We Loved What the Future Had in Store!

Store 058, St.Catharines over the years.

It was a cold day many years ago, back in February 2005. I was a twelfth grade high school student in need of a coop placement. I had made arrangements to meet with a man named Paul Deluca and had walked from school to the Fairview Mall. This was the beginning of a relationship between me and Future Shop that would prove to be one of the most fruitful relationships of my entire life.

I thought Future Shop would be a fun place to work. I loved electronics. I spent almost every extra dollar I had at Future Shop. Mostly I bought DVDs but years earlier I also made a major purchase. When I was 13 I was obsessed with photographs so I saved up and bought myself a digital camera. It was 1.3 megapixel Fuji Finepix 1400Zoom. I upgraded to the 16mb SmartMedia Card and also bought a 3.5in floppy disc adapter for SmartMedia because at the time my Pentium 133 did not have USB. I remember thinking at the time that Future Shop would be a cool place to work. Years later after I had been working at the shop for some time I found the receipt for that camera. It was sold to me by sales person 5442, a man who would become one of my closest friends, Mark Newbigging. So while I've never told him Mark is one of the biggest reasons I ever started at Future Shop. The other contributing factor was that Logan Hulley already worked there and I had known Logan since I was 5 or 6 years old. 

Myself as a bright eyed and bushy tailed coop student.

I remember my first day quite honestly like it was yesterday. I got off the bus at school and began to walk immediately to the mall. It was about a 25 minute walk, and it was cold. I arrived at what would become my usual starting time 8:45 am. I was introduced to Kelly Cooper, the Entertainment Coordinator at the time and Todd DeRocco who would become one of my closest coworkers over to coming years. I immediately connected with Todd. I thought he was hilarious. After the introductions we started into work. The first day I was there the prices had gone up on all of the music CD's, and when I first started there were thousands of CD's. Todd and I worked 4 foot by 4 foot scanning each CD inline and under the decks. We then printed the new white tags went back to the 4 foot and replaced the old tags. By the end of the first day I remember the ends of my fingers were bleeding because of the stickers peeling off the skin from my fingers. What sticks with me most about that day though was the music. One of the CDs in the changer when I first started was Much Dance 80s (a CD I would eventually buy) and the first track was Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. That first day I think we went through that CD three times. I mentioned to Todd how much that song drove me crazy and for weeks every time I would come in Todd would start playing it and laugh hysterically with his signature laugh.

Meaghan and Townson

Over the next few months I would get to know more great people including Steve "Down" Townson, Kelly's successor, and Meaghan Ferguson. Meaghan and I would click and have an awful lot of fun over the coming years in Entertainment. We had fun and would remain close in spite of the fact she would regularly scare me to death and sent me to the basement a box of tags. The only access to the fictional basement by the way was in the bowling alley across the mall and you had to ask for a key at the shoe counter. Talk about egg on my face.

After 3 months I remember I was asked into the cash office with Steve and Anthony Minniti, Operations Manager at the time and a man I now consider to be my friend. I thought this was just going to be a review of my time there as my coop would soon be coming to a close. To my surprise they asked if I wanted to start working there in Entertainment part time. I was elated. I was having a great time, I loved what I was doing and I was working with great people. I worked part time at both McDonald`s and Future Shop for a while but shortly after graduation I quit McDonald's and put more of my focus on Future Shop and my upcoming college education.

That summer and the following year I began to realize what made Future Shop as a place to work something really special. It wasn't the money, it wasn't the discounts it was the people. Once I started working in the evenings and meeting more people I came out of my shell. I wasn't the shy coop kid anymore I was a co-worker, I met and became close with two people who would become my best friends Ryan Brunner, and Shanna McCoy.  I would continue to become friends with more and more people, We would go to karaoke every week, we would party on the weekends, we would go on camping trips, and while at work we would have fun while being the best.

My first package. I would improve greatly.

