Lucas Punkari
When district residents opened up their mailbox early last week, they may have been stunned to receive a letter stating that Skates & Blades was going to be holding a liquidation sale before closing its doors for good.
While many may have thought it was a sudden decision that came without any warning, store owner Chris McKinnon said it was something he had thought about for a while.
“I guess the biggest question everyone has been asking me is why are you going out of business now?” noted McKinnon.
“And the simple answer that I can put to that is that it’s just time,” he said from inside the former location of Home Sweet Home, which is where the store’s liquidation sale is taking place.
“It’s a decision that was based on the fact that this is my ninth season in the sporting goods business, and to be honest I was just looking to move on,” McKinnon admitted.
“I’ve told the people who asked me why I’m closing up now that it’s been because of the good customers that I’ve had that I’ve been able to run the store for this long, and that is important to me,” he stressed.
Instead of holding the sale Skates & Blades regular location (648 Scott St.), McKinnon moved down the street to 520 Scott for the liquidation sale as it was a bigger space to showcase the number of items available for purchase.
“We had a pretty small footprint there while our location here has a much larger footprint that will allow us to display the merchandise for sale,” he explained.
“I don’t think people realized that we had this much stuff in our other store, but we just didn’t have a chance to showcase it.
“But by holding our sale here, it allows the customers to have a chance to see and to get their hands on the product,” he reasoned.
McKinnon stressed the sale, which began last Thursday, wasn’t a test or anything along those lines, and that it will continue until everything is sold.
“That includes everything from the wall fixtures to our skate sharpener to the pen we write the cheques with,” he remarked.
The reaction so far from customers for the sale has gone well, with very brisk traffic taking place when it opened on Thursday. Meanwhile, many long-time customers have talked to McKinnon personally to express their disappointment with the store’s closing.
“Skates & Blades has been in the community for about 20 years, so I knew the consequence of what we were doing,” said McKinnon, who has run the business for nine years.
“With that said, though, I told those guys that they were the reason that I was able to keep things going for some many years, and that’s part of the reason that I’m holding a sale like this instead of just closing things up.”
Another way McKinnon is showing his thanks to customers is with a contest during the liquidation sale. A shopper who accumulates enough points through a point system will have a chance to win either a flat-screen TV, a firearm, or a diamond ring.
“Hopefully if a guy wins it, they’ll choose the diamond ring for their wife instead of the gun,” he joked.
“But it is just another way that we are paying thanks to those that have shopped here, and hopefully the customers will be excited about it.”
At this point, McKinnon, who also owns the local M&M Meat Shops franchise, is unsure as to what his future plans might be.
“People always say that there’s bigger and better things, but I don’t know what that is right now,” he admitted.
“I’ll probably concentrate a little more on my other business in town, but for the time being we’ll just see how the road unravels.
“Right now there isn’t a Plan ‘B’ or something like that to go and jump into a different direction,” he added.
For McKinnon, however, the biggest thing he wants to get across is the fact he enjoyed his time running Skates & Blades, and he hopes those in the community will remember the store fondly.
“The Quebec Nordiques were once a great powerful team that folded, but they left a great legacy behind and hopefully we have left a nice legacy here in Fort Frances,” McKinnon said.
“We want people to remember us being an important part in the community, whether it was in helping to support minor hockey, taking part in the Lions’ drives, or helping out at the bass tournament.
“Those are just some of the things that we were able to help out with, and I’m thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of those things,” McKinnon concluded.
The liquidation sale will run Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
