The 160,000 square foot store, at the site of the old Eaton's store in the Halifax Shopping Centre, is clearly aimed at women.
"The Sears banner is targeted at the female customer," said Rick Brown, senior vice-president, strategic initiatives, who flew in from Toronto Tuesday for a special media preview of the new store.
"Womens' wear is 80 per cent larger...We have a whole new look in our brand central area which is the appliances and electronics - much more contemporary and targeted at the female customer."
Sears executives hope female shoppers will find the new appliances and electronics centre "a lot less intimidating than the old look," Mr. Brown said.
The vice-president was stepping in for Toronto-based Sears CEO and chairman Paul Walters, who had to cancel at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict.
The store, which weighs in as the largest Sears in Eastern Canada (the Moncton Sears is second in size), will employ 300, the majority of whom worked at the former Sears across the street at the West End Mall.
Mr. Brown said only a few of the former Eaton's employees in Halifax got jobs at the new Sears because "we had an existing staff that we moved over to this facility," said the vice-president.
"In the other areas where we're opening an Eaton's store that isn't replacing a Sears store you'd find that we'd hire a lot more of the Eaton's employees." He said Sears had an opportunity to open both an Eaton's banner and Sears store here, but the market dictated that Sears would be a better fit.
"We feel the Halifax market is perfectly situated for the Sears banner," said Mr. Brown.
"The Sears banner is a little more family; it's a little more suburban. It's a little more kids than the Eaton's."
Eaton's stores, also owned by Sears, will open in selected centres across the country in the fall.
Sears spent millions to open the new Halifax location, focusing on womens' wear, housewares, and kids' clothing, in addition to the appliances and electronics. "We're going to invest well over $7 million in this store. That's our confidence in the Halifax economy," Mr. Brown said.
"We're anticipating a lot more business in this store, than currently was done by Eaton's," he said. "And a lot more than what we were doing at the (old) Sears location."
Major furniture items will continue to be carried at the chain's Bayers Lake outlet.
While the focus is primarily women, whom studies have shown do the majority of shopping for a household, men have not been left out.
"Men's wear is probably about 50 per cent larger than the offering in the older store. We've got a much broader offering of home products. Housewares is expanding."
Sears took possession of the space on Dec. 29, 1999, after buying eight Eaton's stores last September from the bankrupt company.
Construction on the new store started in April, said Greg Paterson, general manager for Sears in the Atlantic region.
Workers have been going nearly nonstop for the past few weeks. For awhile, they were divided between the old and new locations.
"We basically split our staff (between the two)," said Mr. Paterson. "From a merchandising standpoint we've really been keen at it for the last four weeks. There were a lot of tractor-trailers going back and forth."
The popular bargain basement store at the former Sears will be run for a while at that location as an outlet, but it won't be moving over to the new spot, the executives said.
Mr. Paterson said they're still studying their options on that front.
While the new store's "soft opening" is Thursday, the grand opening, complete with special sales and giveaways, is Aug. 17.
Meanwhile, it isn't clear how many Sears call centre workers - who will lose their jobs later this year when the West End Mall centre shuts down - will get jobs at the company's large Belleville, Ont., call centre. More than 800 workers here will be let go, due to Sears' plans to rev up its online business.
"We haven't completed our final structure yet in Belleville," said Mr. Paterson.
"But once completed, we'll certainly make sure all of our associates in our Halifax call centre are aware of what is available."
