TRURO - A pair of new retail businesses will open their doors in the next week in Truro.
Sport Chek opens Thursday in the Truro Mall, while Aaron's will officially open on Monday in the former Wacky Wheatley's location on Robie Street. Aaron's will have a grand opening on Nov. 19 and 20.
The openings come about two weeks after a Canadian Federation of Independent Business report ranked the Truro area near the bottom of 100 communities with a population of at least 25,000.
The new businesses decision to locate to Truro is a shot in the arm for the region, says Truro Mayor Bill Mills.
"They probably did a fair amount of research to study where they wanted to go," Mills recently said of Aaron's. "I would suspect, being the sharp operators they are, they saw what Truro has to offer."
He said the central location is a drawing card for businesses looking at the Truro area.
Aaron's began in 1955 and today has more than 1,700 stores across North America. It sells a variety of items, including furniture, appliances and electronics.
This will be the company's second Nova Scotia store. It also has a location in Dartmouth.
The company will employ five full time people at its Truro franchise.
Wacky Wheatley's closed on June 16, 2009, citing competitive marketing conditions and a difficult worldwide economic situation. Nine people lost their job with the closure.
Sport Chek will be located in a renovated 10,000-square-foot site that used to be home to the Head Shoppe, Maritime Travel and Bentley. All three stores have moved to new locations in the mall.
The sporting goods and apparel store will be an anchor store for the mall along with Zellers, Sears, Dollarama and Mark's Work Warehouse. It will employee 26 people in full- and part-time positions.
There are about 130 Sport Chek stores across the country.
Mills pointed around the community to a lot of good things being done. Those include the businesses that are undertaking improvements to their buildings and properties, such as paving the driveway. He also pointed out the number of downtown businesses taking part in the façade incentive program.
Mills stressed people always asked for new business to come to the region, but after they set up shop it's up to the residents how long they stay.
"If people want new business to come to this area, then you have to shop local," he said.
