears outlet... |
|
donoreo Premium Member join:2002-05-30 North York, ON |
donoreo
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 2:17 pm
said by vue666:said by ekster:Doesn't surprise me... I mean, what kind of a person thinks that it's a good business to own two different stores that offer the exact same thing for the exact same price and place them next to each other everywhere? Twice the space does not mean twice the profit. In HRM the Bay and Zellers where in the same mall (Mic Mac Mall).... In the US there is a K-Mart often nearby to a Sears outlet... There is a bigger difference between those. FS and BB carry exactly the same things most of the time. |
|
vue666 (banned)Let's make Canchat better!!! join:2007-12-07 |
vue666 (banned)
Member
2013-Jan-31 2:19 pm
And I can buy shirts, underwear, pants, blank dvds or a tv at Zellers or the Bay.... But like BB or FS the brands may vary...
Hell K-Mart in the USA even carries Craftsmen products... |
|
eksterHi there Premium Member join:2010-07-16 Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, QC |
ekster
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 2:22 pm
Zellers is a cheaper, dirtier, crappier, lesser known brands store. The Bay is the more expensive, fancier, more popular brands store.
You cannot go to Zellers and the Bay and find the exact same shirt, nor see the exact same price. Shirts in Zellers are $5-10, shirts in the Bay are $50-100.
BB and FS are the exact same store, exact same inventory, exact same price. |
|
donoreo Premium Member join:2002-05-30 North York, ON |
to Guspaz
Related from Twitter:
Sears Canada confirms that it is laying off about 700 employees. |
|
donoreo |
to Guspaz
|
|
|
to Guspaz
I disagree with CBC's argument about "showrooming" having a big impact. Here in Canada we don't have anything like Amazon.COM. We have Amazon.CA but they're mostly geared towards music, movies and books (there electronics section is small and expensive).
I would agree that the competition for computer parts is pretty good but i'm guessing thats a small piece of their overall pie.
I do agree it seems completely inefficient to run both BB and FS in Canada (as its the same company). Here in Victoria they build brand new ones in the same shopping complex. It's completely redundant. I'm sure we all end up paying for it in higher prices (to cover all the extra overhead).
I'm guessing the closures are are from a few stores with poor sales.
We're not like the US. We don't have showrooming and our stores don't really try to compete with the US Black Friday holiday. Competition is much less fierce here as we have less options. |
|
TLS2000 Premium Member join:2004-02-24 Elmsdale, NS Ubiquiti UDM-Pro Ubiquiti U6-LR Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-nanoHD
|
TLS2000 to bt
Premium Member
2013-Jan-31 2:53 pm
to bt
said by bt:said by donoreo:A lot of them were located beside each other before BB bought FS. I did not think it made sense to keep both brands going. They've also built new ones beside each other, though. BB bought Futureshop just before their first stores opened up here. They never actually competed with one another. |
|