For 17 years, Boota Uppal ran the Sears Hometown store in downtown Terrace, B.C., until the nationwide chain was closed last year.
But losing Sears is not stopping Uppal who is back in business, opening a similar department store under a different name in the same location.
“When we heard in October [that Sears was closing], we were really disappointed,” he told Carolina de Ryk, the host of CBC’s Daybreak North.
Uppal moved to the B.C. city from India 27 years ago and said it’s the community that keeps him there.
“We really like our community in Terrace and we like the customers,” he said.
Many of his customers encouraged him to start a new department store.
“They wanted me to start my own independent business, and they gave me a lot of power, my customers,” he said. “They said ‘Don’t give up.'”
Terrace Appliances and Mattress opened two weeks ago at the same location where Sears used to be. (Submitted by Boota Uppal)
Good wishes
Uppal opened shop, as Terrace Appliances and Mattresses, two weeks ago and said he’s already seen huge support for the initiative.
“I can honestly tell you that I had probably 200 people come to my store for good wishes and good luck for my business,” he said.
Uppal hopes to eventually hire back all the staff that had previously worked at the Sears branch.
Despite other big departments stores like Sears, Zellers and Target struggling to make a profit, Uppal is confident his Terrace-based business will succeed because of its staffing size.
“I’m the CEO, the owner, the delivery guy — I do everything,” he said. “I don’t have any big overhead.”
He said he encouraged other previous owners of Sears branches that shut down to consider following his lead.
“We can restart our own business. We have the experience,” he said. “Plus, we have our communities.”
With files from Daybreak North.
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