Nearly 300 The Source locations in Canada — including the store in Northgate Shopping Centre in North Bay — will learn their fates by the end of February after Best Buy Canada and Bell Canada announced a partnership on Jan. 18 to rebrand and revamp 165 of those stores.
Bell spokesperson Rachel Jaskula confirms the stores not being rebranded will close this year. "This transition will take several months and we don’t have further details as we finalize the transition plan," she adds.
The Source, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell, will be rebranded as Best Buy Express, with locations expected to start opening in the second half of 2024. Best Buy and Bell will invest in updating the stores, outfitting them with an expanded assortment of products.
Northgate Shopping Centre is home to both The Source and a standard-sized Best Buy outlet.
The small-format stores will offer consumer electronics as well as wireline and wireless services from Bell, Virgin Plus and Lucky Mobile. Best Buy Canada president Ron Wilson said in a press release the partnership will expand the electronics store's presence across the country.
The Source's North Bay Mall outlet on Lakeshore Drive closed in 2018. The Source chain of electronics stores has been in business for over 40 years in Canada, initially as Radio Shack and later as The Source by Circuit City.
— With files from The Canadian Press
