[CopperTec]

in other news.....

Some Best Buy outlets have shut their doors in the last several hours.

The electronics chain appears to have closed at least two outlets in Quebec, in Sherbrooke and in Montreal-area Lachenaie, and five locations in B.C.

And the National Post reports that more than a dozen Best Buy big box outlets will close across Canada.

Calls to Best Buy Canada Ltd. for comment were not immediately returned, but a communications manager with the chain in Victoria Thursday confirmed the B.C. closures.

Elliot Chun, a spokesperson with Best Buy Canada Ltd., said that three Vancouver Island Best Buy locations and the Lower Mainland's stores in South Surrey and Queenborough had closed.

Chun said that several hundred employees in B.C. are affected. He also said that all gift cards and repair contracts from those stores would be honoured instead at Future Shop locations.

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.

The windows at the Sherbrooke outlet are covered in paper and a sign there announces the closure of that location.

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

Calls to that branch are automatically redirected to the area Future Shop, which belongs to the U.S.-based Best Buy Co. Inc. Calls to the Lachenaie branch were directed to the nearby outlet in Anjou, in Montreal's east end.

In both cases, the contact information for the stores was removed from the company website.

Best Buy had announced last March, that it was closing 50 stores in the U.S. The company posted mediocre holiday sales.

Best Buy Canada Ltd. operates 139 Future Shop stores and 58 Best Buy Canada stores across the country.

With files from CBC News

i for one dont really feel bad about it considering their lack of BB lovin'.

[vespajet]

A similar thing happened here in the US in the last year or so. They're shuttered underperfoming locations and in some areas, closed larger stores in order to open smaller stores offering a smaller selection of items. Big box stores are getting hit pretty hard by online retailers and in recent years, there have been chains like Circuit City and CompUSA that liquidated and were bought by companies that relaunched them as online-only retailers. For the most part, Best Buy (and other similar chains) have become the place where people check out an item before buying it from Amazon (or another online retailer).

[CopperTec]

its funny because big box stores did the SAME THING to al lthe ma and pa stores and how they are getting bit in the arse the same way.

the main foreseable problem is that if there are fewer stores to look/touch these products in the future, the consumer will lose a great way to pre-quailify the product

[fernandez21]

i for one dont really feel bad about it considering their lack of BB lovin'.

Well that's mature. You have no idea what the circumstances are for those employees who just lost their jobs and whether they be able to make rent or pay their bills now, or if they have a family to support, but I guess they deserve it because they didn't push BlackBerry hard enough huh?

[CopperTec]

no more worse off than the non corp stores who actually knew product knowledge that were put out of business right? accoutability falls on the employers for this one

[CanAm89]

I predicted this years ago before the first BB closed.

Go to your local BB and look around- empty shelves everywhere, tons of dead floor space, and each product section gets smaller every day.

Best Buy beat Circuit City in the short term, but they'll share the same fate.

[Masahiro]

I think the last thing I bought from BestBuy was my wireless headset. They were advertised at BestBuy for around $180, but I found them online for $100 so I had them price match it. Stuff is so much cheaper online, it's like night and day.

[benvent]

Future Shop near me closed its doors today. And I read the employees showed up for work and were greeted by security guards. They were not even notified of the closure nor knew anything about potential store closings. That's low.....

[CanAm89]

I think the last thing I bought from BestBuy was my wireless headset. They were advertised at BestBuy for around $180, but I found them online for $100 so I had them price match it. Stuff is so much cheaper online, it's like night and day.

I hear you.

I finally bought my "dream car" in November (something I've wanted since I was 13), and wanted a new radio and speakers for it. BB was far too desperate to generate holiday sales, and I managed to get them to price match a package deal from one of those "too good to be true" bait-and-switch sites. Wound up with a 220 dollar Alpine deck and a 100 dollar set of Alpine speakers for under 140 including tax. I'm pretty sure I got it at below cost.

[timmy t]

Why would you have a Best Buy and Future Shop so close together? It is the same company. Why pay for 2 locations?

[CanAm89]

Why would you have a Best Buy and Future Shop so close together? It is the same company. Why pay for 2 locations?

They were hoping to cash in on added brand-name equity with Best Buy.

Fun fact- there are 4 (FOUR!) GameStops within 1/4 mile of eachother (with two in the same mall) near where I live. Originally, they were a GameStop and Electronics Boutique in the mall, a FuncoLand in a nearby Plaza, and then they built another GameStop in another plaza not 300 yards down the road. GameStop eventually bought out FuncoLand and Electronics Boutique (as well as Babbages). They keep all four locations now because it works for them. Humans are creatures of habit, so you'll see the same customers at the same stores, even though another one might be closer.

[richardat]

Why would you have a Best Buy and Future Shop so close together? It is the same company. Why pay for 2 locations?

I know a small city in which a new huge Best Buy (with external entry) was opened in a mall......across a small road from another strip mall.....where the Future Shop is. The only one of either in that city.....bizarre.

[jsmall999]

They found that having 2 stores close to each other actually increased sales at both locations due to the 'power center' mentality, similar to groups of car dealerships in the same area.

People will drive from further away to 'check at both' easilly, in the end they get the sale no matter which way they go

[richardat]

They found that having 2 stores close to each other actually increased sales at both locations due to the 'power center' mentality, similar to groups of car dealerships in the same area.

People will drive from further away to 'check at both' easilly, in the end they get the sale no matter which way they go

Let it never be said that Marketers and Social Psychologists waste their life on the trivia, and "contribute" to the most superficial and least meritorious aspects of society!!!

[dannyd86]

online shopping is where its at. Being in canada you have to search a little harder for good rates on shipping or else all your savings can be lost and its cheaper to go to best buy. You can almost always find a site that has product staged in canada though. They send over one big truck at a time rather then dealing with border issues on every package. typicaly "buy ____ online canada" will get it. Amazon is also showing more and more cross border shipping.