The 50,000-square-foot Sears Home store on Tolmie Avenue is closing in July because its lease is coming to an end, a Sears spokesman said Friday.
Most of the product line will be relocated to the Sears department store at Hillside Centre, said Vincent Power, vice-president of corporate affairs and communications for Sears Canada.
Some products, such as mattresses and major appliances, are already sold at Sears’ Hillside Centre store. The company will be looking for space there to fit furniture, he said.
Sears Home has 25 full- and part-time employees. Power expects some will be moved to Hillside Centre, while others may be offered positions at Sears stores in Nanaimo or Vancouver. Meetings will be held with each employee by March 1.
There are 40 Sears Home stores in Canada, and four have either closed or are slated to close this year, Power said. Sears Canada has 95 department stores.
Power noted “the channel of Home stores [in Canada] is not as profitable as we would have expected.”
Sears’ lease on the Tolmie store ends July 31 and the store will likely close July 20, he said.
The decision is not a reflection on employees, who have “done a great job,” Power added.
Sears Home stores were introduced in the mid-1990s.
Power said factors influencing a decision to close include the cost of transportation of products, warehousing and duplication of products with the department store operation. He said Sears also has online sales and catalogue operations to serve customers.
Sears Canada posted a loss of $53.2 million in its latest fiscal quarter in December. The company said that while sales of major appliances, furniture and mattresses helped its performance, overall revenue was down.
