Customers walking into the Sears at Orchard Park Mall this morning were sad the store is officially closing.
An Ontario court approved the liquidation of the 130 remaining Sears stores across the country on Friday, which includes a Sears and Sears Home in Kelowna.
“It was a good store, you get everything you need for machines, it’s sad,” says Mike from outside Orchard Park Mall.
“It is a surprise and sad cause it’s been around for so many years but seems to be happening more and more now,” said Donna.
She also felt bad for the 12,000 employees that will lose their job when the stores close.
“A lot of them have been here for a long time and maybe some of them are getting close to retirement but still need to work for a few more years, it’s really sad, I’m disappointed.”
Many other shoppers also couldn’t help but think about the affect the closures will have on employees.
“I feel sorry for the employees that they’re not going to get their pensions,” said Maureen “Very sad when you’ve paid that money in for all those years.”
“I’m really sorry for the people that work there,” said Anna “It’s gonna be very hard for them to find jobs, especially in the Okanagan.”
Walter lamented on the trend of department stores going out of business.
“I’m not happy that we’re losing another retailer, you know, we lost Eaton’s, Woodward’s, Woolco’s, Zellers, we’re losing all of our stores.”
And some customers think it’s been a long time coming.
“It’s been coming now, for what, 15 years?” said Dwight.
“Anytime I’ve ever been in there, there’s been hardly any people,” said Ken.
“They haven’t been able to afford to update at all, and you know, when you shop you kinda want a pleasant experience too in terms of your environment,” said Sharon “And I don’t really find that when I walk into that store.”
Liquidation at all Sears stores is expected to begin next Thursday.
Although it’s not clear when Kelowna’s Sears’ will shut its doors for good, liquidations must be complete by January 21, 2017.