By Tracey Duguay
With its 28th anniversary right around the corner, the Sears Canada department store in the New Sudbury Centre is getting a major facelift.
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| bottom Tony Commito, store manager, looks at the renovation floor plans. |
Construction on the multimillion-dollar renovation project starts the week of May 20, just eight days shy of the date the store opened in 1974.
Tony Commito, manager of the Sudbury store, says the project ?presents a considerable investment on behalf of Sears? to provide its customers with ?an exciting and entirely new shopping experience.?
One component of this new shopping experience is an additional 12,306 square feet of retail floor space. After renovations are complete, the retail space will be expanded to 102,306 square feet from the present 90,000.
?The acquirement of the additional sales space will come from former stock room areas,? Commito explains.
?We?ll be changing the aisle pattern so that it?s easier to get around the store and increasing the size of the aisles so that it allows for greater movement of customers and for those who are with children.?
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| bottom Dave Szanto and Tony Commito discuss the dismantling of the electronics department. |
The first areas slated for renovation are the former children?s wear department on the first floor and the home electronics section.
Aside from a modern ?easy-to-shop interior design,? other improvements will include a broader selection of their existing home merchandise and clothing lines.
The one thing that will be missing from the store after the renovations is the furniture department because it will now be housed in the new Sears Whole Home warehouse, which is slated to open in late fall across from Home Depot off the Kingsway. The warehouse will specialize in furniture and appliances; however, the department store will also continue to carry a full line of appliances.
The store will remain open during the renovations and Commito says they?re taking ?every precaution? to provide a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for their customers.
They have already begun dismantling some departments and moving others to new locations within the store in anticipation of the construction.
Sales professionals are fielding questions from curious customers who are wondering what all the commotion is about. There are even rumors circulating that the store is going out of business.
Commito wants to set the record straight and let customers know that there is no truth to these rumors. In fact, the renovations point to the exact opposite, he said.
?We are making a large investment and we are saying to the customers and to the community as a whole that Sears is here to stay for a very long time,? he says.
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Although customers may have to put up with a little inconvenience during the renovations, the upside is that the store will be freeing up some floor space.
Commito says that means customers will continue to be offered ?sales to liquidate the merchandise so that we can make room [for the contractors].?
