Vernon Canadian Tire owner/dealer Jack D'Amico is excited to welcome customers back to the store on Friday, Feb. 10, which will be almost three months after a fire damaged the business. (Vernon Matters photo)

By Pete McIntyre

'Staff has done miracles'

Date announced for reopening Vernon’s Canadian Tire

Feb 1, 2023 | 5:00 AM

It has been more than two months since a major fire damaged Vernon’s Canadian Tire store, but now the business is nearly ready to reopen.

Local owner-dealer Jack D’Amico broke the news to Vernon Matters.

“We’re excited to say we are opening on Feb. 10th. After a period of being closed, me and my staff, we’re all excited,” D’Amico said during an interview at the store.

A fire broke out in the garden centre area outside the business in the Village Green Shopping Centre around 3 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2022, damaging that area and causing smoke damage to numerous products inside the building which all had to be replaced.

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RCMP said at the time, the cause of the fire was suspicious and appeared to be deliberately set. Their investigation into the fire continues.

D’Amico was not able to speak about the fire itself, due to the ongoing investigation. He referred comment on that to the company’s media relations department.

The owner said it’s been a long process to get to this point of being able to get the doors open again.

“Lots of hard work from the staff. The staff has done miracles; from the cleaning, to the new products, to the repairs. And now everyone is excited. The atmosphere has changed.”

D’Amico, who has owned the local store since February 2021, is overwhelmed by the community support.

“I’ve never seen so much support from the community, everywhere I go and everywhere my staff goes. And sometimes it’s extremely emotional. I saw people with almost tears in their eyes. One thing I’ve learned is that the store belongs to the community.”

Canadian Tire store in Village Green Shopping Centre has been closed since a fire Nov. 19, 2022. (Vernon Matters photo)

He said it will be the same store when the doors open again, with perhaps a few different products.

“Once we were merchandising, and I see we can improve ourselves, I will improve that in merchandising or new products. When you are touching everything, you want to get something better done.”

D’Amico, who has also owned stores in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, said the Vernon staff of over 100 has been keeping busy since the fire.

“They’ve been working since the beginning: cleaning, re-merchandising, and bringing the products in.”

The grand reopening on Feb. 10 will also include a ‘Back In Time’ sale

“Everything that has been on promotion with Canadian Tire since Black Friday when the fire happened, all of the promotions Canadian Tire has done [since then] is going to be put in one week.”

D’Amico said one of the first customers through the doors on the 10th will be the winner of Beach Radio’s $10,000 Christmas shopping contest.

Winner Ken De Groot had a number of local businesses to choose where he spent his winnings, and he picked Canadian Tire, which provided a lift to D’Amico.

“When I heard that from Beach Radio, I was so moved — that someone wanted to wait and come and spend the money at Canadian Tire — it touched me and my staff a lot. I want him to be the first customer on the grand reopening day. We’ll let him go shop and have fun,” D’Amico said.

The store’s auto service centre reopened Dec. 5 and online sales resumed Jan. 23.

“We saw a very positive response to the online orders,” D’Amico remarked.