The Sears store at Lansdowne Place in Peterborough closed for good on Sunday (January 14) and Barry Killen was there to capture a video of the doors being locked for the final time.
“Sears was huge to my family for shopping/hanging out”, the Peterborough resident writes in an Instagram message to kawarthaNOW.
Killen — who made the news in December when he found musician Randy Bachman’s cellphone at the side of road in Omemee just before the Neil Young concert — posted a video of the event on his Instagram.
“This shot (of doors being locked) was weeks in the planning,” Killen writes. “And I almost missed it!!! Sears employees were GREAT. Man, it was sad.”
He also posted a couple of photos, including one showing the empty interior of the store and a symbolic composite photo of a ghostly man heading to the escalator.
All Sears stores closed for good on January 14, 2018, the end result of the department store chain declaring bankruptcy last year.
The Peterborough store officially opened on August 26, 1954, when it was called Simpsons-Sears.
The fate of the building and surrounding parking lot, both of which are owned by Sears Canada, remains unknown.
A joint venture by Hilco Global, Gordon Brothers, Tiger Capital Group and Great American Group is responsible for liquidating Sears assets.