TISDALE 鈥� Tisdale Fields and the Beeland Co-op Sport & Leisure Store held their official grand opening, welcoming new customers into the building.
The grand opening took place on Oct. 3, about a month after Fields held their soft opening on Sept. 8.
鈥淲e wanted to give the store a chance to practice dealing with the public, putting out freight, using the equipment and honestly putting out in September isn鈥檛 a great month,鈥� said Nelson Neves, director of store operations and loss prevention for Fields corporate. 鈥淓veryone is worn out from back to school shopping so we wanted to launch in October as we headed into the busy fall, Christmas selling season and Halloween.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 the first Fields store to open in Tisdale, with the previous Fields shutting down when the Tisdale Mall closed.
During the Tisdale Mall closing, Fields made a deal with the Beeland Co-op to sell their land to build their new store, and in exchange for buying their old food store, where Fields is located now.
鈥淲e wanted to come back to this market; it was always our plan to return to this market,鈥� Neves said.
He said with the new location being twice the size of the former store, they can use the opportunity to sell furniture and mattresses.
鈥淭he same products you can find in the big city, here in town without having to pay delivery or higher prices. So a lot more offerings than we used to have.鈥�
The Co-op Sport & Leisure Store had its soft opening in February. Todd Svenson, general manager of the Beeland Co-op, said he wanted to wait for Fields to be ready before they held their grand opening.
鈥淲e thought it would be nice to do as a centre, rather than doing it on our own. Kind of give the customers a full meal deal with both stores open rather than on their own,鈥� Svenson said.
With Fields buying the former Co-op food store building location, part of it is leased back to the Co-op for the Sport & Leisure Store.
鈥淚t basically maintains what we had in the north end of the old food store,鈥� Svenson said. 鈥淲e have the hunting and fishing, lawn and garden, seasonal displays, furniture, Christmas is up and coming 鈥� basically to maintain all the services we had before.鈥�
He said with today鈥檚 consumers, they want food stores to focus solely on food.
鈥淭he plan moving forward over the next few years we will build a new Home Centre out by the highway, which this would be under one roof with our lumberyard.鈥�
Svenson said the new initiative is about six to seven years away before it is expected to be in operation.
