By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Ten Thousand Villages to close its doors in Lethbridge and Red Deer

Nov 20, 2017 | 11:18 AM

LETHBRIDGE – After more than four decades, the first Ten Thousand Villages store to open in Alberta will close its doors for good in downtown Lethbridge, leaving another empty store front along 5 Street South.
 
One full-time and three part-time jobs will be eliminated, says Ross Bruinsma, Store Manager. The decision to close the Lethbridge store was made by the executive team at Ten Thousand Villages, a program of the Mennonite Central Committee. 
 
“I haven’t been able to get a complete straight answer as to why. It just wasn’t as busy as it should be. It’s a busy store, and a very popular store, but I guess it wasn’t quite busy enough, which surprised me. Anyway, it is what it is.”
 
He says it has been a very popular place not just for shopping, but also for people to drop in and chat.
 
“It really is a wonderful store. It’s the kind of store where you get to know everyone, and everyone gets to know you. It’s a bit of a throwback actually, to what retail stores were like many many years ago.”
 
Bruinsma adds that because the call from head office came as a surprise, there was no way to put together a plan to save it.
 
“Many people…myself included,” he explains,”felt that if we had some advance notice, we could have put a plan a place to keep it open.
 
“It’s one of the stores around that has a good purpose. It’s a non-profit, it’s a charity. It’s run by the Mennonites. Everything that we sell in here is fair trade in the true sense of the word. All these items in here are hand made, and the people that make them get paid a fair living wage for doing so.”
 
It’s not only Lethbridge’s store that will be closing. Red Deer’s Ten Thousand Villages outlet is also on the chopping block. One store will remain open in Edmonton, and two in Calgary.
 
The Lethbridge location will close its doors permanently Dec. 23.