new-future-shop-edmontonI was invited, along with a number of other Edmonton bloggers and social media types, to Edmonton’s new Future Shop in South Common. The new Future Shop store is actually just around the corner from Ikea and kitty-corner to *cough* Wal-Mart.

The store is actually already open to the public with the grand opening this weekend. I think most of us invited to the store thought we’d be getting a sneak peek at it, but no such luck.

Apparently the store is one of their largest, if not THE largest. I wasn’t taking notes, but I was putting some pictures and comments out on Twitter. I took lots of video too, and I’ll look at putting that up sometime. It’s a nice store and no doubt I’ll probably give it a more thorough look late. While it is open to the public, the appliance section still has some construction going on.

The word is that it’s substantially different than any of the other stores. They are carrying fitness equipment and used video games now too.

I thought the most interesting part of the store was the instrument section. They have a giant wall of guitars and have a selection of other musical equipment. That should be interesting. I’m not sure if other music stores in Edmonton are worried. It’s not a huge section, but it’s pretty good. I think that the thought was that once you’ve mastered Guitar Hero you can move up to the real thing. Makes sense.

We got the grand tour and a chance to ask a lot of questions of the PR people from Vancouver

You can definitely go beyond Guitar Hero here

as well as the store’s general manager. They were very accommodating and fielded a few tough questions. One of the questions that came up was about extended warranty, always a touchy subject.

Having been an employee of Future Shop I know that there’s a huge emphasis on selling extended warranties (giant profits). I worked there five years ago and I know they were expensive then. Getting extended warranty service was not the happiest experience for those who bought it too.

Chris, the general manager, said that his staff will take ‘no’ as the final word when it comes to extended warranties and he doesn’t believe in wearing down customers until they relent. That’s good to hear and let’s hope it happens. I also hope that Future Shop makes it easier for customers to get their extended warranty service too.

I didn’t ask about mail-in rebates, but I probably should have. Who hasn’t been burned on those? I have once, and I’ve had to fight for a few. I avoid them generally.

If you’re a fan of Future Shop, you’re going to really like the store. According to Chris there are more cash lanes and people will get out of the store without huge waits. Employees will also have keys so you won’t have to wait to buy your laptop. There’s also the Apple section, which seemed to be pretty decent.

Edmonton Social Media

It was nice to visit with the other bloggers and Tweeple (Twitter users, for the uninitiated). I met a couple of people that I have as friends on Twitter but hadn’t met in person. We had a few sandwiches and took away a gift as well.

Now, here’s an interesting topic. Having worked as a journalist in the past, this would be a big no-no. The thought is that any kind of gift would be contrary to a journalist’s code of ethics and would not want any appearance of bias.

Well, I’m not a journalist any longer, but I don’t think a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone is going to make any difference in my opinion. Nothing like that will change my opinion but good evidence as to why my opinion might not be well-founded, could.

I think the store is worth checking out though. And if you think you’ll get a Wii Fit, well, they’re out too. They did have them. Apparently they’ll have more for this weekend when Gene Simmons is there for the grand opening. The store is going to be nuts on Saturday! I might brave the crowds to see if I can get an autograph.

Comments:

1. Cheryl Says: December 8th, 2008 at 11:26 am

Hi – Some great photos of the store! Just thought I’d answer your question about the mail-in rebates. Future Shop doesn’t have these any more. They were eliminated about 18 months ago to make it easier for customers : )

2. Alain Saffel Says: December 8th, 2008 at 11:33 am

Hi Cheryl, good to hear. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen much about mail-in rebates anywhere lately.

I know I’ve actually avoided products that have had them. I can’t be the only one!

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