Fabricland is closing in downtown Red Deer at 5239 53 Ave in search of a new location due to issues with nearby shelter and Overdose Prevention Site. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Searching for new location

“It’s been a rough 10 years”: Fabricland store leaving Railyards location

Apr 10, 2023 | 2:36 PM

The Fabricland store has announced they will be leaving their Railyards location this summer, in search of a new location.

“We’re all upset because we all work here, we love our job, we just don’t like working in the location,” said Holly Proulx, Manager of Fabricland Red Deer. “Myself and my assistant manager, we’ve been here for 10 and a half years with the company. We don’t want to go anywhere else but now we’re left with no choice. We have to move on.”

The announcement was made public on April 1 that their official closing date will be on June 22, following the completion of their lease at 5239 53 Ave. She says they are still searching for a location in the city, but haven’t found one yet in order to reopen.

Proulx says the store has faced numerous challenges since the opening of the Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) across the street in 2018 and the temporary shelter in their connecting unit during the pandemic.

She says the store initially moved to the Railyards as their previous location in the south end was too small.

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However, she says the store has lost many customers since then due to discomfort from daily incidences.

“All of the homeless roaming around and harassing our customers and things; it’s been a rough 10 years here because of this and it just got worse and worse over the years. We have hired a security service and that is helping them not come in the store but still they’re out in our parking lot and such; just makes life a little difficult,” she said.

Proulx says customers, ranging from high school students to older individuals, are consistently panhandled in the parking lot and at the front entrance, requiring their security guard to escort customers back to their vehicles. She says they have also experienced increased thefts within the store and needled-drug use on their entrance staircase.

“If they do get in the store, they steal. We’ve had them come in our door and try to shoot-up inside. In the wintertime, they try to come in and get warm. I feel for these people, don’t get me wrong, I do, but I’m not in the business to handle those kinds of issues. They have a place to go and they’re just causing so much trouble for stores and business people,” she said.

Proulx says the City has been helpful through check-ins and has assigned someone to come to the store in the mornings to pick up needles and garbage as well as paint over graffiti, which she says has gotten quite rampant. However, she says the only solution would be to move the temporary shelter and OPS to another location as that has been the biggest issue causing customers to feel unsafe.

As the Red Deer Fabricland is a corporate store, she says the decision to move was made by head office in Toronto. She says they have been informative on the process and its challenges, given that the new location needs to be large in size.

She says due to the uncertainty, some employees have already found other jobs, leaving them short-staffed.

Proulx confirms that they will try to sell all their products to customers before closing, with the rest being distributed to Fabricland stores in Calgary and Edmonton so the new location can be stocked with completely new items.

READ: Downtown business owner says City ‘whitewashing’ plight of nearby businesses from social disorder