Future Shop vs. Best Buy | Competitions in the business place
October 10, 2012
Update: March 29th, 2015
Electronic retail stores are taking a real hit with online competition. With many Future Shop locations either sitting in the same mall as Best Buy or across the street, Best Buy has decided to immediately close down all Future Shop location and convert half of them into Best Buy locations. This is just one week after Tiger Direct announced they are officially closing, and a month after Target finally decided to close shop with poor sales.
Original article below:
In middle school, my hockey leagues scorekeeper would never actually keep score. Hockey is fun, and that was stressed by not having a loser.
The real world counts score, and the ones who are losing must find a way to compete.
Future Shop decided to expand its Canadian empire and take a bite out of Best Buy’s profits within the United States. Future Shop’s U.S. locations didn’t compete well and lost a drastic amount of money within its first year of operation. Best Buy acquired all of Future Shop’s U.S. locations in 1999, and all the Canadian locations only two years later.
The Future Shop vs. Best Buy battle doesn’t end there.
Best Buy, now in control of Future Shop, did a brilliant business move and let the Future Shop franchise survive. Instead of growing the Best Buy brand by converting Future Shop into Best Buy, an even greater opportunity arose – competition. There was little competition in the Canadian consumer electronics market, so Best Buy decided to go in competition with itself. Not only does the Future Shop name and brand still exist, but it is now Canada’s largest electronics retailer with approximately 150 stores. Best Buy operates just 50 stores within Canada under the Best Buy brand.
Most consumers don’t know both companies operate under the same umbrella – simply because they operate differently. Future Shop’s workers earn commission, and Best Buy’s workers don’t. If the consumer doesn’t want to be pushed to purchase an item by a salesman, they visit Best Buy. If the consumer doesn’t want to hunt for a salesman, they visit Future Shop.
When Futureshop or Best Buy has a sale, the consumer visits the store on sale. Alternately, the consumer could just price match at the Best Buy or Futureshop location he finds more convenient. No matter where the consumer visits, the money goes into the same wallet.
Simplistics likes competition – Jeremy is going bald!
The web development industry is huge in Toronto. To compete with all the web agencies, the Simplistics’ partners compete amongst themselves.
Jeremy spent the last year working on a revolutionary application which he believes can be sold to over a specific number of Print Shops. To make sure he reaches his desired sales goal, we started a competition. If Jeremy fails to meet his goal by January 1st 2013, he will have to shave his beloved hair off his head. If Jeremy does reach his goal, I will be the one to go bald. Of course I don’t want to shave my head, but I am still doing everything I can to help Jeremy reach his goal – if I must sacrifice my hair for Simplistics, I will.
I sure bet Jeremy is tossing in his sleep every night, thinking of ways to keep his gelled hair on his head.