THUNDER BAY – Other than a wardrobe change, the first day of the city’s Best Buy location looks identical to the former Future Shop operation.
Shopper John Stieh, who was last in the Future Shop store about a month before last week’s surprise closure and announcement of conversion to the Best Buy brand, summed up the most noticeable difference.
“The shirts are blue now,” he said after exiting the Memorial Avenue store.
“I thought maybe they were going to do some renovations but I guess that’s going to come in the future.”
The store reopened Saturday morning, one week after Best Buy Canada announced it was eliminating the Future Shop brand that it owned and would be closing all of those stores. Some, like the Thunder Bay location, would reopen as Best Buy shops.
Despite the change, the building and exterior signage is still emblazoned with Future Shop lettering and colouring and the majority of in-store signage still references Future Shop and its logo.
Customers exiting the store were carrying Future Shop bags.
Stieh said if he hadn’t already been aware of the brand flip he wouldn’t have realized it just from going to the store.
Elliott Chun, corporate communications manager with Best Buy Canada, said a full transition is a work in progress.
“Customers will begin seeing rebranding and investments happening in our stores in the next couple of months,” he said in an emailed statement.
Chun did not answer questions about how many former Future Shop employees were retained at the Thunder Bay location.
