Sears Canada is about to declare full bankruptcy and go out of business.  This is personally a sad story for me.

Many retail stores that we knew when we were growing up have gone out of business.  Eatons, Woolworths, Kresges, Consumers Distributing and Simpsons.  These were big deals when Pat and I were growing up.  We even bought (or rather Pat bought) her wedding ring at CD.  (I did not have the cash on me at the time.)

But the Sears closure is a particular blow.

My mother worked for Sears for many years, and through her, Blaine and I got summer and weekend jobs.  I started with Sears shortly after I turned 16, working Saturdays where I cleaned washrooms and swept office floors in the giant Catalogue Distribution Center in Regina.  Over the next five years I continued to work Saturdays while in school, and then immediately when school was on a summer break, worked full time until September.  I moved on to be an assistant to the electrical maintenance people, and eventually got a job (once I obtained my commercial driver’s license) driving trucks.  Not huge pay but steady.

The company was always generous to me when I needed time off to take my flying lessons, and gave me overtime when I needed money.  Mother worked happily for them until forced to retire because of arthritis.  Granted I did not make a lot of money, but it did support Pat and I in the summer after we were married.

I always thought this was a solid core company,  but times change.  Walmart and the internet took away the market.  Think of it.  Sears was big in catalogue buying with direct shipment to customers 50 years before Amazon.  But they just did not see the future on the net.

It is sad but a reality today.