W. Kel. Future Shop Closing!

[Steve-O]

Chains like this will identify growing markets and get in early. Their wallets are deep enough to cover losses until such time as the store realizes its potential.Sleep Country and Home Depot are probably using this strategy. As it says in the few news articles I've read regarding BB/FS, as a whole they are losing business to online sales and other retailers and made a decision to trim the under performers from their roster across Canada. Does this mean that Westbank/West Kelowna is a retailers Black Hole? No. But for sure when the plans were laid for all these new strip malls back in the boom times it likely looked like a solid bet and as a result was overbuilt for where the economy is today. Hind sight is 20/20.

The losers here are the employees and West Kelowna. The employees for obvious reasons and West Kelowna because people are not looking at the big picture, they are jumping to the same conclusions that are being posted on here.

I doubt the retail picture of WK is unique. In fact I heard that the big strip mall area in Balzac, north of Calgary went through this process but was able to realize its potential as the Alberta economy rebounded.

[underscore]

Interesting one of the posters here said its ok they do most of their shopping on-line !
That's one of the reasons stores are closing cant compete with no overhead,no staff,no benefits,no rent !
Keep on buying all your stuff on-line and soon there will be no stores and other services for people to work at and guess what people wont have jobs and cant buy anything any way "ah but I saved a buck right "

The place I do most of my tech buying from is based out of a brick and mortar store in Vancouver, but they have a great website and reasonable pricing (ie not a 3000% markup on cables). Futureshop has absurd pricing on many, many items, their service department is no better and their extended warranties are a massive ripoff. The extra money you're spending there isn't going to local employees anyways, it's going to some rich CEOs and investors.

[GenuinelyInterested]

I know this is not about W. Kel. FS, but this announcement just came out an hour ago. Sort-of related.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2 ... yoffs.html

[Triple 6]

^there is a Sears on the West Side. They sell major appliances.

[LoneWolf_53]

Interesting one of the posters here said its ok they do most of their shopping on-line !
That's one of the reasons stores are closing cant compete with no overhead,no staff,no benefits,no rent !
Keep on buying all your stuff on-line and soon there will be no stores and other services for people to work at and guess what people wont have jobs and cant buy anything any way "ah but I saved a buck right "

You sure you don't want to rethink that assessment of yours?

You don't think NCIX has inventory, staff, overhead, office equipment, etc., to provide the excellent service that they do?

They also provide business for UPS, Purolator, Canada Post, etc.

There's also nothing preventing Future Shop, Best Buy or anyone else from trying to get a share of the same market.

Welcome to the 21st Century, the business model simply isn't what it once was, and never will be again.

Why on earth would I want to waste my time, driving around Kelowna looking for computer components, simply to find out what I'm after isn't available anyway, then after wasting gas and time wind up going online and finding my parts in short order, then generally receiving them within 48hrs to boot?

I'm sure there will always be larger ticket items that a person will wish to see firsthand, myself included, as I wouldn't order a 60" TV without having first seen it operating in a showroom, but many smaller items can be more efficiently sourced elsewhere.

My take on it is that places such as Future Shop and Best Buy need to focus on putting more emphasis on stock levels and competing in certain areas via online purchase options, while identifying which items it makes sense to have in a showroom because the consumer still wishes to see them there.

I don't need to see a hard drive, or optical drive, or small PC monitor for that matter, as I know full well what they look like, and armed with the model and part number can locate it online for the best price.

NCIX and Direct Canada have noted these trends, and excel in the online shopping area.

From what I read, it would appear that Best Buy is just now beginning to take note of these trends, albeit somewhat late, and is about to try and play catchup to address the problem.

There's still room for local business to exist and prosper, and I do my best to support local merchants, but it has to be beneficial to both sides. I can't afford to pay 30-40% more for an item to support local, when I can have it at my door for a lot less, and subsequently charge my clients less in the process. The locals need to know what it pays to stock and what it doesn't, more so now in this internet age than ever before.

[westbankkid]

I think what a lot of people on here are missing is the fact that Best Buy the owner of Future Shop is in deep financial trouble. They are closing stores all over North America as their sales are in the toilet. Apparently Amazon for one is killing them.
Check the financials on "bestbuy.com"

[Spocky]

Let's not be blind to a reality. WK FS opened 16 months ago, making it one of the newest in the country. It's the only one in BC and only three in Western Canada to close. That makes it very difficult to claim that it has nothing to do with WK's stagnant retail dynamic and it's some sort of head office restructuring. IMHO WK retail is in trouble and the alarming vacancy rate will certainly be increasing even further in the near future.

[TimmyE]

It comes as no big shock that they are closing. In no particular order:

Strike one was opening in overbuilt Westside
Strike two was opening during a recession (not their fault, but timing is everything)
Strike three was corporate greed. Too many of their stores too close together. I'm waiting for either Best Buy or Future Shop in Kelowna to pack it in.

[vancity604]

Maybe the target company purchased it? who know's I did not read the artical but could be likely a new store want's that site and paid out the rear for it.

[southernfrau]

Lots of places are laying off right now or closing their doors. News just said 700 across Canada from Sears. My daughter got word today that she and 80 or more are being laid off in two weeks at Moduline in Penticton. She's out of work again.
She just got the job down at Moduline back in October after losing her job in West Kelowna - she was working for Everything For A Dollar and they closed their doors so she moved on to Moduline.
Tough all over these days.

[NAB]

Nanaimo Daily News
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013
Employees at the Best Buy in Nanaimo were shocked and saddened this morning when they showed up to work to find they no longer had a job.

The corporate electronics dealer suddenly closed its Vancouver Island locations on Thursday morning. Nationwide the company closed seven Best Buy stores and eight Future Shops.

Security guards were posted at the front doors of the outlets. In Nanaimo, one handed out Future Shop coupons to customers and escorted employees that had reported for duty into the store.

*************************900 employees in total laid off. At the end of the day it's the consumer who rules the economy, and when the average consumer gets tapped out on so many fronts........

Edit to add: In British Columbia, five Best Buy stores were closed along with one Future Shop – the West Kelowna store. Best Buy stores shut down in BC include Queensborough; all three Best Buy stores on Vancouver Island – Nanaimo, Victoria, Langford (Westshore Town Centre), and the Best Buy store in South Surrey.

[GenuinelyInterested]

^there is a Sears on the West Side. They sell major appliances.

Did you see this 1.5 hours ago?

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/sears- ... 41365.html

[SurplusElect]

Yesterday our PM was bragging about how many jobs the Conservatives have created.

He must be talking about jobs they have created...in China.

[LoneWolf_53]

Yesterday our PM was bragging about how many jobs the Conservatives have created.

He must be talking about jobs they have created...in China.

Give him some tips, I'm sure he's open to your solutions to global economic problems.

[SurplusElect]

Give him some tips

He's too busy trying to set up deals with slave owners in China to listen, I'm pretty sure.

I'm just saying the PM was busy bragging yesterday, and then today some of Canada's biggest retailers close up shop and lock their employees out.

This is not about me, sorry.