Future Shop is closing down

After some 33 years as one of Canada’s largest electronics retailer, Future Shop will be closing down.

This morning, Future Shop owner Best Buy, which purchased the Canadian retailer in 2001 for $580 million, announced that it will close down 66 of Future Shop’s 131 retail locations. The remaining 65 will be temporarily closed before being reopened as new Best Buy locations.

The company decided to pursue this course of action after it did an internal review of its Canadian locations and found that many of its Best Buy and Future Shop locations were located next to one another.

As a result of the closures, 500 full-time and 1000 part-time employees will lose their jobs. Best Buy says the affected individuals will receive severance, employee assistance and outplacement support, though it hasn’t said exactly how generous any of these will be.

“Any decisions that impact our people are never taken lightly; our first priority is to support them through this change,” said Ron Wilson, the president and COO of Best Buy Canada, in a press release. “I want to express my appreciation to the employees who are leaving, for their contributions to Best Buy Canada.”

After it finishes the cull, Best Buy will have 192 locations across Canada, including 56 dedicated mobile stores.

If there’s any silver lining to this news, it’s that Best Buy locations will accept any Future Shop gift cards Canadians may have lying around. Additionally, the company will also honour any existing product orders, pre-orders, service appointments and warranty claims.

We’ll update this article as we learn more.

Update: Future Shop has removed both the iPhone and Android apps from the app stores, directing users to download the Best Buy Mobile app. Both iTunes and Google Play say, “We’re sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.”

Thanks to Mobilesyrup reader Todd Greencorn (@cmikehunt) for the picture.