Future Shop morning meeting becomes surprise farewell

“I think I'm more upset that I won't be able to work with the people rather than not having a job,” said one of the employees, who spoke to NorthernLife.ca, but did not want her name used.

“I'm more upset that I won't see them. They are the faces that I saw the most of outside of my own family. They became my second family. You'd go there, having a bad day and they'd just cheer you up within minutes of being there.”

Sudbury's Future Shop is one of 66 stores across the country that have permanently closed. Another 65 Future Shop locations will be temporarily closed for one week as they're transitioned into Best Buy stores.

Best Buy is owned by the same company, but Sudbury already has a Best Buy located not far away from the Future Shop.

The employee, who had worked part-time in Future Shop's online orders department for three years, said she and her co-workers were given the bad news during a 7 a.m. meeting involving all of the store's staff.

“We were all just shocked,” she said. “It just sucked the way it happened. It didn't really give us time to prepare ourselves, emotionally and mentally. It was just kind of like, this is it, say goodbye, clean out your lockers.”

The woman, who said she received a small severance package, survived two other rounds of layoffs at Future Shop over the past couple of years.

She said she's just a month away from graduating from her program at Cambrian College, and hopes she's able to get a job in her field soon.

Only a couple of members of the Sudbury Future Shop's Geek Squad — who provided technical support — were transferred to the city's Best Buy store, said another former local Future Shop worker.

The rest are now unemployed, said the man, who also didn't want his name used.

The man, who's been with Future Shop for about 10 years as a sales associate in the computer department, said the layoff is interfering with his plans to become a commercial pilot.

He said he was planning to move to another community to take the necessary training, and was hoping he could be transferred to another Future Shop location. Now he's having to hunt for another job.

While the company said it's providing outplacement support for former employees, the man said he hasn't seen much that's been very helpful. He said there's resume workshops in a few communities, but the closest one to Sudbury is in Toronto.

Best Buy invited the former Future Shop employees to apply there, but the man said he isn't interested in doing this. He said he did “very well” on commission at Future Shop, but Best Buy doesn't have a commission system.

“If I went to Best Buy, my wage would be slashed in half,” he said.