Difficult news for the North Bay economy as Sears Canada has received court approval today (Friday) to liquidate its 130 remaining stores, including the one at Northgate Shopping Centre.

This after the retailer failed to find a buyer.

Earlier this week Mayor Al McDonald said this is a national story and there’s not much the city can do.

“We’ve seen store closures in the last 6-8 months in major cities across the country and we were spared. The local Sears was doing quite well. Unfortunately, nationwide that wasn’t the case,” he says.

The closures will result in about 12,000 more job losses across the country.

Chamber of Commerce president Peter Chirico says with the loss of jobs, the closure of Sears in North Bay is another blow to the local retail sector.

“A vacancy of 100,000 square feet, that’s a big piece of real estate to fill,” he says.

Chirico also says retail is changing and they’ll be launching a buy local campaign.

“We have a lot of retail businesses that depend on our local purchases. And I certainly hope this will news will spark people to look more closely as to how they buy and where they buy,” he says.

 

 

 

Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz