Best Buy Canada To Close 15 Stores, Laying Off 800 Employees

According to several reports I read, the major contributing reason for their troubles is people going there and taking a look at the stuff and then ordering it from the internet for a little less. I don't know how they can alleviate that problem. It does cost them a little more than the warehouses with just an internet presence.

Another problem is they also own Futureshop. The local Best Buy that is closing is a 1 minute drive from me the local Futureshop is a 3 minute drive from me.

This ths the news wire.
BURNABY, B.C. - Best Buy Canada says it has closed eight Future Shop and seven Best Buy big box stores across the county.

The company says as part of its "transformational plan" it will open Future Shop small concept web stores and Best Buy Mobile locations across Canada in the next year and a half.

It says the closures are part of its efforts to "reduce unnecessary costs, eliminate redundant operating systems and to optimize its real estate strategy to reflect... a changing retail landscape."

Best Buy has been facing tough competition from discounters and online retailers, a victim of what's known as "showrooming" — when people browse in stores and then buy the products more cheaply online from competitors such as Amazon.

Best Buy Canada says it continues to operate more than 120 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile locations along with over 140 Future Shop stores across the country.

In Quebec, the windows at the Sherbrooke outlet were covered in paper and a sign there announces the closure of that location.

Employees arrived for their shift Thursday morning and were met by security guards and closed doors. They did not receive advance notice of a closure.

In St. John's, NL, a Best Buy and Futureshop are practically across the street from each other. That was pretty stupid.

I worked at Future Shop for some time and I actually prefered FS to BB. FS employees were trained on both products and technologies to have a better understanding of what they are selling.

Also I remember when BB was coming to Canada, they opened up BB either across the street from a FS or down the street.

Best Buy has to match online pricing - at the minimum they have to guarantee they will match the price of an Amazon Prime item on-the-spot. That's a real sticking point, sometimes I'm in the store and I really want to just buy an item I know costs less online and they won't budge. People are rational actors - nobody owes Best Buy anything... if their model is not competitive they will not survive.

When it's just Amazon left... you think the prices on goods will remain competitive? Not on your Nelly.

What about custom theater installers that typically sell higher quality products? What about those manufacturers (Triad, Paradigm, Totem, Dynaudio, Anthem, Parasound, Lexicon, JBL Pro, Procella, etc. etc. etc.)? What will happen to them? Will they go internet direct and how easily will you be able to demo these products? Who will install them? Home theater is going to go through a Dark Age just as technology is supposedly improving.

Now US is closing 200-250 stores.

I hope they keep mine...I have a Magnolia HT in mine I like to browse. And that's where I usually buy all my electronics/TV's.

Please don't make me shop at Walmart for a TV.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/eight-retailers-that-will-close-the-most-stores-173320796.html