Future Shop
Encyclopedia : F : FU : FUT : Future Shop
Future Shop is a Canadian electronics retailer. It was founded in Vancouver in 1982 by Hassan Khosrowshahi, a Persian-Canadian born in Tehran, Iran in 1940. He settled in Vancouver in 1981, with a degree in economics and law from the University of Tehran. His chain expanded through Western Canada and Ontario in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and in Quebec and Atlantic Canada later in the 1990s, operating a total of 110 stores across all of Canada's provinces by 2005. It also had some locations in the USA but they closed down during 1999; most locations became Best Buy.
Future Shop was purchased for over CA$500 million by Best Buy on November 4, 2001. Best Buy has continued to operate the Future Shop locations under their original name, although it is now opening Best Buy-branded stores in Canada as well.
Future Shop, like Best Buy, operates in the style of a big-box marketer; in other words, they operate large stores with a wide range of products offering good road access. They also choose products aiming primarily for a broad consumer market, although they do sell more specialized equipment aiming highly technical users. For instance, they stock a variety of premade computer systems, and formerly sold computer motherboards and processors individually. They are also an authorized Apple reseller.
Future Shop no longer carries motherboards, and CPUs (some may be carried in the online store). The chain focuses, instead, on mid to high level complete computer systems. The rationale is that the average computer user is likely to receive a better computer at a given price point than this same user would receive had they attempted to have the same computer built by an independent retailer.
In addition to their retail business, Future Shop operates an online store, at [www.futureshop.ca].
Marketing
Future Shop has recently been lauded as having some of the best television advertisements in Canada. Recent advertisements featured a store manager who watches on in surprise and frustration as his bumbling employees attempt various humorous sales strategies. The manager then intervenes helpfully. Civil rights activists have praised these campaigns for portraying an intelligent black Canadian in a higher-powered job.
The most recent campaign a bumbling customer is excited about Future Shop's great deals, and praises a Future Shop employee for the store’s low prices. He then exclaims that he just doesn't know what to buy first. The employee informs him that Future Shop saves money by running the same commercial over and over, re-dubbing it as necessary for each new sale. The "re-dubbing" used in the campaign is also considered quite novel.
Major product categories
- Computer hardware, software and accessories
- Durable appliances and small household appliances
- Stereo and portable audio equipment and accessories
- Car audio and other such electronics
- Televisions, VCRs, DVD players and other home theatre equipment
- Digital and film cameras, accessories, and digital photofinishing under the name FuturePhoto (an online service with some stores having an on-site photo lab)
- PDAs, cellular phones and other portable electronic devices
- CDs and DVDs
- Gaming console and portable systems and games
Slogans
- "You'll like what the future has in store." - 2000
- "The Power of MORE."(Alternate slogan) - 2001
- "Come see what your future has in store." - 2002
- "We get it." - 2005
- "Get it for less, guaranteed" - 2006
External links
- [FutureShop.ca]
- [BestBuy Canada], the parent company
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.