Breaking: Future Shop stores closing across Canada as Best Buy consolidates

It's an end of an era for Canadian retailer Future Shop as all its stores in Canada are shut down. 66 Future Shop stores will be shut down immediately and another 65 stores will be closed for a week while they are converted to Best Buy stores. Future Shop says that approximately 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time positions will be eliminated as a result of the consolidation.

Best Buy acquired Future Shop in 2001 for US $580 million but continued to operate Future Shop as a separate brand. As a result of the consolidation Best Buy will have 197 stores in Canada.

Best Buy plans to invest up to $200 million to build a leading multi-channel customer experience on the Best Buy brand. As of this writing, Future Shop's website has a message about the consolidation and directs customers to Best Buy Canada.

Source: Future Shop

Microsoft to ramp up production of Surface tablets and partner with retail outlets

Microsoft is looking to ramp up its production of the Surface RT tablets  and make them available at additional retailers as soon as mid-December. In addition, the company announced the extension of the Microsoft holiday pop-up stores, including the transition of several of the stores into permanent Microsoft retail outlets.

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Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 coming to Canada via Best Buy on Sept. 26

Samsung's awaited S Pen toting Galaxy Note 10.1-inch  tablet is showing up for pre-order at Best Buy. Selling for $499, the tablet will have 32GB onboard storage, 2 GB of RAM powered by the Exynos 4412 quad core processor. The model starts shipping on September 26th.

Buyer Beware: Check that new iPad 2 in store before you leave!

 By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Reports from CTV News of 24 sealed iPad boxes containing modeling clay sold from Canadian big box retailers has brought to light a scam where brand new iPads and chargers are replaced with clay and then the boxes are shrinkwrapped, returned for a refund and then sold to unsuspecting customers who come home only to be surprised by a lump of clay.

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