Although SAAN will be closing its doors here this spring, local shoppers can look forward to stepping through the doors of a new business at 360 Scott St.—The Bargain! Shop.
Mike Roellinghoff, president and CEO of The Bargain! Shop, said yesterday afternoon from Mississauga that the store will be open for business sometime in May.
“We’re very excited about coming to Fort Frances,” he remarked, adding he hopes residents here are impressed with the company’s promise of “quality merchandise and guaranteed low prices.”
“We’re sort of a marriage between a discount store and a general merchandise store,” Roellinghoff explained. “We work with manufacturers to get clearance merchandise.
“We try to get our customers deals,” he stressed.
He added the merchandise is “first rate,” and is available at low prices from the manufacturers due to product overrun and cancelled orders, not because of any deficiency in quality.
Roellinghoff said the store will sell everything from food, candy, health and beauty products, cleaning products, housewares, and home textiles to clothing for the whole family, seasonal products, stationery, greeting cards and wrap, toys, gifts, and more.
He also noted the company currently is hiring staff to work at the store here, including a manager.
“We have a policy of hiring locally,” he said, adding the hiring is being overseen by Winnipeg district manager Brent Wotherspoon.
The Bargain! Shop is a fast-growing retail chain serving Canadians in more than 100 smaller communities from Cornerbrook, Nfld. to Port Alberni, B.C. to High Level, Alta.
Closer to Fort Frances, there are Bargain! Shops in Kenora, Geraldton, Manitouwadge, and Winnipeg.
As first reported back in January, SAAN stores across Canada have been liquidating their stock and then closing due to financial problems.
SAAN Stores Ltd. had accumulated net losses over the past six years which, when combined with year-to-date losses, exceeded $47.7 million.
The company had earned net profits in only two of the last six years.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
