Futureshop/Bestbuy layoffs
 

TORONTO - Best Buy Canada says about 950 full-time employees will be laid off as the company reworks its operations to reduce layers of management and combine some of its sales departments.

The electronics retailer says the job cuts will affect both its Best Buy and Future Shop stores across Canada.

Best Buy says the changes do not include any store closures.

Retailers have been grappling with a number of new competitors in Canada over the past year, including the arrival of Target and a more aggressive rollout of Walmart supercentres.

Best Buy has also spent more effort on boosting sales through its websites.

The company has 265 locations across the country, which include its Best Buy Mobile and Future Shop brands.


Best Buy Canada, Future Shop Layoffs To Hit 950

From what I have been hearing, most of the junior installers were laid off while install managers got to keep their jobs. Tough times, tough times....

My sister's fiance was laid off yesterday. He was a floor manager with 7 years. Crazy news. So unfortunate, but with more people opting to buy online nowadays it was almost natural for this to happen.

have you guys noticed Best Buy is selling everything now. Everything includes bath items, vitamins, furniture..

Not surprised about the layoffs.

After Christmas, its dead as fuck

I wanted to support the Best Buy near my house, I went a few times to ask them to price beat an item. They only did this once, the other times they made excuses to deny the price beat; one time they said they would match the price if I bought the extended warranty. So much easier at Memory Express.

not gonna lie...i bought some moisturizers from bestbuy...

^ They sell moisturizers? lol...

Futureshop has been doing this for years as well - everything from safety clothing, kids toys, to mattresses. People are buying more online, the same thing that is killing their retail business.

They did this in Nanaimo a few years back before all the ones on the Island closed down. They fire people making more then minimum wage and replace them with people making 10 bux a hour. Feel sorry for anyone who lost there job.

The DivaCup Model 2 (348105) : Menstrual Cups - Best Buy Canada

:badpokerface:

I think the worst of it was when they got rid of all car audio installers in all the Best Buys across Canada in 2012. A lot of them weren't offered positions with Futureshop .

I dont think i've bought anything in a store in 5+ years,

except clothes,


and thats only at seattle outlets,




lol

Yeah, a lot of downsizing... all floor supervisors are gone. I'm a part-timer so they kept me lol... Its just a General manager, Assistant manager and one floor manager at all stores except the larger locations.

as much as I dislike FS/BB i hope they stick around so I can have better pricematching selections and relatively hassle-free returns

may be if the USD:CAD remains at the 0.8-0.9 level they might stay afloat for a while longer

BestBuy has been downsizing or "restructuring" for years, I was working for them 5-6 years back and had worked there for 3 years. Me and a couple of other supervisors got let go and the position wasn't filled. It's kinda known that it would happen, every year they do the same thing. In the Metrotown location right now they have two managers and no supervisors, where as 5 years ago there was 5 managers and 7 supervisors.

The whole company's going downhill and it's just a matter of time before they shut down all stores and go strictly online.

It never fails to amaze me how companies can downsize so much and continue to function. How much of an excess did they have to begin with? How crippled and dysfunctional are they now that staffing levels have been parred down so much?

In either case, things just don't seem right.

bcz ncix

Bestbuy grew too big, too fast.....you couple that with the fact that their customer service has been getting worse over the years and it is a recipe for disaster. Online alternatives are only part of the problem according to this interesting article:

Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually - Forbes

I used to work at Futureshop.....twice (almost 10 years apart). Once on sales floor, once as a home installer

I can vouch for the fact before they were insanely over staffed and incredibly inefficient.

I worked out of the Burnaby location, and I'd get sent to Abby or Chilliwack and then they would expect us to make it into downtown Vancouver. I'd wasted like 1/2 my day in just travelling. Didn't make sense why they didn't assign the group of installers in that area to do the install. Managers only cared about their own store numbers, but as a company it's the slowly killing them. Send me + 2 guys ($20-25+/hour each) to do a $99 installation in Chilliwack. Round trip might've taken us 4 hours. Costed the company $200+ in wages + lets not forget the gas and maintenance on the vehicle too, all for $99 installation.

Imagine that multiple times a day for years. That's just ONE location. One Department.

No wonder they're sinking fast. I was only part time and got laid off a couple years ago, all the guys I used to work with all got laid off too eventually. Looks like the layoffs are still underway.

Sad. They need to revamp their WHOLE business moto.

Remember Circuit City? Best Buy's going to zero just like them. The company has no identity now and getting pushed out in all fronts.

they better not go bust within 2 years.. just got another phone and extended warranty thru them!

The source is is actually doing pretty well with the smaller foot print stores inside high traffic malls.
I think that needs to be their strategy... Shrink their store selection and and convenience related electronic that people don't want to wait for. The bigger stuff stick with special order and and e-commerce
Posted via RS Mobile

Can't say I'm surprised. Staff are not entirely helpful and stock of something you are looking is always questionable when you get to the store. I wanted to buy a Nexus 7 at best buy with none in stock that weren't open-boxed items. I ordered one on the play store the instant I left. 10 bucks cheaper and it's shipped to my door for free. Why would I settle for an open box item for 5 dollars cheaper that may have jizz stains all over it over getting a brand new one from the google play store that's even cheaper than an open box?

Sales staff are usually there just to open the display and pick out the box I want anyways. No wonder there are best buy vending machines at the airport. I guess Japan and Korea is way ahead in replacing the human with machine. Vending machines galore.

i dont understand how bestbuy/futureshop can be doing so bad. It's not like they have tons of competition. When you think electronics, computers, laptops, video games, tvs, get miscellaneous things like hdmi cable, etc, you think bestbuy/futureshop. But i guess i dont really know because i was surprised when circuit city went.

These days, the only thing that can attract me to BB/FS is price. I only seriously look at their stuff a few times a year during their big sales -- back-to-school, Black Friday / Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day. And I only buy from them when the deals are really, really good. It wasn't like that in the past, and I used to get a lot of stuff from FS.

In some ways, I see BB/FS in a similar situation as department stores of the past era. I can't quite put a finger on what is driving this behaviour, but the one-stop-shop mentality just doesn't seem to work for consumers any more. If they want audio equipment, they go to a specialty audio store. If they want cameras, they go to a camera store. If they want computers, they go to NCIX or something. Video games? EB. And then of course, there is the ever-present Internet and online shopping.

Back in the day, I remember music (CDs and the different players in assorted sizes), and movies, and tv box sets being a major part of FS' business. Their current and hit albums section was actually fairly up-to-date, and DVDs generated a lot of sales for them. Obviously, both of those markets have eroded tremendously, and there is quite simply very little a retailer such as BB/FS can do to change industry trends.