Best Buy and Sears Layoffs

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

I could be totally wrong but back when VHS machines were tens of thousands of dollars, you could rent them from the video store with the videos. Then you would get the 2 head models that could only play. 4 heads could play AND record.

I don't think that's right, two and four head VHS machines could play and record.

The major difference was that when you fast forwarded or rewound a 2 head VCR you wouldn't have a picture, with a four head VCR you could see the picture while fast forwarding a rewinding

At least that's what I remember from my FS days.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

What other Big Box stores? Best Buy killed everything in the US as well (CompUSA, etc.) and are dying down there themselves now.

In Calgary at least, I wonder how Memory Express is making inroads into the home theatre market?

Costco is taking a huge marketshare for sure.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Rudee

My Nephew worked at the Futureshop at Macleod Trail South location. He came to work today and they had a lock on the door and a security guard in place. Nobody was allowed in the premises. He said a Manager told him that the monthly rent for that particular location had increased from $10k a month to $40k since the place first opened in summer of 2011.

Dang, I was hoping that it would still be open for a while. It would have been a good opportunity to get some deals in their guitar department.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I don't think that's right, two and four head VHS machines could play and record.

The major difference was that when you fast forwarded or rewound a 2 head VCR you wouldn't have a picture, with a four head VCR you could see the picture while fast forwarding a rewinding

At least that's what I remember from my FS days.

hmmm i never even knew this till now. I thought that a flying erase head was a head. Guess not.

haha. I remember going to the Brick's midnite madness so i could buy a T-120 VHS tape for $5! i was happy for weeks!

A 6 head VCR has a pair of heads for SP, a pair of heads for EP plus a pair for thew hifi sound. The SP heads are bigger (58 micron) than the smaller (19 micron) heads. The 4 head deck has a pair of EP heads which work fine for SP plus a pair of hifi sound heads. By the way SP looks better on screen than EP does. A few VCR's will record on LP (4 hour mode) speed & all VCR's will play back LP speed tapes. I went to LP from SP on a VCR that would record that speed for my home made tapes. It looks better than EP & almost as good as SP.

[Mango]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Best Buy just opened another store in Calgary too, on 17th. It's a bizarre location, 2nd floor of the building. It was dead dead dead when I went on a weekday last week.

I was chatting to someone who helped design the strip mall and he mentioned they wanted to make it similar to the Future Shop on Robson (I believe?) in Vancouver. I'm not sure that plan will work so well in Calgary though.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Mango

I was chatting to someone who helped design the strip mall and he mentioned they wanted to make it similar to the Future Shop on Robson (I believe?) in Vancouver. I'm not sure that plan will work so well in Calgary though.

Holy professional riot jokes Batman!

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Dang, I was hoping that it would still be open for a while. It would have been a good opportunity to get some deals in their guitar department.

They had a guitar department???

It was just a bunch of low-end starter guitar bundles and packs for kids and beginner adults?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Mango

I was chatting to someone who helped design the strip mall and he mentioned they wanted to make it similar to the Future Shop on Robson (I believe?) in Vancouver. I'm not sure that plan will work so well in Calgary though.

Wow. I can see this blowing up in their faces really fast. I don't think they really understand that 17th Avenue in Calgary is pretty dead in terms of retail traffic (it's more a restaurant/bar street with the odd trendy store).

There is a Futureshop on Robson in Vancouver and one on Yonge Street in Toronto and these streets are like a million times better/more than what 17th Ave is.

[HOOT]

For anyone else wondering about extended warranties I got an email back from them.

Dear HOOT,

Thank you for contacting Best Buy Canada in regard to your Extended Warranty.

We're sorry to hear you feel this way. Rest assured the service will still continue. The sister store will be able to further assist with this. If there are any problems that arise don't hesitate to contact us back. We understand the importance of this issue and apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact us again by emailing customerservice@bestbuycanada.ca or by calling 1-866-BEST-BUY (1-866-237-8289).

Thank you for contacting Best Buy Canada, we appreciate your business.

[1stLand]

I think part of the closure is my fault.

Rather than buy my smart tv at future shop, I comparison shopped and found a better deal on the same tv at Visions.

Maybe visions is stealing market share?

[zamler]

I feel bad for good people that are going to lose their jobs. But I have found the experience at Best Buy and Future Shop to be miserable. Almost every time I go in there, the people are of no help at all, don't know anything about the products I am interested in, and don't seem to want to make even the slightest effort to help me.

