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Future Shop is Canada's largest consumer electronics retailer and etailer. Future Shop is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Best Buy Corporation. Future Shop currently operates a total of 131 stores across all of Canada's provinces as of December 2007. more...

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Future Shop was purchased for over C$500 million by Best Buy on November 4, 2001. The company was renamed Best Buy Canada Ltd.—a wholly owned subsidiary of its American parent. They have continued to operate Future Shop as a separate division, with most locations under their original name. Future Shop continues to grow and open new stores across Canada. In November 2007, Future Shop opened its new flagship store in Toronto at Dundas Square.

History

Beginnings

Future Shop was founded in 1982 by Iranian entrepreneur Hassan Khosrowshahi, who left Iran to settle in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to start a retail business. Khosrowshahi graduated from the University of Tehran with a degree in law and economics and was a part of the family that owned the Minoo Industrial Group, a large Iran manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food products. Khosrowshahi planned to open a chain of consumer and home electronics stores and take over the Canadian retail market. His associate, Mohammad Ziabakhsh, took the role of president and CEO of the newly formed company and Khosrowshahi himself served as chairman and founder. In 1983, Future Shop opened the first three stores, all of which were in British Columbia. The company sold computers, software, games, videocassettes, audio equipment, music, among other items. By December 1983, the first month all of the Future Shop stores were opened and making business, the company reached $2.8 million dollars in sales.

By 1993, Future Shop became the largest retailer of computers and consumer electronics in Canada and was operating 38 stores across the country and parts of the United States. In August 1993, Future Shop went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, making $30 million dollars to be used for expansion and to pay off debt.

Competition

In 1995, competition between Future Shop and its many rivals, including A&B Sound, caused the company to start volume purchasing. The chain would then be able to expand faster and would be able to acquire better deals on merchandise, give out lower prices to customers, and plan major further growth for new stores in the companies.

By the end of the year, Future Shop's sales had reached the $1 billion dollar sales mark. Increases were caused by major expansion within the company, with the desire for more and better locations, while sales at the chain's top locations began to slip in profits and eventually decline to the point where the stores would have to close and liquidate.

Read more at Wikipedia.org