Richard White
Senior Member
Understood.
Here's to hoping we get either a funhouse or Northern Lights house of oddities.
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Understood.
Here's to hoping we get either a funhouse or Northern Lights house of oddities.
nightstreak
Active Member
It does. Winners stupidly blocked it off:
The FutureShop Yonge Street entrance had escalators leading up surrounded by a light show. It was a cool arrival up into the space.
What I know is that Best Buy wants to be closer to Yonge & Dundas. It hasn't performed well off the main strip. I also know that Greg Hicks (CT CEO) wants to expand the downtown store. Lastly, Winners is moving out of The Tenor when their lease expires, having opened at Eaton Centre. It adds up.
Attachments
Northern Light
Superstar
I am not getting into the retail game an an owner anytime soon.
If I were too, its unlikely I would employ that branding strategy.
Richard White
Senior Member
I worked there on Boxing Day selling Cell Phones in 2008.
I handled at least 50 grand in sales on my own that day. I think the store pulled in close to 250 grand that day in sales.
nightstreak
Active Member
Best Buy's heydays are behind it. People don't buy cell phones in electronics stores anymore. Or computers for that matter. Geek Squad is folding. DVDs and CDs are gone. Video games are going digital. I guess people still buy TVs there.The smart home is an emerging bet and gadgets and accessories do well, but that relies on casual off the street or in-mall traffic.
I read a quote in a trade publication around the holidays that the Future Shop location would have been a better idea in retrospect. They wanted to be in Eaton Centre but everyone knows that nobody walks off the Eaton Centre main atrium into that long empty hallway. Even Canadian Tire has blocked off that entrance.
Richard White
Senior Member
Oddly enough I went to Best Buy Bay and Dundas a few weeks ago to buy a new laptop for my staff when one of my security team dropped the old one off a desk.
That said, the selection in store is quite small and it is so much easier to buy online.
Interestingly, I know a few people who still insist upon using CD's, DVD's and refuse to get an internet connection. They are all in their 50s.
This has been the prevailing opinion since I worked there.
When I was there in 2008 most of our traffic came from the street, not the mall itself. Even now, unless you are walking past the store you would not even know it is there.
We used to be jealous of the Future Shop because of how much better situated it was. Everyone knew it was there but hardly anyone knew we existed. If not for the Boxing Day and Black Friday coverage from the media people would have likely forgot we existed.
They tried to make the Eaton Centre a one stop shop when they took down the parking ramps but failed to realise that nobody will walk down a long ass hallway to get to these stores. I am in the Eaton Centre regularly and most of the time I forget that hallway even exists.
Even now when you look at the map on the CF Eaton Centre website, it shows Best Buy and Canadian Tire being completely separate from the mall.
Northern Light
Superstar
Unless something has changed in the last few weeks, you can, in fact, enter Canadian Tire from the lower level mall entrance, what you cannot do is exit that way.
Certainly its not busy, and its not inviting.
nightstreak
Active Member
It's hit or miss. I'm one of the few schmucks who sometimes goes down that dark hallway to Canadian Tire and it's often closed and I have to take the escalator up and go around from outside. It might be dependent on whether they have staff to stand there though sometimes they have a dumb mannequin looking like a greeter. The whole store is an embarrassment to the franchise.
nightstreak
Active Member
A downtown Best Buy would do much better with a better situated if smaller store, selling accessories and other things with people coming in off the street to get rather than a huge selection of TVs and other things people would generally buy at a big box store or order online.
The former Future Shop is perfectly sized:
... with views to Yonge Dundas Square, 2 street level access points, on the way down from crowds leaving the movie theatre and billboard opportunities in the busiest intersection in the country. Best Buy was a complete idiot for giving this up. It sounds like they want it back.
I'll try to find the exact quote again but it was said by a Best Buy executive in what I took as an insinuation that they're going to fix it. So knowing that Best Buy wants to move into the hustle and bustle of Yonge Dundas Square, Winners' lease at The Tenor expires next year — freeing up "the one that got away" dream spot for Best Buy — and Canadian Tire just announcing a multi-billion dollar investment in expanding their stores with a particular mention by the CEO that they want to expand their downtown offerings, it sounds to me like there is a perfect shuffle opportunity for all parties.
Bringing this back to Hudson's Bay, Canadian Tire has not bid on the Queen Street store (nor does it appear to have been available) so that's not an option. There's no room to expand Canadian Tire at Bay and Dundas without Best Buy moving out or finding a similarly sized space (there isn't one) and if Canadian Tire is going to expand their offerings with Hudson's Bay merchandise or a store-within-a-store, then either they must expand the size of the already stuffed store or they exclude downtown from HBC offerings (unlikely...even impossible). A major shuffle is coming.
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WB62
Senior Member
Today I worked in a former Hudsons Bay location, wanted to grab more photos but these were the only ones I got:
AlbertC
Superstar
Low faith in Ruby Liu's vision to say the least:
storeys.com
"No Chance Of Success": What HBC Landlords Are Saying About Ruby Liu's Plan
Most of Hudson's Bay's former landlords, all large real estate investment trusts (REITs) or institutions, have filed responses in court opposing the sale of 25 HBC leases to Ruby Liu.
storeys.com
thettctransitfanatic
Senior Member
Which one is that?
WB62
Senior Member
Erin Mills location
RGB_11
Active Member
I bought my Brevelle Inverter there. (Combi-wave)
Appliances are also an option for their future success.
However, I also got the inverter on sale and I will never pay regular retail for many of the items they sell.
There are many things available for sale at Best Buy. They also sell printers and ink for those printers.
I bought a Lenovo Hybrid (not lap top) from them also.
The store has many reasons to survive.
I do agree that I don't go there for a phone though.
Northern Light
Superstar
Low faith in Ruby Liu's vision to say the least:
"No Chance Of Success": What HBC Landlords Are Saying About Ruby Liu's Plan
Most of Hudson's Bay's former landlords, all large real estate investment trusts (REITs) or institutions, have filed responses in court opposing the sale of 25 HBC leases to Ruby Liu.
The latest Monitor's Report is out, and it would seem the concur:
From: https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/si...rt of the Monitor - HBC - AM -20-AUG-2025.pdf
The reasons given in the report run the gamut you might expect, including, but not limited to:
and more.