Husband and wife Darcy and Achla Southam are the new owners of Canadian Tire’s Yellowknife location.
The couple arrived in Yellowknife on March 28, and the store was turned over to them two days later as former owners Jason and Karen Butorac are relocating to Ontario.
Darcy said he thinks Yellowknife is a beautiful place.
“I’m originally from Saskatchewan, so the cold weather is not too much of a concern for us.” he said. “Everybody is extremely friendly. We lived in other communities — if you are an outsider, they’re not quite as welcoming as Yellowknife. Even when we just arrived here… we felt everyone is welcoming and embracing us with open arms. We’re just looking forward to being more involved in Yellowknife and to being supportive.”
The capital marks their third Canadian Tire journey. Darcy managed his first store for two years in Newfoundland and Labrador and then moved on to the next one in Dundas, Ont., on the outskirts of Hamilton. During their seven years in the latter location, the couple expanded the store and renovated it.
The biggest difference between Hamilton and Yellowknife is the weather, according to Darcy, and based on that, vehicles in Yellowknife might need additional products such as block heaters and battery blankets, he suggested.
During the weekend, the Southams took a drive on the ice road.
“We saw the castle that they built. We are looking forward to enjoying that in the next year,” Darcy said.
Although many Yellowknife businesses are confronting staff shortages, Canadian Tire isn’t in that predicament and Darcy said he’s hoping to retain existing employees. He’s also hoping to get feedback from residents on how the store can better support the community.
He added that the Butoracs had done a good job contributing to the community and he’s aiming to continue where they left off.
Welcome to Yellowknife, it is a great community you guy’s will enjoy it with time for sure !
Please make the Canadian Tire good again, the last owners didn’t do such good in my opinion anyways… They went full staff at auto parts counter to litterally nobody, when calling for auto parts nobody answer litterally, it is awfull to deal with that as a small business owner. Because of harsh condition we encounter in Yellowknife, vehicles do break a lot more there fore we need support from our local Canadian Tire and also avaibility of parts at the store.
As everything in relation of auto parts is closed on the weekend we do need to rely on Canadian Tire it’s imperative to get common parts available .
Thank you to have consideration for the comments.
Good luck and welcome to Yellowknife. Please do not bring back self check outs and have more people manning the check outs.
Good Luck with your new endeavor