I continued to work in Entertainment for almost 3 years; this was probably the most fun I had while working at Future Shop. I got to work with Shanna, Meaghan, Chelsey Vamos, and Scott Wilson everyday and Ryan was just across the racetrack in appliances leaning on a washing machine waiting for that next big sale. Together we would survive boxing days, console launches and massive DVD releases like Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith. There was the time that Don Nadon discovered EB Games was selling games 20 points below cost, threw the phone across the room and sent me over there with a handful of cash to clean out their entire stock. There was the time Shanna and I were cleaning the decks with a cleaning chemical I brought from home and it melted the floor. There was the time Scott could barely stand during a morning meeting and we had to spend the day building racking. These are just a handful of times that come to mind about my time in Entertainment.

Around this time I also began to use some of my skills to help out the store as best I could. I started making packages for the entertainment department, and video loops for IPG and major releases. This was fun for me and was something that I would enjoy doing for many years to come.

Todd, Sean and I.

After about 3 years in Entertainment I was once again approached by Anthony, now General Manager and a new DSM at our store named Paul Dayco. They asked if I wanted to transition to sales in IPG. Todd and Scott had already moved to IPG as Sales Associates and I was asked to go over as a Product Expert. I fell prey to the allure of money made the move. The money was good, at times very good and I did quite well for myself for a number of years. I worked with more great people like Greg Sharp, Sean Pereira, Todd Wong, Steve Stap, Mark Hradsky, Johnny "Cheeks" Waldron, Ryan Jarvis, Paul Baldin, and Craig Hyatt. We battled the crowds of back to school and boxing day, we made as many Han Solo references as possible, we fought for the title of best eater at the Mandarin, ate emergency pizza's and all the while I made fun of all of them for playing way too much World of Warcraft.

I worked about 2 years in IPG selling computers. Near the end it really wasn't working out, much of my focus had been put on my work placement in Burlington. I was putting in 40 hours a week at a television station called CTS. I really just became a box pusher and my numbers reflected it. Once my placement was over I really needed full time employment at well. After discussing it with Anthony it was decided I should make the move to customer service on a full time basis.

Bye Star!

Bowling in Mobile.

I had no idea how much I would both love and hate working in Customer Service. I again loved the people. I worked closely with people I never had before and I began to appreciate the work they did. Customer Service was quite frankly the most difficult job in the building. The work you do goes largely unappreciated and unrecognized both financially and among your peers. Half the time you stood around with very little to do and the other half people were yelling at you, or calling you names as a result of something that either is entirely out of your control or the fault of a salesperson. I became very close with this group of ladies over the coming years. I was the lone male presence in a big girls club and you know what? It was a lot of fun. Working everyday with Shannon, Debbie, Melinda, Kelly, Grace, Tara, Christine, and Elyse. Occasionally in this job I would get a little bored especially when I worked regularly 9-5 at the mall cash. So I began taking on more of a role in the social aspects of work. I was on more committees, attended Future Leaders meetings, planned parties and much more. This turned out to not be enough for me. I would regularly be seen walking laps around the register area while the ladies would chuckle across the entrance way, so I got in the habit of bringing my computer every day; this was no laptop mind you. This was a 17" iMac that I would box up every day and setup at the mall cash so I could work on packages and posters for departments all over the store. This began to fill my days (there was still time however for the occasional game of mobile audio bowling with Jeff Phillips or Rachel Heinz).

Some of the good time with the dream team.

