The Future Shop of the Future?

Through a slight misunderstanding on Twitter, I ended up with an invitation to a preview of the new Future Shop store in South Edmonton Common. I hadn't been into a future shop for years, so I figured it would me an interesting experience and I gladly accepted the opportunity.

Historically, I have not been a big fan of Future Shop. I often found the stores dark and somewhat dingy feeling. I will admit that most of my experience is in the Edmonton south store, so it may not be representative of all, but nevertheless. Add to that the experience of dealing with over eager commissioned sales staff and I had enough reason to stay away. Thankfully, with stores like Best Buy in Edmonton, there have been other options for a while.

So, on Wednesday night I walked through the doors of future shop for the first time in a long time. Now, this is not just any future shop store, this is a concept store. Not only that, we're talking 53,000 square feet of concept store that has been in the works for over two years (which explains why, even in this economy, future shop would still go ahead and open the largest store in the company's history).

Let me say right off the start, my first impression of the store was a good one. Walking in, I didn't feel like I was was entering a giant warehouse store, but a nice, clean, overwhelmingly large retail store.

It only took moments to find the small group of other social media types that were gathering. I joined and introduced myself to a few people that until that moment I only knew online. We were all a little surprised to find the store was already open to the public (though the store didn't seem to have a whole lot of shoppers yet, the parking lot was surprisingly full). The soft opening had been the previous weekend, so we were not among the very first to enter the doors, though I'm sure we were early enough. The sound of power saws indicated that there were still some areas of the store that were not completely ready for the upcoming grand opening.

We were officially greeted after a few minutes and given a brief overview of what to expect for the evening. From there we were led to the musical instruments department to begin our tour of the store. I'll get back to this area (the music store) later, as it was one of the highlights for me. I'm not going to lead you through the details of the tour, you are better off heading into the store for yourself to see it. Rather I'm just going to share for you some of the big things I noticed.

First off, the staff that were there (most of those we spoke to were new to Edmonton and were here for the store, either temporarily or as ongoing staff), were extremely helpful. This extended not only to those who were leading us on the tour of the store, but also any of those working in departments throughout the store who were called upon to answer a question regarding their department.

I definitely got the sense from Chris (the store manager) that customer service is a big driver for him and how he intends to run the store. This is crucial and will, in my opinion be a key to whether this store is successful. If a great customer service experience can be delivered, then I think the store will do well, even if there are a few less dollars being spent in total due to our current economic conditions.

Overall, I really appreciated the way the store is laid out. There is a central hub in which service associates are available purely to answer questions about whichever products or topics someone might want to ask about. These are not sales staff, but people focused on being able to determine what type of solution you might be looking for and then directing you to the appropriate department to get what you need.

The store itself, while being massive, is well lit and organized. The aisles are wide and the display units are at a good height, you don't have to work hard to be able to check out the features on the digital camera you are looking at, because they aren't stacked five high and 4 deep. Walking around the store, you don't feel cramped and of course with the size that it is, even though it is nicely spread out, the selection is still fantastic.

The thing that I appreciated most about the new concept store is the introduction of the Musical Instruments department. I'm a musician, but I'm not the best out there. Often going into a music shop can be intimidating, particularly for those who are just learning or are mediocre musicians. The thought of being surrounded by people who are better at playing an instrument than you are is a little overwhelming. I think Future Shop will do well with this area because the fact is, most of the other shoppers in the store will not be great musicians. When you pick up a new guitar to see what it sounds like, chances are (staff excluded) the people around you will be in the same boat that you are, either learning or just stopping by out of curiousity. I will be really surprised if that area of the store doesn't do well.

For my part, the Future Shop experience that I had the other night was much different than my past experiences. I will definitely consider this store as a stopping point in my quest for electronics (and possibly a new guitar) in the future. I suggest you stop by the store and check it out.