{"id":752,"date":"2022-09-02T00:20:05","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T00:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engadget.vip\/?p=752"},"modified":"2022-09-02T00:20:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T00:20:05","slug":"best-buy-is-shutting-down-canadas-biggest-tech-store-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/?p=752","title":{"rendered":"Best Buy is shutting down Canada&#8217;s biggest tech store chain"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'><\/div><p>Best Buy is a mainstay of tech shopping in the US, but it knows that it&#8217;s small potatoes in Canada &#8212; it kept the country&#8217;s better-known Future Shop chain going for years after a takeover, even after opening shops of its own. However, the American retailer is now making its presence felt in a big way by shutting down Future Shop altogether. It&#8217;ll convert 65 of the locations into Best Buy stores within a week, and 66 others are closing immediately.<\/p>\n<p>The move is centered around an &#8220;ambitious plan&#8221; that includes more staff in stores and a stronger focus on internet sales, including orders that draw from in-store stock. With that said, the company is quick to admit that overlap was a major factor in the closure &#8212; there were times when you&#8217;d see Best Buy and Future Shop locations within a stone&#8217;s throw of each other. The strategy could make sense in the long run, then, although it&#8217;s hard to see too many Canucks cheering this in the short term. Besides eliminating an iconic (if not especially well-loved) brand and reducing choices, the consolidation leaves 1,500 people out of work. Best Buy may now be the <em>de facto<\/em> big-box tech store in North America, but that power grab is coming at a stiff price.<\/p>\n<p>[Image credit: Shutterstock\/JJ Studio]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Best Buy is a mainstay of tech shopping in the US, but it knows that it&#8217;s small potatoes in Canada &#8212; it kept the country&#8217;s better-known Future Shop chain going for years after a takeover, even after opening shops of its own. However, the American retailer is now making its presence felt in a big [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[953,954,955,956,957,958,87,959,960],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engadget.vip\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}