Customer Service just wasn't enough for me though. I liked it but I needed to be a bit more involved in something, so my schedule changed a little bit and I started getting my 40 hours in just 4 days. Two days a week I would come in to work with the merchandising team to unload a truck between 6-930 and then finish my day in customer service. Thursdays would be the most fun day of the week for me during this period. I would come in for an 8 hour closing shift, work all by myself doing Home Theater flyer setup. I got do whatever I wanted with the end caps. I got to be creative making sure we had complete packages and all the flyer pieces a prominent place in the store. I did some crazy things like vignettes with three displays hooked up to a home theater PC and at one point I think I had 19 Samsung BD-E5300’s, on demo. I have some great memories during this time at the shop. Coming in 6am and hulking TV's up and down the stairs, making the box wall with Jeramie Bailey and Shane White, shooting Julia Winslow's calendar, using the Blue Giant to change a fluorescent light bulb, and the incomparable Andrew Needham dropping a rear projection TV down the stairs and allowing me to stop it with my chest. I had a lot of fun during this time but the allure of sales (and the higher base) was too strong and made my transition back to the sales floor.

The dreaded PEP sheet I designed.

Cellular - and later CellShop would be my final stop at store 058. I joined a great group of sales people including Mark and Erin Newbigging and Mike Dobsi, three people I would later be happy to call my friends. I loved working in Cell. After I picked up the initial product knowledge I became passionate about it. I loved learning and keeping up to date on all the advancement in mobile operating systems. I was able to see iPhone launches, the advancement of Android, and Blackberry becoming a mere footnote in the mobile landscape. Once again though the people were king. Mark and Erin Newbigging took me under their wing a tried to teach me to sell and more importantly welcomed me into their home and introduced me into a whole new circle of friends, something for which I will be eternally grateful. I worked in Cellular for about 3 years and loved every minute of it. As I mentioned earlier this was my last stop. I took a great many things for granted and I had to go. I acknowledge that now and view it as being for the best.

Although I didn't intend on outlining my entire time at the shop in this post that's what it turned into and I'm sorry, I'll know get down to brass tax. This past Saturday Future Shop closed forever and this past Sunday many of us got together to celebrate our time together. It was harder then I had ever imagined knowing that none of these people will be going into work together anymore. I stood there in disbelief that a place that meant so much to me, to all of us, a place that I had spent nearly a third of my life would no longer exist. I don't want to talk about the failure of Future Shop, Best Buy or assign any sort of blame. You all worked hard and put an awful lot into that company. Sadly, it doesn't matter anymore, what does matter that we all move forward and take the positives from our time at Future Shop.

The first thing I'll take away from time is a great deal of knowledge. Not just about consumer electronics but about retail and business in general. The knowledge imparted on me by people like Chris Lambier, Dan Hunter, Rick McLellan, Gord Engel, and Anthony Minniti I will carry with me for a life time. If it wasn't for you I wouldn’t have the appreciation for numbers and reports that I have today.

The second thing I take away from my time at Future Shop is it taught me that work could be fun. My view or work had always been just that - that it was work. People like Jayme Lewicki taught me differently. He taught me that you could take your job seriously, do your best to drive a result and have fun doing it.

FSX Poster from the lunchroom.

The third and obviously most important thing I will of course take away from my time at Future Shop is the relationships. Future Shop in St.Catharines was a family and almost every good thing I have in my life now is a result of my time at Future Shop. I take away lasting friendships with Ryan Brunner and his family, Ryan Jarvis and Shanna McCoy (Jarvis) Mark and Erin Newbigging, Andrew Pearson and Meaghan Ferguson(Pearson), Bob Dunn, Andrew and Tamara Mitchell, Scott Wilson, Elyse Wylie, Eric Johnson and Chelsey Vamos (Johnson), Bernie Wieler and Maggie Wilk (Wieler) and so many more. Each year I still play Fantasy Football in a league called the Union of Ex-Future Shop Associates with a great group of friends. Most notably if it were not for Future Shop many of us would not have found our significant others. Many of us found people to spend our lives with at Future Shop and if not for my friendship with Chelsey I would not have met my partner in life, Lindsay.

Future Shop was the greatest thing that ever happened to me and I will forever be grateful for my time there.

I'd like to close with my Alpha-Numeric, N2VV. At one point I even considered getting a vanity plate with this number. In hindsight I'm glad I didn't do that.