No More Future Shop

I read today on my CBC app that Future Shop has closed across Canada.

I worked at their North and West Van branches for four years through university, with over three at the North Van location.

The West Van one is being converted in to a Best Buy (the parent company) while the North Van one is just being shut down. I am not totally surprised. That location was never great for an electronics shop.

What has me angry, and I mean angry to the point where I will no longer shop at Best Buy, is the way they handled the closures. Employees turned up Saturday morning to find out that they were out of a job. Best Buy was offering them a chance to apply there, but would not guarantee them a job.

What absolute assholes.

The President of Best Buy issued a statement saying that

"Any decisions that impact our people are never taken lightly; our first priority is to support them through this change. I want to express my appreciation to the employees who are leaving, for their contributions to Best Buy Canada."

Bullshit.

You don't give two shits about your employees. If you did you would have told them about your plans and offered as many of them jobs in the new stores as possible.

Some full time staff were offered buyouts, but being that the majority of workers are part time, that isn't a great deal of help to most.



Personally, my memories of working at Future Shop are overwhelmingly positive. Jim Cook remains one of the best bosses and nicest guys I have ever known, and with a bunch of college kids as staff he managed a task that is akin to herding cats. I actually use some of what I learned from him in the classroom (my own herding of cats) and will take some of his management strategies with me to my post Moonkkang job. My old truck unloading partner Allan and I are still good friends, and we met up just a few weeks ago in Lynn Valley when I was back in B.C. We don't talk as often as we should, but I count him among my lifelong friends. There are several others who I keep in regular touch with over facebook, or at least get to stay up to date with their lives. I even wrote a blog about keeping in touch as early as 2010.


When I was there we knew that Best Buy was our parent company, but we were always kept separate. FS rules and standards which were, given the fact that it was low wage student work, fantastic. Furthermore, the guys selling merchandise made great coin and had a career. You could support a family on what they made. How many retailers still offer that in Canada?

So with that company goes a lot of memories, some good, some not so good, some moderately embarrassing and a few that are great.

The way staff was let go also ensures I am a lifelong shopper at London Drugs, Canadian Tire or Amazon.ca. No way those fucknuts are getting any of my money.