Future Shop chain shuts down suddenly

Nope, this isn't an early April Fool's Day joke: This morning, all Future Shop stores across Canada shut their doors abruptly, with employees informed of the closure as they arrived for work on Saturday morning. It's the latest shutdown in a brutal season for Canadian retailers that has claimed big-box stores (Target) and specialty retailers (Mexx, Jacob, and Smart Set) alike.

AM980 in London reports that a number of Future Shop's locations across Canada will be rapidly converted into Best Buy stores (the chain was purchased by Best Buy in 2011 for $580 million), while the rest will be vacated.

The individual fates of Toronto's Future Shop stores have not yet been confirmed. Nor is it known how many jobs will be lost across the country, or who - if anyone - can take over the leases of those massive retail spaces (on top of those already left empty by Target).

Photo by William Mewes va the blogTO Flickr pool.

by Natalia Manzocco via blogTO