Best Buy Discontinues Weekly Flyers in Canada
By Simon Hung
February 22, 2021Best Buy has discontinued their weekly flyer in Canada, replacing the popular shopping guide with a dedicated webpage to showcase their weekly deals.
In a statement to RedFlagDeals, a Best Buy spokesperson says the change will allow customers to shop for deals more easily on their website, provide quicker access to products and allow flexibility to continuously add more deals. In addition, Best Buy does plan to issue special flyers later this year for Black Friday and Boxing Week.
Best Buy’s flyer was consistently one of the most popular flyers on RedFlagDeals, serving as a handy visual aid for shoppers looking for tech deals, especially during major shopping events like Black Friday and Boxing Week. The earliest flyer in the RFD archive is from June 2012 (our flyers section was launched that month), although Best Buy flyers did exist before then.
The final flyer was issued on February 5 – a short three-page flyer that featured approximately 30 products. In contrast, their longest flyer ever was an 89-page catalogue for Boxing Day 2017 with over 900 products.
Since late-January, shoppers looking for the flyer have been re-directed to Best Buy's Top Deals page, which features weekly deals that would typically be included in their flyer. In the weeks leading up to the change, their flyers became noticeably shorter in length, from an average of approximately 30 pages in 2020 to just two pages in 2021.
While Best Buy isn't the first Canadian retailer to nix weekly flyers in the COVID-era, they are the most prominent retailer to eliminate flyers entirely – back in April 2020, No Frills and other Loblaw-owned grocery stores stopped printing paper flyers and switched to an all-digital model, presumably to reduce touch-points in-store, but began printing paper flyers again six months later.
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Corrections: this article was updated on February 24 with an official statement from Best Buy.
28 Comments
With most folks shopping online and not Instore ... makes perfect sense
Since discovering Flipp ... and it’s many aspects BEYOND just browsing flyers online
I am perfectly fine with no more paper versions ... and thereby also saving trees & less trash etc
No more digital flyer either, Best Buy did not release on Flipp this week.
Thing is... I think this would make me shop at Best Buy less.
Skimming a flyer and seeing a sale helps me with impulse purchases. I don't think anyone actually combs through Amazon's "flyers" / deals page. That thing is a nightmare!
FYI, manufacturers pay for product placement in flyers. That's why there are so many regular price items in store flyers. Maybe that has a lot to do with no more weekly flyer.
Scrolling through the "Top Deals" page isn't intuitive at all, and takes a lot longer to scan than an organized flyer.
Why didn't they just stop printing the paper flyer, and keep it digital, organized in the same way?
I'm going to call them next week to complain. Maybe if enough customers do that, they will change it back to at least a digital flyer.
Anyways, I've been shopping much more at Staples lately anyways.
They have much of the same items, and offer next day or two day shipping, with no minimum purchase for free shipping.
Honestly easier to scan and filter through Amazon's deals, then Best Buy's. And no numbered pages, just infinite vertical scrolling. Terrible web design.
tbh Stocktrack has been my #1 tool for checking Best Buy sales for awhile though, especially since they put a lot of stuff on that's unadvertised.
most companies just doing digital flyers,,,
i prefer that
Digital flyers are fine, but in this case, there is NO flyer.
Agree, but best to tell them that.
i use flipp to price match when I need to, but read physical flyers
The only way they'll change back to flyers, is if enough people complain (I already called and e-mailed them about it), or their sales decline enough to their competitors who still have flyers.
I don't care much about this. While I did enjoy the Best Buy flyer I often just browse websites for deals anyways.
They’re changing their business practice to suit their needs. If you don’t like the lack of a flyer, don’t shop with them. Like some of you, I’ve shifted my electronics purchases to other retailers that provide a better shopping experience, and with this move, will likely make fewer purchases with Best Buy.