By Courtney Almeida

New Canadian Tire opens in Grande Prairie this week

Mar 18, 2019 | 8:57 AM

The largest single-level Canadian Tire store in the country is finally set to open in Grande Prairie this week. A soft-opening is scheduled for Thursday with the long-awaited Grand Opening taking place May 2.

Thursday will be the first day the store will open its doors to customers but May 2 will be the real treat for shoppers, as the Grand Opening will also feature a big Grand Opening sale.

“To have the largest of anything in Grande Prairie when we only really have 69,000 people, I think it speaks to the confidence in the economy that Grande Prairie can sustain a store like this,” said Ron Regnier, General Manager for Canadian Tire in Grande Prairie.

WATCH as EVERYTHING GP gets an Exclusive Tour of the new location:

The new storefront will bring many opportunities to the Swan City including the prospect of more jobs. Regnier says around this time of year, Canadian Tire normally staffs anywhere from 110 to 130 employees and this year that number is already at 240.

“We’ve hired over 100 extra people to not only build the store but now they’re going to be staffing the store, so we can properly service the people of Grande Prairie.”

That number doesn’t factor in local trades that are in the building, which normally account for upwards of 50 people at a time.

The first Canadian Tire location in Grande Prairie was 10,000 square feet. The second location was 24,000 square feet and in 2005, that was expanded to 65,000 square feet. Today the brand new Canadian Tire store boasts 105,000 square feet.

“Corporately, the decision was made that Grande Prairie could sustain a store of this size. We’ve always known that. Our current store is the second-highest sales volume store in the country,” said Regnier.

Sunday night, the current Canadian Tire store closed down to give staff a couple of days to move backend equipment to the new location and get it set up for the opening.

The new Canadian Tire Store is located at 11601 104 Avenue on the city’s west end.