Parent company Best Buy closes all Canadian Future Shop stores

[Rennadrel]

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/business/fu...-buy-1.3013534

UPDATED11:54 AM ET
CBC News
Dozens of Future Shop stores have been closed across Canada, its parent company Best Buy Canada Ltd. announced Saturday.

The company said it was shutting down 66 Future Shop stores effective immediately. Meanwhile, another 65 stores will be closed for a week while they are converted to Best Buy stores.

"Currently, 80 per cent of our customers are within a 15-minute drive to a store and this won't change," Best Buy president and CEO Ron Wilson said in a written release.

The company said approximately 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time positions will be eliminated as a result of the consolidation.

"Any decisions that impact our people are never taken lightly; our first priority is to support them through this change. I want to express my appreciation to the employees who are leaving, for their contributions to Best Buy Canada."

News of the consolidation came as a shock to employees across the country on Saturday morning.

"We were called into a meeting [at 7 a.m.]," said one man employed as a computer sales representative at a Future Shop in Quebec City. "They did offer you choices ... but it was the package deal I took, so that's it."

A woman at the store said, "I'm keeping my job. I'm a customer service rep."

Just completely low, but so typical of an American business to fuck over Canadians like this, then again after how much Target fucked us over too, this really isn't all that surprising.

Either way, Best Buy is just as bad and incapable of competing with online vendors and in Canada the online vendors are dominating the price war against the big box stores like Best Buy and Future Shop. Sucks for the 1500 people who just lost their jobs the most.