Boundary region to lose Fields department stores
By Erin Perkins
Grand Forks and Christina Lake Fields stores are among 141 Canadian stores slated for closure by HBC this fall.
“HBC is closing their entire Fields store chain,” said Tiffany Bourre, external communications manager for HBC.
“It was a strategic decision to grow our other HBC banners.”
The popular Grand Forks location may be spared if a pending deal with Fields Holding Company (FHC) goes through. FHC was established by a group of Canadian retailers to assume the lease of 37 Fields stores with the option to add an additional 22 locations to the list.
FHC is not associated with HBC.
If the deal goes through, the new owners could continue acquiring inventory from HBC, said Bourre.
Fields discount stores feature brand name merchandise also sold at The Bay and Zellers, another HBC company, in addition to its own line of products.
The Christina Lake Fields store is slated for closure on July 14, 2012.
The store already has a sub-lease sign posted in the window and when a product runs out there are no more shipments coming in.
Bourre said HBC is offering employees a “comprehensive career transition program” to help ease them into the world of re-employment.
The Grand Forks location employs two full-time and four part-time staff. Christina Lake has five part-time and one full-time employee.
HBC announced they will be selling their 167 stores in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Northwest Territories in early February.
Fields began in 1950 when Joseph Segal, originally from Vegreville Alberta, opened his first store on West Hastings in Vancouver.
In 1969 Fields had grown exponentially across Western Canada and had purchased three HBC stores in Kimberley, Nelson and Powell River, thus beginning the Fields connection to HBC. By February 2007 there were 135 Fields locations in Western Canada.
Local Fields managers and staff have been instructed not to talk to the media.
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