 A sign tells customers that Future Shop has been closed. |
The 20,000-square-foot store located in the Snyastan Centre - the same strip mall as Winners - closed for good on Wednesday.
On Thursday, a closed-forever notice was posted on the door; the main Future Shop building sign was already down; the windows were papered over; and a security guard patrolled the front, handing out pamphlets explaining the shutdown.
The handout explained that while the West Kelowna store is history, the Kelowna store at Orchard Plaza is still open.
In fact, the pamphlet included some coupons to use at the Kelowna store - spend $50 and get a $10 gift card, spend $100 get a $20 gift card, spend $250 for a $50 gift card and parting with $500 or more will net you a $100 gift card.
Any other questions can apparently be answered by calling toll free
1-800-663-2275 or checking out FutureShop.ca/Questions.
Fifty workers lost their jobs with the closure. Apparently, they will get severance pay and career transition support.
The Future Shop in West Kelowna had only been open for 15 months.
It opened to much fanfare in October 2011 with a grand opening ceremony and a lineup of customers that started the night before so they could snag specials.
In July 2011, 400 showed up at a job fair in West Kelowna to vie for the 50 positions Future Shop was creating. Owner Best Buy Canada closed eight Future Shop and seven Best Buy big box stores across the country.
The company said it will open Future Shop small concept web stores and Best Buy Mobile locations across Canada in the next two and a half years.
"This move will enable the company to better serve its customers in both more locations and smaller markets across the country," the company said in a release.
It added the closures are part of its efforts to "reduce unnecessary costs, eliminate redundant operating systems and to optimize its real estate strategy to reflect ... a changing retail landscape."
Some 900 employees will be laid off, representing less than five per cent of Best Buy Canada's workforce, a spokeswoman said.
Best Buy has been facing tough competition from discounters and online retailers, a victim of what's known as "showrooming" - when people browse in stores and then buy the products more cheaply online from competitors such as Amazon.
Best Buy Canada said it continues to operate more than 120 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile locations along with over 140 Future Shop stores across the country.
The company said five Best Buy stores in British Columbia - New Westminster, Nanaimo, Victoria, Langford and South Surrey - and two in Quebec - Terrebonne and Sherbrooke - are closing immediately.
Other Future Shop stores closing immediately are in Montreal and Laval, Que., Regent, Man., Calgary, and Ancaster, Barrie and Mississauga, Ont.
The two companies are both owned by Best Buy Co. Inc., the American consumer electronics giant.