Fredericton — Earlier this year, Sears Canada came under fire for laying off nearly 3,000 employees without severance, robbing many of them of their pensions and plans for retirement. This sparked a social media movement by longtime Sears customers who called for a full boycott of the company.
“I remember being so mad at Sears when they were laying off all those innocent, hardworking people,” said Frederictonian Sarah Duncan, standing in the housewares section at Sears in the Regent Mall.
“Naturally I joined the powerful #boycottSears movement. You should have seen my Facebook and Twitter — I really let those money-mongers have it! But now I’m just as shocked to see that Sears’s supposed ‘liquidation’ sales are bogus, too.”
Duncan peeled back the sticker on a teakettle she was planning to buy as a Christmas gift for her sister.
“Look at this! The sticker underneath says it was $19.97, but the new price — which is supposed to be a goddamn sale, is $21! When will the injustices end?!”
Sears employee Aaron Jacob says his boss forced him to go into a back room, away from customers’ prying eyes, and mark prices way up before the advertised “liquidation” sales were set to begin.
“‘Everything must go,’ yeah yeah, that’s what we’re telling people, but anyone who’s not an idiot can see that this crap is still as overpriced as ever,” he told us. “I mean, use your brain. Most of the people complaining to me I recognize from the internet where they circulated a petition to boycott Sears. Yet here they are.”
At that moment another angry Shopper, Jack Lorraine, grabbed Jacob’s arm and began yelling at him about the “obscene” price of a duvet.
“Now, see here, sonny, I know I saw this duvet for 50 bucks right before I started boycotting Sears this summer. And now yer tellin’ me it’s $75 plus tax?! Buncha swindlers! Do you have an explanation for me??”
Jacob tried to reason with the riled-up man, telling him that prices are as marked and he’s free to buy the duvet or not.
“You people outta be ashamed of yourselves!” hollered Lorraine. “I’m going to have to boycott your company all over again!
“Until Black Friday, anyways…I heard you’ll have some pretty good deals on tomorrow.”
I saw the exact same thing happen when Zellers closed doors. I spoke to worker to complain and she said that she complained to them herself 7 times but they didn’t care. When I noticed same thing happening in Moncton store I mentioned to clerk that two weeks ago the price was cheaper he said ohhhh I know. But in both instances they cited bankruptcy liquidators as inflexible.