There has to be some advantage for paying much higher prices, what good are they if the shopping experience sucks and they don't even have the products on display that I am interested in? I ended up buying what I wanted online, although I did want some hands on time with an actual unit.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by zamler

I feel bad for good people that are going to lose their jobs. But I have found the experience at Best Buy and Future Shop to be miserable. Almost every time I go in there, the people are of no help at all, don't know anything about the products I am interested in, and don't seem to want to make even the slightest effort to help me.

I love going to Best Buy because people leave me alone!

I'm the type of shopper that 99% knows what I'm looking for and what I want before I go to the store so it's pretty rare any Best Buy employee is going to be able to provide me with any information I need.

There has to be some advantage for paying much higher prices, what good are they if the shopping experience sucks and they don't even have the products on display that I am interested in? I ended up buying what I wanted online, although I did want some hands on time with an actual unit.

Futureshop is great because they seemingly have the most liberal price matching policy. London Drugs for example won't match online store prices, say GooglePlay. Futureshop has no problem with ths, it's great.

[DownInFlames]

Here's a good example of why they're failing.

Sandisk 64GB Micro SD card

$169.99 at Best Buy

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...06f7840facen02

$59.00 at Amazon.ca

http://www.amazon.ca/SanDisk-MicroSD...9682071&sr=8-1

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Haha what? That location just opened a couple years ago.

That Macleod trail location was closed and then reopen next door a few years ago.

The problem with that particular location is it can only be accessed from one side of Macleod.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

How can that be? Wouldn't Futureshop have a lease in place?

I think a lot of commercial leases are formulaic instead of a fixed price.

[Rudee]

Originally Posted by darklord700

The problem with that particular location is it can only be accessed from one side of Macleod.

Huh? It's no different than any other business along Macleod trail, or any other divided road. If you're driving North on Macleod you either turn before it on 73rd ave and come around from the back, or you turn after on 71st ave and get to it.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by darklord700

That Macleod trail location was closed and then reopen next door a few years ago.

The problem with that particular location is it can only be accessed from one side of Macleod.

That location has barely been there for a year.

[Sr. Mints]

Warning, I will now be showing off my ability to recall the most useless information . . .

In 2000 when BestBuy announced they were expanding into Canada, I was tremendously excited. Competition is great! A few months later, they announced their purchase of Futureshop for $500-something million, and I was kind of bummed. So much for competition.

A few years later, I was driving down 16th Ave NE one day, and I noticed a "Best Buy opening soon" sign to my right, up on a hill right by Wosk furniture (you know, those guys who were/are going out of business ever other month). I was quite excited again. I knew there was a BestBuy in Red Deer already at this point, but I'd never been in one.

April 4, 2003 was the day they were slated to open, and it happened to be the same week Crispy Creme was to open in the parking lot of Sunridge Mall. Hot donuts, yes! And practically right next door to Best Buy. This was turning out to be a consumerist whore's dream come true!

I went into BestBuy, and was instantly amazed how clean it felt compared to the #### show state most Futureshop's were in. It has long been my observation that Futureshop often has more staff walking around ####ing the dog than they do customers in the store--especially the Sunridge location, and it just wasn't the case in Best Buy. I was sold, and from then on, the only time I ever go to Futureshop is when I'm at Northland Mall (which is, like, two, maybe three times a month) to price check, and ensure Futureshop is still mainting their practice of hiring hot women.

And of all the locations in the city, Northland Mall is where I expected a closure to happen. I still do.

And what competitor are they trying to squeeze out? Circuit City? Dead. HMV? Different Class. Visions? Sound Surround? Dead and dead. Target, maybe. Seems like an outdated tactic in the current climate.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Heh, re: Macleod FS:

1. Close store.
2. Tear down store.
2. Wait.
3. Rebuild store.
4. Close store.
5. ???
6. Profit!

Future Shop never owned the land. They closed the first store after the landowner jacked the prices big time because they wanted to tear it all down and build a newer, fancier strip mall. I have no idea at all why they went back after building the Deerfoot Meadows location though.

Originally Posted by darklord700

The problem with that particular location is it can only be accessed from one side of Macleod.

In a world where cars can't turn left, that would be true. Making left turns at 71st or 73rd avenue was never difficult.


As far as the closure goes, I am not at all surprised. Not only is the entire mall dead (even the Five Guys gets only a fraction of the business other locations do), but the service at that store was abysmal. There were times I tried shopping there only to find that there was nobody manning a single till while the girl at the customer service counter was totally engrossed in a personal conversation on the phone. It was nice not dealing with many other customers when you could get service, however.

[REDVAN]

Sure seems like a lot of us have been to the ghost town that was Kingsland Futureshop. COuld have had many CP meet-and-greets, since we were apparently their only customers.