Future Shop stores closed across Canada!

CruisnGrrl said:

Certain computers and electronics. Like @roasted said, future shop have a few slightly higher end items. So stuff that staples might have for a higher end computer future shop would have it and best buy would not

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Yep, for example, I bought my Polk RTI towers at FutureShop two years ago. The Polk model lines of speakers go something like this in ascending order of cost and supposed quality (this is off top of my head so I might be getting the model names wrong):

can't remember, TSi, RTi, LSi

Best buy doesn't carry anything higher than TSi. Also, check brands like Margin Logan and see if you can find them at Best Buy at all.....maybe their really low end stuff you might find and that's it. In the US Best Buy has a higher end section called Magnolia or something like that.....which we don't have here so if you wanted the "better stuff" you had to go to Future Shop. I'm putting "better stuff" in quotes because if you really want the high end stuff you'd probably be shopping at a place like BayBloor Radio or some small independent store.

The writing was written on the walls years ago, it's a matter of time before BestBuy goes too. Some retailers and what they're selling are obsolete in my opinion, next to go are the big department stores like Bay and Sears.

As stated, the two stores carried similar brands but in different packages. We bought a lot of Canon camera gear from the Whitby Future Shop store. Anyone who had visited their camera department over the years would have seen some of our photos on their display wall including my shot of Stoner on the Ducati leaned over at Indy. Gee, I wonder what will happen to all those images now.



Also, that particular store carried everything that Future Shop had on line. You want an F4 100-400 zoom lens or an F 2.8 they’d have it in stock. You could by Canon or Nikon pro lens or bodies from Future shop whereas Best Buy mostly sold the lesser models as camera kits with bags and straps.
Both the Belleville Future Shop and Best Buy stores have been going downhill for some time. We had developed a rapport with the manager of the Future Shop store while resolving some problems. He was a good guy and really stepped up for us. Went there Sunday and got a real shock. I can understand how some customers and all the work force feel.

Alice doesn't live here anymore?

I thought it was weird years ago when Best Buy bought out Future Shop that they kept the Future Shop brand AND opened up Best Buys and often in close proximity to the Future Shop stores. As others have posted here you might find some slightly higher end stuff at some Future Shops but there was a lot more overlap than differences in the shopping experiences between the two stores.

Years ago (pre-Best Buy) Future Shop kind of sucked. They did not have a very good return policy and it was way too obvious that their sales people were commissioned. Over the last number of years I have had positive shopping experiences in both outlets. I finally upgraded the two channel integrated amp to an Onkyo receiver and bought Polk Audio speakers to finally have surround sound. I decided I wanted to move up the Onkyo food chain a bit and waited for the price I wanted after Christmas. So, I wrapped up the Onkyo receiver I had bought and off I went to a different Best Buy location and the exchange could not have gone better and I could not have been happier. Same with the 60" Samsung TV we bought two years ago from the Future Shop in Waterloo.

Hopefully the Best Buy can move upmarket a touch and they can duplicate the Web experience of the Future Shop website. I have ordered a lot of stuff on the Future Shop website for store pickup or home delivery.

The big problem with their close competition was Future shop being commission based. Some of their top sales people could make a decent living whereas Bestbuy is hiring people at minimum wage.

Ran into a guy who worked at the Future Shop in Orilia and they are being converted to a Best Buy but none of the current sales staff were offered jobs at the Best Buy. Only a few people for management otherwise they cleaned house.

N3WMAN said:

The big problem with their close competition was Future shop being commission based. Some of their top sales people could make a decent living whereas Bestbuy is hiring people at minimum wage.

Ran into a guy who worked at the Future Shop in Orilia and they are being converted to a Best Buy but none of the current sales staff were offered jobs at the Best Buy. Only a few people for management otherwise they cleaned house.

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The truth is tho with the internet being such an effective tool for research and things like tablets and pc'S becoming consumables that you don't need commissioned staff to sell them