BEST BUY and FUTURE SHOP remove all physical releases from store in Canada

I've seen The Future Shop and it's Murder.

 

I wish these last brick n mortars all the luck in the world and you should too. Without them, we'd have NOTHING to go see and put our hands on. Competition, even if it's gouging with sales tax, is a good thing. Being able to see things like TVs before we buy them is taken for granted.
Be very careful what you wish for.

 

Their awful selection and poorly maintained displays made we wonder why they even bothered for years. Not surprised at all.

 

This is a more a symbolic loss. These stores were never interested in selling music. They're only interested in selling TV's and cell phones.

 

Agreed... Best Buy in Canada never had the same floorspace devoted to music that the US stores did... one aisle vs. maybe three at the American locations. Before the merger of the two (Best Buy-out?), Future Shop had the much better selection of music and movies... particularly music DVDs. It was only a few years ago that I was in a Best Buy in North Dakota and they were going in to vinyl in a big way... hundreds of titles in section of it's own. The clerk said it was a trial program of some sort... unfortunately they missed the curve by a couple of years too early.

Speaking of big box stores failing... I'm off this morning to check out the clearance of CDs at Target... everything is being blown out at 40% off and I have my eye on a few decent items that were there on Saturday. For those in the States that don't know, Target rolled in to Canada two years ago with big fanfare / 130+ new stores... and now they're closing them all down. One of the biggest fails in retail history... they lost billions.

 

A shame. Did they not test their potential market first?

 

Best Buy's taking a hit on TV's too. They become the showroom for people to browse and select...then find a low price on Amazon.

 

I enjoyed hitting the Virgin Megastore there in early 2000s when visiting there for a conference. Aren't there any small indie stores near the campus (Univ of BC)?

 

I can't speak to Canada, but in the '90s, Best Buy had a very good selection of CDs. When I started shopping at Best Buy in the early '90s, they also had a good selection of cassettes. Throughout the '90s, they had aisles and aisles of music, including some import CDs.

 

Best Buy is dying a slow, painful death.

 

That's been my exact same experience for every new release I've tried to buy at Best Buy in recent years - whether it's their exclusive or not.

 

As with anything, nobody wishes anyone to lose their jobs. However, did Best Buy consider the fate of all the mom and pop shops that they ran out of business?. In my area, we had a few independent record shops that were actually pretty good that were severely impacted by the arrival of Best Buy around 20 years ago. It's now survival of the financial fittest, and it's Best Buys turn now. Most of the jobs Best Buy provides are for young people who will never stay around for the long run anyhow.

 

One thing about Best Buy vs. the mom and pop shops is that consumers voted with their wallets. Best Buy just showing up didn't drive out the mom and pops. It's the majority of consumers who chose convenience and buying cheap over buying local that helped decide their fate. If enough consumers increasingly choose alternatives over Best Buy, then it will be Best Buy's time to close up shop. Best Buy could do some things better to help their cause (better customer service, better stock), but in the end, it may not matter. All I know is that a lot of people will be out of work if Best Buy dies off. That will suck.

 

Some locations had a surprisingly good selection in the late 90s.

I wouldn't be surprised if HMV soon announces they are no longer selling CDs. The two HMV locations near me are both half the size they used to be, and of what remains, music seems more and more like an afterthought. Both locations dedicate most of their up-front space to t-shirts, tchotchkes, band merchandise, and other stuff which looks like it came from Hot Topic. The movies/TV section is right behind that and takes up about half the store. What little remaining space in the back is for CDs.

 

I was in Best Buy last week to pick up the latest season of Game Of Thrones on blu-ray and I have more CDs/DVDs/BDs at home than they had on the shelves.

 

All done online now.

 

The American Best Buy stores in the 90s had an incredible music selection. I remember being astonished to find Japanese imports and the like at the location in Port Huron. The Canadian stores never had anything like that, but then again, Best Buy didn't arrive in Canada until after the decline of the CD was already underway.

 

Maybe Amazon needs to partner up with Best Buy for these physical stores they keep talking about. Amazon would have a better chance with BB than taking over closing Radio Shack stores.

 

I like "physical media"!
I play it in my "physical" CD player.

 

I remember the widescreen VHS section of Best Buy. Other customers would ask me why I would buy widescreen since it had the black bars on the top and bottom.

 

I believe it. At that time, though, I was buying my CDs in malls, in places like the late and unlamented Music World, Sam the Record Man, HMV (which I recall being the most expensive of the lot), Tower downtown, and even Eaton's (which also had an adequate selection of new tapes and CDs as late as 1998). I never would have thought to step into Future Shop for music.

I also wouldn't be surprised, but I think that's a different issue. At the moment HMV is still selling a lot of new releases, and they have a lot of locations. They don't stock much catalog stuff anymore, but that's the nature of the beast. All I'm saying is, there's an HMV in most shopping malls in this country and most people who are buying new release pop CDs know that's where to get them.

 

Going a bit off topic here...

Target's arrival in Canada was hugely anticipated; many people assumed they would be enormously successful. But because they started out big with over 100 stores across the country, it meant any problems they had automatically became big problems. They made a few blunders right out of the gate (very serious supply chain problems being the biggest), and soon stumbled so hard they couldn't recover. In the meantime, competitors upped their game.

The Canadian media likes to smugly say that Target's Canadian disaster happened because they weren't cheaper than Walmart (which was never the point; in the US, Target competes on style, not price) or that they didn't understand Canadian consumers... which is partially true, but the far, far bigger problem was far less nebulous: their stores were chronically out of stock on just about everything, and they never offered so much of the cool stuff that made the American counterpart worthwhile in the first place.

The fact is that if you go to a store and they're sold out of what you came for, and they don't offer anything you can't get anywhere else, they've just undone all their marketing and advertising and trained you to shop somewhere else.

 

People are frequently surprised that I still buy CDs. In their eyes, everything you could ever want to listen to is available free for streaming -- Taylor Swift notwithstanding -- so why would you pay for any music, be it a CD or a download? That's what the mass market thinks of our hobby.

When I find myself in Best Buy, I am almost always the only person browsing what's left of the CD racks. There's usually a line at the phone kiosk.

 

Others will determine the value of Best Buy as a retailer. As I mentioned in my previous post, Best Buy no longer has a product/s that interests me. I use to go there all the time for a variety of products. I suspect that this is the beginning of the end for them, but time will tell how that will go. It won't bother me in the least.

 

The BB and FS here never had much in the way of music but the BB still has a good selection of Blu-Rays and I hope that sticks around. I'm crossing my fingers that HMV doesn't go under because they have a good selection and I'm one of those old-fashioned guys who likes to check out the racks and see something I vaguely remember thinking I should buy if I see it and getting it. I've been doing that for forty years and will continue to as long as there are stores out there selling them. (I also buy downloads).