The company with the split personality

A while back Best Buy (American) acquired Future Shop (Canadian) - I think - or was it the other way around? I can never keep track in this hostile takeover world we live in. So these two stores are essentially part of the same company now. Which is so weird, because they are like two (split) personalities of a single entity. Their prices don't match. Their selection doesn't match. And now there are clues that they do not use the same shipper or distributor.

When Battlestar Galactica season 3 came out on DVD this past Tuesday, I raced to my nearest Future Shop to buy a copy. I could not find a copy in sight. Panicked, I tried to find an available salesperson (a task in and of itself). The first dude I encountered basically pushed me off with the statement "I'm not the DVD person. You'll have to talk to someone in that section." To which I felt like saying "Do you think I'd be talking to you right now if I could find someone in that section?"

Small side conversation: Is it just me, or do big box store salespeople have an uncanny knack for disappearing into thin air? I can spot one a few aisles away and when I manage to navigate past the innumerable mid-aisle obstacles to their calculated location, they've vanished. There must be hidden escape doors somewhere that they can quickly enter to get away from pesky customers.

OK, back to the story. Turns out I wasn't imagining things, Future Shop did not have a copy of the DVD, even though it was released on this particular day. Their excuse? "A shipment hasn't arrived yet."

We happen to have a mall in Calgary that has both a Future Shop and a Best Buy. In fact, they are at the same end of the mall. A quick walk over to Best Buy and I found my precious DVD. For two stores that are supposed to be one, they sure don't resemble each other in many ways.