A\4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 4, 1998

Co-op part of fabric
of the community

THE TERRACE CO-OP was more than a
store.

It was a family, a meeting place, and a
way of life for many city and northwestern
residents.

And the end of its main department store
is a wrenching Joss for workers and
customers alike. ;

‘lt was hard coming to work today,’’
said Gurjit Kular, a five-year employee in
the Co-op’s upstairs fashion floor.

‘We thought it was just our department.
Then we found out it was the whole store.”

Employees brushed back. tears Friday as
they ‘talked about colleagues who had
worked there for more than 30 years,

‘Vicky’s dad retired here,'’’ said
hardware store employee Kalhy Galoska,
pointing to a co-worker. “‘And she thought
she would, too.”’

Many said the news was hardest not on
them but on some of the older patrons who
have been supporting the Co-op in some
cases forhalfa century.

“They’re what's making us cry,’’ said
Gaioska. ,

*“T’ve had at least three elderly women in
tears’ at my till,” added cashier Tracy
DeMedeiros,

Co-op membership numbers told the tale
of how long you’d been in Terrace,

From front

Price drives

the customer

Someone with a membership number of
15,000 plus is a relatively new arrival,

And the numbers below’ 100 are a
veritable who’s who of city pioneers.

“The person | feel for is Floyd Frank,’’
said 10-year cafeteria employee Martina
Koch, ‘‘He’s member #1, He founded the
Terrace Co-op. He built it up and now he’s
going to see it die.” .

‘Vicky's dad retired here,”
Said hardware store employee
Kathy Galoska, pointing to a
co-worker, “And she thought
she would, too,”

Most workers aren't sure what they’re
going to do after June 30th.

Some say they will probably leave town.

“T’m going to take off down south —
there’s just nothing here,’’ says Searle
Philipp, who was promoted to fishing tack-
le manager just two days before the an-
nouncement.

“I got my dream job,’” be says. “Il was
flying high for two days.”

job when the main Store closes the end of June.

GURUIT KULAR, a five-year employee of the Co-ops
fashion department, is one of those who'll be out of a

Bemey said the economic
climate is hard on many lo-
cal stores, but particularly

so for the Co-op because it-

was facing new retail com-
petitors on almost every
front.

**Everybody took the hit!
But we were in a4 situation
where we couldn’t afford to
take the hit.”’

Sandbals said the mem-
bers have always assumed

. he added, ‘The loyalty has

perfeceiver Bill Bowyer.
“But maybe they -weren’t
there for us as much as they ~
could have been.”?
“Tt reflects on the town,”’

gone by the board,”

Bemey said the Co-op will
need the support of its mem-
bers now if the building
supply centre, garden centre
and petroleum product sales

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divisions are to survive.

the Co-op would be there
for them.

**They’re going to miss
us,’ _- predicted ship- -

We'll
cope

CITY ECONOMIC devel-
opment officer Ken Veld-
man predicts the city will
ride through the closure of
Co-op’s main store,

“These are bumps — big
bumps mind you — but °
these are bumps and the
road will smooth out down
the line,”’ he said. \

Veldman also said the Co-
op closure shouldn’t be scen
as a sign of trouble for the
Test of the business sector;
adding other retailers are
holding their own.

**The reality is that the
Co-op was facing stiff com-
petition,’ he said. ‘‘We
may not have hit this
downturn and they may
have been in the same situa-
tion.”

“The last thing a local
economy needs is for people
to believe that the sky is
falling,”’ he added.
“Businesses fail at every
point in the economic
cycle,”

Five months ago Veldman
was saying that local _
businesses had apparently
adapted well to the arrival
of big box retailers. He sug-
gested then that while
businesses are getting small-
er slices of the pie, the over-
ali size of the pie has gotten
bigger because the new
stores make Terrace a big-
ger regional draw.

“TI do still think that,’’? he
said Friday.

“Ef you Jook in the longer

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of a lot to the people at the
Co-op.”

If there’s a silver lining,
he added, it may be that the
availability of the Co-op
main building in a prime
downtown position with
plenty of parking could at-
tract a new player to town.

The uncertainty in the
forest industry makes that
kind of commitment a long
shot right now, he added,
but predicted that will
change.

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