Future Shop

Infobox Company
company_name = Future Shop
company_
company_type = Division of Best Buy|
foundation = 1982
location = Burnaby, British Columbia
key_people = Michael Pratt - President (Best Buy Canada), Moe Amirie - Senior Vice President (Future Shop)
industry = Retail
products = Electronics
revenue = $3.6 billion CAD (2006)
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 14,000
num_stores = 131
parent = Best Buy
subsid = None
homepage = [http://www.futureshop.ca www.futureshop.ca]
footnotes = Number of stores: 131

Future Shop is Canada's largest consumer electronics retailer. Future Shop currently operates a total of 131 stores across all of Canada's provinces as of December 2007.

Future Shop was purchased for over C$500 million by Best Buy on November 4, 2001. The company was renamed Best Buy Canada Ltd.—a wholly owned subsidiary of its American parent. They have continued to operate Future Shop as a separate division, with most locations under their original name. Future Shop continues to grow and open new stores across Canada. In November 2007, Future Shop opened its new flagship store in Toronto at Dundas Square.

History

Beginnings

Future Shop was founded in 1982 by Iranian entrepreneur Hassan Khosrowshahi, who left Iran to settle in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to start a retail business. [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Future-Shop-Ltd-Company-History.html Future Shop Ltd. Company History] ] Khosrowshahi graduated from the University of Tehran with a degree in law and economics and was a part of the family that owned the Minoo Industrial Group, a large Iran manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food products. Khosrowshahi planned to open a chain of consumer and home electronics stores and take over the Canadian retail market. His associate, Mohammad Ziabakhsh (who did most of the work), took the role of president and CEO of the newly formed company and Khosrowshahi himself served as chairman and founder. In 1983, Future Shop opened the first three stores, all of which were in British Columbia. The company sold computers, software, games, videocassettes, audio equipment, music, among other items. By December 1983, the first month all of the Future Shop stores were opened and making business, the company reached $2.8 million dollars in sales.

By 1993, Future Shop became the largest retailer of computers and consumer electronics in Canada and was operating 38 stores across the country and parts of the United States. In August 1993, Future Shop went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, making $30 million dollars to be used for expansion and to pay off debt.

Competition

By the end of 1995, Future Shop's sales had reached more than $1 billion dollar with more than $38 million EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)

In 1997, Future Shop announced a change in management, with Ziabakhsh leaving the company. Khosrowshahi took on the roles of president and CEO in addition to serving as chairman. Many people from company headquarters were fired shortly afterward.

At the end of March, Future Shop's Canadian division had produced record setting sales and earnings for the company, however, the company's earnings were down 20 percent from the previous year, due to many losses caused by its failing U.S. operations. Despite plans for more locations in the U.S. over the next several years, the company instantly stopped any new plans for further expansion in the United States until the existing U.S. stores improved their performance in sales.

Focusing on Canadian markets

In 1998, Future Shop purchased the Canadian division of Computer City from CompUSA, which was only three months after the Computer City chain had been merged into CompUSA and either converted to CompUSA or closed and liquidated. During the next year, two of the Computer City retail stores had been liquidated due to poor sales.

By the end of 1998, the U.S. locations of Future Shop were performing badly, with $53 million dollars in losses over the last few years, and Future Shop projected another $30 million in losses would occur by the end of the next year. After major losses in sales, in March 1999, the company announced that it would close U.S. operations, holding liquidation sales and closing down for good in the summer. [ [http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18827099 Future Shop to Close U.S. Stores] ] The closures left Future Shop with 81 stores across Canada. Many of the former stores ended up converting to one of its major U.S. competitors, Best Buy. In 2000, Future Shop had owned 83 Future Shop stores and five Computer City stores. In June 2000, Future Shop announced plans to open flagship stores in downtown Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

In February 2001, Future Shop announced that the company would close and liquidated the five remaining Computer City stores due to poor sales. At the same time, Future Shop also attempted to acquire Chapters, a chain of book stores in Canada, but failed to come up with a reasonable offer for Chapters. [ [http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-miscellaneous/4650602-1.html Timeline for Chapters] ]

Classes of Employees

Future Shop employees are separated into several classes. The commission-compensated sales force consists of "Product Experts", while non-commissioned salespeople (such as those in the Entertainment department) are referred to as "Sales Associates", further to that, customer service representatives dealing with returns, exchanges, and customer inquiries are referred to as "Customer Service Specialists", whereas the representatives dealing with terminal transactions at cashiers and purchase verification are known as "Customer Service Representatives". The operations and warehousing staff are called "Merchandisers", the home-theater and car audio installation team are the "Installers", and the computer troubleshooting team are the "Technicians". In 2007 all "Sales Assoctiaes" were changed back into "Product Expers", due to non commission sales staff being treated unfairly but commissioned staff. In 2008, all home theater installers, car installers, and computer technicians, were rebranded as "ConnectPro Experts" in order to have a more marketable name for computer/home theater/car services.

Best Buy buyout

In March 2001, American-based Best Buy acquired Future Shop for more than $500 million Canadian. Despite possible conversions to the Best Buy nameplate, Future Shop was to be run as a separate division under the name of Best Buy Canada. The acquisition caused Khosrowshahi to step down as president. The other executives from Future Shop retained their positions within the company.

Best Buy Canada have continued to operate Future Shop as a separate division, with most locations under their original name. Future Shops are still being added, mostly recently at urban locations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at Empress Walk and Dundas Square; the latter location is one block east on Dundas at Yonge Street from an existing Best Buy at the Toronto Eaton Centre. The company has also begun renovating some of its stores to focus more on product specialty areas, to separate video games into their own department, and to create a central "hub" featuring employees specializing in connecting different devices together. The first such renovated Future Shop store opened in August 2008 at Park Royal Shopping Centre in West Vancouver, BC.

Because of the success of dual branding Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada, Best Buy Canada has been looking in to expanding the Future Shop brand back into the United States.Fact|date=August 2008

Major product categories

*Computer hardware, software and accessories
*Major appliances and small household appliances
*Stereo and portable audio equipment and accessories
*Car audio and other such electronics
*Televisions, VCRs, DVD players and other home theatre equipment
*Digital cameras and accessories and video camera.
*digital photofinishing under the name [http://pix.futureshop.ca/en FuturePhoto] (shut down in 2008)
*PDAs, cellular phones and other portable electronic devices
*CDs and DVDs
*Gaming console and portable systems and games

References

External links

* [http://www.futureshop.ca/ Future Shop official website]
* [http://www.bestbuy.ca/ Best Buy Canada official website]