Hart Department Store Will Open October 29 In Fredericton
FREDERICTON – Brookside Mall will soon have a brand new store to fill the former Zellers space. Department store chain Hart’s seventh New Brunswick location is set to open on the city’s north side October 29.
Hart Beresford store manager Audrey Renwick says they’ve received very positive feedback from the public about the new location.
“Everybody is so excited,” she said. “All I hear is ‘we won’t have to go to Walmart.’ It’s so positive.”
Regional supervisor Eric Gauvin says part of the interest can be credited to the fact that Hart is a different sort of concept for Fredericton.
“In the same store, there’s everything you need for the house, everything you need for fashion and all that at very good prices. There’s no one else who does all that,” he says.
The location in Brookside Mall was chosen partly because Hart was approached by the shopping centre’s representatives, who Gauvin says gave them the opportunity and everything they needed for Hart to succeed at that location.
With 25,000 square feet of floor space, Hart will primarily carry bedding, decor, and fashion at discounted prices. Construction, fixture building, and stocking will continue until opening day.
Gauvin says the new Fredericton store is part of a larger expansion for Hart, which includes new locations in Quebec and Ontario. The company is also exploring the idea of setting up stores in Saint John and Moncton.
The Hart Fredericton store is continuing to hire staff and Gauvin says they will eventually be looking to recruit a bilingual New Brunswick representative for the new and established stores in the province.
Gauvin is expecting a public reaction to the new store similar to that of the opening of the Atholville store. He says the store had 2,300 visitors on opening day, in a town of 1,200.
“Lots of people from here saw the location in Atholville and were very excited about that,” he says. “If we can do the same thing as we did in Atholville, we’ll be very happy.”
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