Best Buy cuts 1,500 jobs in Canada

Best Buy is eliminating 1,500 jobs and closing stores in Canada in an effort to streamline branding.

The consumer electronics retailer has been operating two brands in Canada since buying out the Future Shop chain in 2001. Many of the Future Shop and Best Buy stores were within a half-mile of each other. Some even shared a parking lot.

For almost 15 years, company spokesman Jeff Shelman said it made sense to keep the Future Shops open because the electronics market was expanding. Recently the market became more sluggish.

Saturday the company announced the closure of 66 Future Shop locations. Another 65 locations will close for a week before reopening under the Best Buy brand.

"We need fewer but better stores," Shelman said, "under a single brand that we can invest in."

The move eliminates 500 full time jobs and 1,000 part time jobs. These losses are the most recent in a series of cuts.

Last year the retailer laid off 950 employees in an effort to streamline operations in Canada.

In 2013, 15 Best Buy stores closed in Canada.

Shelman said the most recent consolidations do not resemble Target's large-scale exit from the Canadian market.

Best Buy plans to invest up to $200 million in their remaining 192 stores over the next two years.