MEDICINE HAT, AB —It’s a dark day for Canada’s retail industry as Sears Canada announces plans to close nearly five dozen stores nation wide.
The retail giant has filed for creditor protection as it downsizes.
Sears said 2,900 people will lose their jobs in the process. Some of those losses will happen right here in Medicine Hat.
The local Sears store is one of the 59 locations on the chopping block.
The company started showing signs of a struggle in February of 2009 when it laid off workers ahead of what was expected to be a tough year for retail.
Since then it’s been a slow decline ultimately leading to this restructuring.
The Medicine Hat Mall is currently undergoing a renovation and expansion after Target abruptly pulled out of Canada.
General manager Richard Okrainec said it’s hard to know how this will affect the future of the shopping centre.
He’s hoping the expansion, which will ultimately see the addition of around 20 retailers, will help to soften the blow of losing the original anchor tenant.
“It’s all mostly tenants that aren’t in this market, OshKosh, Mountain Warehouse, Marshalls, HomeSense, and I think it was just a need for the market anyway,” Okrainec explained. “So of course we think that’s going to help.”
It’s unclear how many employees there are at Sears who will lose their jobs.
Okrainec said right now their main concern is for those workers.
“Hopefully with our redevelopment that will turn some things around too, because there’s going to be a lot of staff hired over there,” he said.
Sears Canada said it will honour warranties on appliances and electronics, and residents will still be able to shop on their website one the physical store closes.
There’s no word on when the closure will happen but the retailer did say it wants the downsizing to be completed this year.
