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A look at Edmonton’s new Future Shop
Tonight I had the opportunity to tour Edmonton’s newest Future Shop, located in South Edmonton Common. The 53,000 square foot building is easily the largest Future Shop in existence, nearly double the size of the average store. The new Edmonton store is the result of more than two years of planning, design work, and customer consultation to come up with the future of Future Shop. That’s a tall order, but I came away impressed.
About a dozen of my fellow social media experts were invited to check out the new store this evening. We split into two groups to tour the building. General Manager Chris Sallans led my group, and did an excellent job of describing the decisions that were made and what the vision is for the new store. He and his fellow Future Shop colleagues answered all of our questions along the way. We each received a gift bag at the end (containing a Jabra Noise Blackout BT530 Bluetooth Headset), as well as light refreshments. I was a little disappointed when I got to the store to find that it was already open to the public, but by the end I had come to appreciate the way they planned things. Nearly a dozen employees were at our disposal, and in retrospect it would have seemed creepy and oddly quiet if we were the only ones inside the gigantic building!
The layout of the store is quite simple. There’s a large circular area in the centre known as ConnectPro. It’s broken into Play, Work, On The Go, and Living. Associates in the circle are there solely to help you figure the technology out, they aren’t meant to sell you anything. The other sections are located around the circle, along the edge of the building. Counterclockwise as you enter: cell phones are followed by computers (with the onsite garage for auto entertainment behind), the Mac section, home entertainment and televisions, the new musical instruments section, gaming and media, appliances, fitness, and finally the checkout counters.
The musical instruments section was our “home base” for the evening, fitting as it is the most unique part of the new Future Shop design. I’m not an instrument geek, but it seemed really impressive. In total it’s about 2500 square feet. The far wall is full of guitars, and other instruments are in the middle. There are two sound-proof rooms in the back for drums and acoustic guitars (this one also has special temperature and humidity controls). Near the front are computer workstations where customers can riff on a guitar and burn a CD using Garage Band or other popular software. Very cool.
The Mac section of the store is about 2000 square feet, and features a Genius Bar staffed by an Apple employee from Wednesday to Sunday. Not that I expected it to, but the Mac section just doesn’t compare to an actual Mac store. It felt out of place sandwiched between the televisions and computer software.
I think my least favorite section of the store was the cell phone section. Maybe it’s because of the ongoing construction, but it didn’t seem to offer anything beyond what every other electronics retailer has. I appreciate the desks and chairs for customers and employees to sign contracts and all that, but the phone displays themselves still seemed rather mundane.
My favorite sections were the ConnectPro, which seemed very open and inviting, and the gaming trees (there are three of them located throughout the store). With about 46 television screens of varying sizes on each tree, you can’t help but stop and gawk for a few minutes. I can’t imagine how much power they use, but the trees are very visually appealing and functional.
I asked about the checkout counters, as that is usually the most frustrating part of any store for me. I hate line-ups. Chris said there are eight sales tills, and eight customer service tills, up from the usual two. In addition, the lanes are far wider than normal. He said that the onus is on him to ensure customers are moved through efficiently.
Here’s a quick walk through the store from start to finish:
A few other notes on the store:
- They are going for a Silver level LEED certification with the new building.
- There will be completely free and open Wi-Fi in the store starting Friday, under a “Future Shop” SSID. We tried it tonight but it wasn’t fully operational (only local access).
- I asked about parking, and although they said they had the largest lot in South Common, it doesn’t look any bigger than Wal-Mart’s, and definitely not bigger than Ikea’s. It certainly has far more parking than Best Buy though. As an aside, Sharon doesn’t think it’s right for a building that you have to drive to to be LEED certified!
- The main difference between the Appliances section in the new store and what Future Shop’s already have, is the way they are displayed. Instead of ovens on shelves, think built out kitchens similar to what you’d find in Home Depot.
The store soft-opened on Sunday afternoon, but the grand opening is from Friday, December 5th until Sunday, December 7th. The first 100 people in line will receive a free gift card of $5, $25, or $50 and there are a ton of door crasher deals. There’s also a Rock Band competition taking place, with the winner getting a chance to take on Gene Simmons on Saturday! On Sunday, Oilers captain Ethan Moreau will be there signing autographs.
Thanks to Future Shop and Capulet for the opportunity to check out the store! I think there are some really unique aspects to it, and I look forward to hearing the reaction from other Edmontonians. You can see all my photos and video at Flickr.
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Tags: buildings, edmonton, electronics, future shop, retail, south edmonton common
Categories: Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
December 4th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Mac,
A very excellent report on the new Future Shop.
I really enjoyed the vids and photos as well.
Thanks
Bunks
December 4th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Jealous! Our Future Shop is on the same lot as a Wal-Mart, Chapters, Winners, Staples, etc. It’s rather small, although I tend to buy from it still rather than local options (I’ve found they’re better with warranties).
Although I’m not much of a consumer, if I’m liable to buy anything, it’s books or tech stuff. A 53,000 sq. ft. store would probably be a health hazard to me, if not a hazard to my bank account!
The Connect Pro circle reminds me of the Nerd Herd circle in the Buy More in NBC’s Chuck.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Strong work–thanks for the great writeup.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Wow. That Future Shop seems like a special trip I’ll make later this season… just to see it and say I was there. But Guitars? That’s just really awesome. ^_^
December 5th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Bigger shop, however, not cheaper price
December 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
[...] are a couple things I already wrote about: Edmonton’s new Future Shop, and more funding for the Winter Lights [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Actually, the goal is LEED certification; not LEED Silver. Also, the gaming trees have 3-15A circuits inside them.
December 8th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Hello Anonymoose – we were told LEED Silver by the officials onsite.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
[...] a fast dinner option in South Common before checking out the new Future Shop, Mack and I headed to Ikea, past all of the tempting housewares and seasonal items and up to the [...]
December 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hi Mack,
Not to beat a moot point to death, but as the electrical engineer on the design team for the majority of the project, I’m pretty sure my information is correct. Unless something changed in the last four weeks of construction, there aren’t enough points to look at LEED silver.
On the other hand, it was nice to see some pictures – I hadn’t seen any until your posting.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Just wanted to comment on how well your staff handled a shoplifter incident in Kingston, Ontario evening of December 12, 2008. I have worked in Loss Prevention for 23 yrs and noticed how well two male staff dealt with a violent shoplifter high on drugs. The thief managed to get away, but the staff were very professional and knew when to safely back off. Too often untrained retailers get hurt in such an incident, however even though the thief got away with app 8 Wii games, it was handled very well in my view.
I noticed the thief had a spotter whom also looked cracked out, who knows how it could have went.I think the thieves will most likely stay away from that store as they ran off like dogs with tails between their legs.
This incident might be well aknowledged by all of your staff if used as an example I’m sure.
With the condition of our economy, I would expect to see more of these types of incidents and mention that Loss Prevention is safely described as PREVENTING Losses.
Yours Truly
John
December 30th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
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December 30th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] 12/03: A look at Edmonton’s new Future Shop [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 12:49 am
[...] Edmonton is home to the future of Future Shop, and very close behind that, A look at Edmonton’s new Future Shop [...]