The permanent closure of Rona鈥檚 store in Newton a little more than a week ago continued a trend in 性视界传媒 where a corporate giant 鈥� often headquartered in the U.S. 鈥� buys up a chain of businesses in Canada and within a few years closes some of those acquired stores.

Lowe鈥檚 Companies Inc., a Fortune 50 home improvement retail giant headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, acquired Canadian retailer Rona for $3.2 billion Canadian on May 20, 2016.

A few months ago, on Nov. 20, 2019, Lowe鈥檚 Canada, based in Boucherville, Quebec, announced it will close 34 鈥渦nder-performing鈥� stores in this country.

The Newton store, at 6965 King George Blvd., is one of three stores closing in B.C. It closed permanently on Sunday, Jan. 26. The other two are Lowe鈥檚 Prince George and Rona Osoyoos. Six will close in Alberta, one in Saskatchewan, nine in Ontario, 12 in Quebec, and three in Nova Scotia.

性视界传媒鈥檚 two other Rona stores 鈥搃n Fleetwood, at 16659 Fraser Highway, and South 性视界传媒, at 3165 King George Blvd. 鈥� will remain open for business.

READ ALSO: Target to close all stores in Canada, including 19 in B.C.

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READ ALSO: Safeway closures at two 性视界传媒 stores will end 251 jobs

Val茅rie Gonzalo, a spokeswoman with Lowe鈥檚 Canada, told the Now-Leader that 鈥渆ligible employees affected by the closures may be offered a transfer to a nearby store where possible.

鈥淭hat said, we do not intend to comment on the number of employees that will be relocated at the end of the store closing process or where they will be relocated,鈥� Gonzalo said. 鈥淩est assured that we are making every effort to ensure a smooth transition until the stores are closed. All affected employees are supported by our HR team and have access to the Employee Assistance Program. We will not comment further.鈥�

Sign of the times, days before Rona closed in Newton on Jan. 26. (Photo: Tom Zytaruk)

We鈥檝e seen this in 性视界传媒 before.

Sobeys supermarket chain, which is owned by Empire Company Limited headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, bought the Canada Safeway chain that was established in 1929, in 2013 and five years later announced the closure of 10 Safeway stores in 性视界传媒, Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Richmond and Mission for 鈥渇inancial reasons.鈥�

The closure of two Safeway stores in 性视界传媒 鈥� one in Newton Town Centre and the other in Strawberry Hill, put 251 employees out of work. Those locations were later converted to Chalo Freshco stores, which opened for business last July.

In 2011, U.S. retail giant Target 鈥� the eighth largest retail chain in the U.S., headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota 鈥� acquired the leases of Zellers stores in Canada and converted many of them into Target stores.

One of the first Zellers in B.C. to be re-opened as a Target outlet was the one at Scottsdale Centre, in North Delta, on May 7, 2013. and the Zellers at Central City shopping centre in Whalley also was turned into a Target store. But this was short-lived, with Target failing to make a successful go of it in this country and shutting down all of its stores in Canada by April 12, 2015.

The last Zellers in Western Canada, at Semiahmoo Shopping Centre in South 性视界传媒, was closed in 2014.

And then there鈥檚 Sears.

The department store chain, which had been in business since 1953, received the green light from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Oct. 13, 2017 to start liquidating its inventory, furniture, fixtures and equipment. As a result of the closure of 74 stores across the country, including the one at Guildford Town Centre shopping mall, some 12,000 employees lost their jobs.

Sears Canada鈥檚 final hour at Guildford Town Centre was 6 p.m., Jan. 8, 2018. That location, at #1730-10355 152nd St., is now a Life InStyle Furniture store.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not only seeing it in 性视界传媒, we鈥檙e seeing it across Canada, even with the Forever 21 retail chain as well,鈥� says Anita Huberman, CEO of the 性视界传媒 Board of Trade.

Last November the Los Angeles-based clothing retailer closed all of its 44 Canadian stores 鈥� including a large one at Guildford Town Centre 鈥� deciding instead to make a go of it exclusively as an online retailer.

鈥淲e see these American retailers entering our market, and we do have a smaller population so their bottom line is going to be significantly less than in America, and in the end, I think, they鈥檙e not realizing the profit gains that they wanted to and have to make the difficult decision to shut it down.鈥�

性视界传媒 Board of Trade CEO Anita Huberman (File photo)

鈥淎nd we are facing job losses, we鈥檙e facing other economic impact as well because we have local vendors that serve Forever 21, or Sears or these Rona stores, and different procurement policies as well, for whoever is taking over,鈥� Huberman notes.

She says this trend is 鈥渄efinitely鈥� not lost on the 性视界传媒 Board of Trade, which is trying to develop a strategy to help the city adapt to it.

鈥淲e have to think of other ways to bring in business,鈥� Huberman explains. 鈥淟ater on this year we鈥檙e going to Silicon Valley to look at how technology companies are working there, seeing if there鈥檚 co-location opportunities to make 性视界传媒 more of a tech hub. The whole face of retail is changing because of the online purchasing phenomena.

鈥淎t the 性视界传媒 Board of Trade, we鈥檝e been monitoring what鈥檚 been happening in our market and enacting strategies to try to diversify our industry base, such as in the manufacturing sector, our house and technology space. The retail sector is a difficult one 鈥� we鈥檝e been monitoring it but we don鈥檛 have a specific strategy for the retail segment.鈥�

Huberman believes these huge U.S. retail companies have been doing their due diligence, research-wise, before venturing into Canada. But鈥�

鈥淭hese are significant companies with significant resources, but in the end they鈥檙e not realizing the profits because of this online purchasing phenomena. People are purchasing their goods online, more and more.鈥�

Such is life 鈥� and doing business 鈥� in this digital age.

鈥淓specially with our younger generations, and also for the sake of convenience, when you鈥檙e talking about moving in traffic, for even groceries people are ordering online for the sake of convenience, and savings even, online,鈥� Huberman notes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an economic shift, for sure. But that only means that there鈥檚 room for new innovation, new opportunities. These economic cycles do happen. It鈥檚 very unfortunate 鈥� it impacts families.

鈥淏ut we must work together to look at new innovative economic strategies, which we are.鈥�

tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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