The owners of the Sears Home-town location in Gibsons say they plan to carry on through a new partnership now that Sears Canada has been given court clearance to close its remaining stores and fold the company.
Sears had been operating under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, commonly known as bankruptcy protection, since June 22, but announced last week that it hadn’t been able to successfully restructure.
The Sears Hometown stores are privately owned by local operators, but their connection to Sears Canada will be severed as a result of the company going out of business.
Lorene Hagedorn, co-owner of the Gibsons location with Lyle Hagedorn, told Coast Reporter, “We are excited to be working with a well-known business on the Sunshine Coast to enhance our ability to provide products and services to our customers. We will have more details to announce in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we look forward to providing our services.”
The operators of the former Sears location in Sechelt were already in the process of switching to an independent appliance and mattress retailer when Sears announced its first store closures in June.
Sears Canada announced this week that it planned to start liquidating inventory and closing down its remaining stores Oct. 19. The company also issued a statement on warranties for some products.
“After Oct. 18, Sears will no longer be in a position to honour Sears Protection Agreements to customers,” the company said. “Most merchandise normally sold by Sears comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, which will be available to customers directly from the manufacturers as is presently the case. Refunds on protection agreements will be allowed to customers who have purchased them within the past 30 days per normal procedures.”
