Hours before it was set to close its doors for good, the Sears department store at the Avalon Mall in St. John’s looked more like an empty warehouse Monday afternoon.
Racks and shelves that were once packed with clothes, shoes, accessories, bedding, perfumes, dishes, stationary and other merchandise in the 128,000-square-foot area were bare. The spaces where furniture and appliances once lined the floors were desolate.
Even the racks, metal shelving units, counters and mannequins were for sale.
Dozens of customers rummaged through the scattered items that were left on the store’s final day, with liquidation prices up to 80 per cent off.
At the back of the store, across an open area where rows of refrigerators, stoves, freezers and dishwashers once stood, Patsy Whalen slowly packed boxes, cleaning out drawers and cupboards behind the appliance department’s customer service desk.
“It’s hard to believe,” the 63-year-old said, shaking her head and looking around the empty store. “I never thought this day would come. It’s the end of an era.”
After 65 years in business, Sears Canada has folded and left thousands of employees across the country out of work. The company continued to lose money over the years, unable to compete with other businesses, and was forced to close dozens of stores and retail outlets.
Whalen has worked at the St. John’s Sears store for the past 35 years. The Paradise woman started behind the counter at the cafeteria in the downstairs section of the store in the early 1980s, when it was located at the Village Shopping Centre. Since then, she has worked in almost every other department.
“This has been a big part of my life for decades,” Whalen said. “Everyone here is so close and it’s going to be devastating to say goodbye to them at the end of the day. We’re all heartbroken.”
Whalen said she will find it difficult not seeing the store’s faithful customers every day.
“Many of them have become like family. They send us cards every year,” she said. “I was like a teacher — having seen generations of families over the years.
“So many of them have come up to me this past week, giving me hugs. Oh, it breaks my heart.”
Whalen is one of the lucky ones. She bought out her pension about eight years ago and rolled it into another plan. But losing medical and dental benefits will be tough, she said.
She hasn’t decided what she will do now that she is out of work. She said she will take the winter off to think about things and maybe go on a vacation.
“Who knows what the future holds?” she said. “But it definitely won’t be the same.”
Twitter: TelyRosie
