Anti-Competitive News: 15 Best Buy and Future Shop stores to close

[art-in-the-making]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/01/31/business-best-buy-closure.html

To a certain extent, no doubt about it, the old gambit of

1. Flood the market

2. Decimate the competition

3. Cut costs (and close stores) as competition falters

Exactly what happened. Best Buys and Future Shops (same US corporation) went up everywhere, sometimes side-by-side. Smaller Canadian chains (such as Dumoulin in Quebec) eventually went belly up. Now the big boxes will close all but the most profitable, fairly safe in presuming that consumers will buy at one of their other stores.

The silver lining: hopefully this will open the door for some of our great eBay sellers to pick up some of the slack... 🙂

Not to suggest there weren't possibly other factors in these closures, such as Best Buy's own online efforts.

[stevephinn2012]

Exactly what happened. Best Buys and Future Shops (same US corporation) went up everywhere, sometimes side-by-side

future shop---1695 merrivale road in ottawa

best buy--1701 merrivale road in ottawa

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

mikey.....????? in ?????

[stevephinn2012]

mikey.....????? in ?????

not sure what that means!

best buy 4379 walker road-windsor

future shop-4115 walker road -windsor

you can google lots

[stevephinn2012]

both in the northland village mall in calgary

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

not sure what that means!

LOL!

[dipmicro]

Its crowded and big chains are eating each other. I read Sears is getting out of TVs and electronics because of cut-throat markups.

There is TigerDirect, Brick, Walmart, Zellers/Target, Source, Staples, Costco, then smaller chains like FactoryDirect, 2001 Audio Video, Sony Store. Then there is small ones in every town. Online : Amazon, NCIX, NewEgg, CanadaComputers, etc.

[pierrelebel]

The reality is that the company (Best Buy) has been losing money and its shares have been going down for years:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BBY&t=5y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c= 

In the last reported quarter Best Buy lost over one billion (that is one thousand millions) dollars on sales of 50 billions.

Too much competition from online retailers and stores such as Apple, WalMart, etc...

"Best Buy and other big box electronics retailers have struggled with sagging sales as customers have turned to discounters or online sites for their purchases. Or they come to Best Buy to check out products or solicit advice from store staff before making their purchase elsewhere, a practice known as "showrooming.""

[stevephinn2012]

future shop--1080 wellington-LONDON

best buy--1051 wellington-LONDON

future shop 202 bell blvd-bellville

best buy-167 bell blvd-bellville

a lot of these side by side stores are staying open

[ilurkthereforiam]

The silver lining: hopefully this will open the door for some of our great eBay sellers to pick up some of the slack..

Do you sell the same stuff that they sell?

[art-in-the-making]

In the last reported quarter Best Buy lost over one billion (that is one thousand millions) dollars on sales of 50 billions

+/- what $5-20 bil in evasive accounting and gad knows what other scams tucked in amongst $50 bil of sales 

Do I sell that stuff?

LOL No lurk, my handle is art, not pod

crowded market? Not so sure... furniture stores trying to look exciting inside maybe... Not many electronics stores

[ilurkthereforiam]

The omly online sellers who benefit from this are those who sell the same stuff as them.

I would rather buy from a brick and mortar than buy online.

[tobyshitzu]

op is completely delusional.

They aren't closing because they killed the competition, they are closing from too much strong competition.  Walmart is increasing share in electronics.  Amazon is now quickly expanding in Canada (just launched prime and FBA here).  And Target arrives in a couple months

They will open up more of their smaller format stores, bestbuy mobile and the futureshop.ca store they have in brockville that just stocks the top 10% or so sellers in far less space.

[art-in-the-making]

Post 12:

I guess some people think the purpose of putting up Best Buy and Future Shops everywhere was to improve city ambiance and decorate those large parking lots.

Target? Amazon? Combined market share in Canada currently what? Not enough to make Best Buy print an extra flyer let alone close stores.

So you think they're going to close stores to pave the way for new competition? haha sounds like you think Best Buy's management is very polite!

[bilge21]

future shop--1080 wellington-LONDON

best buy--1051 wellington-LONDON

Are you saying these two are staying open or being closed? Makes more sense to close the Future Slop way the hell out in the boondocks called Hyde Park.

Laast year, Best Buy and Future Shop were at the top of my bookmarks list for electronics that I browsed for price checks, sales, and stock. This past year, NCIS, TigerDirect and Newegg have replaced them and are the ones I have been buying from.

I haven't bought anything from BB or FS in over a year now.

[ilurkthereforiam]

I buy my electronics at Canada Computers or Staples.

I save $20 on buying a $150 laser printer at Staples instead of Tiger Direct.

[tobyshitzu]

"Target? Amazon? Combined market share in Canada currently what? Not enough to make Best Buy print an extra flyer let alone close stores."

They've already said they'll report q4 same store sales down in the USA (but not as much as had been expected), and the even worse performance in Canada is hurting results

Suspect there will be many more of their current stores closed soon and be replaced with their cellphone only store or the futureshop.ca format like they have in Brockville, where its  a fraction of the size and only stocks the top 10%~ of sellers.  With almost everything they sell having shrunk is size they can sell it from vending machines instead of huge stores http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/press/best-buy-canada-teams-up-with-giant-tiger-and-expands-self-serve-kiosk-program-into-stores/pc8243.aspx?path=05b1d1eaca95c79f77260b8d9ac64730en08

The notion they are closing because they have conquered the market is laughable.  The entire corps survival is in question

[nuvistors]

How can a company like Best Buy  keep a kiosk operating

The mcGuinty Liberal government closed the Service Ontario kiosks because they could not even operate reliably when selling things like license plate stickers.

Then the difference may be corporate  know-how and Liberal govenment   know-nothing

666

[art-in-the-making]

With almost everything they sell having shrunk is size they can sell it from vending machines instead of huge stores

"laughable"? haha I'll get back to ya - too busy right now going back and forth from my home theater to my fridge the size of a Mazda pick-up.

[ypdc_dennis]

Lets flashback to 2001 when the headline was

Best Buy snaps up Future Shop for $580 million

Before the share buyout, Canadian owned Future Shop was announcing plans to build 32 new superstores to compete against Best Buy, which was planning to open 65 superstores in Canada.

Source: www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2001/08/14/futureshop140801.html

and back-to-the-future:

Will be interesting to see what effect Target will have on the market when they start opening stores later this year. In my area the local Zellers location has undergone a major reconstruction and is poised to reopen as a Target location in a couple of months.