Hundreds lined up and bundled up outside a new Future Shop in Cornwall, Ontario on Friday November 21, 2014.
The new concept store’s grand opening drew shoppers looking for hot door crasher deals, “$400 off Apple products, you’ve never seen anything like that.”
What makes this Future Shop new is the store’s smaller footprint and more sleek design, “For over 30 years Future Shop has been synonymous with big box,” says Future Shop Communications Manager Elliott Chun, “as our customers shift we have to make sure our business shifts too to stay relevant.”
That “shift” is a virtual one. Chun says 93-percent of consumers do their research online before they buy. The need for the traditional 30,000 square foot big box retail space may soon be a thing of the past. The Cornwall store is just 8,000 square feet, more than half of that is stockroom holding the same products offered in the larger stores and online. Chun says the smaller showroom helps shoppers “seal the deal” after they’ve viewed product online, giving them a chance to check out the products in person, or pick-up products they've purchased online.
“We even have things like mattresses and hunting equipment on our website,” says the store’s General Manager Nick Karlis, “these are all things we can offer to our customers.”
The new concept store one of just three in Canada. The others in North Vancouver and Brockville.
The store part of an expanded shopping development called “Brookdale Square” in the border city.
Cornwall’s Acting Mayor Denis Carr hopes the new stores and job creation keep more shoppers spending locally and may even bring shoppers from the United States to Cornwall, “it’s not just people coming from the 401 into Cornwall, but it’s going to make it more attractive for people to come from the United States as well for shopping and tourism activities,” says Carr, “I think it’s indicative of where this city is going. It’s no longer the old industrial city. That’s not our image anymore.”
