Abbotsford’s Future Shop is permanently closed following the announcement Saturday that parent company Best Buy would shut down about half of the Future Shop stores across Canada.
Best Buy said it was closing 66 stores and converting another 65 to the Best Buy brand.
Spokesperson Elliott Chun confirmed for The News that the Abbotsford Future Shop would not re-open. There is already a Best Buy outlet in Abbotsford, also on South Fraser Way, about a block away from the Future Shop store.
Best Buy said the closures would result in the loss of 500 full-time and more than 1,000 part-time jobs across the country. Chun did not say how many jobs would disappear in Abbotsford, but the average number of positions lost per closed store is slightly more than 20.
Best Buy noted that “a significant number of its Future Shop and Best Buy stores are located adjacent to each other, often in the same parking lot.”
The company will now have a total of 192 locations across Canada, including 136 large-format stores and 56 Best Buy Mobile stores.
“Currently, 80 per cent of our customers are within a 15-minute drive to a store and this won’t change,” said Ron Wilson, President and COO of Best Buy Canada. “We will continue to have a strong store presence in all major markets in Canada.”