Nelson’s Please Mum, a children’s clothing retailer in the Chahko Mika Mall, is closing immediately, although changes at the mall are not solely to blame.
The Nelson store is one of 70 casualties across the country announced Monday by the chain.
“As a result of significant shifts in the retail landscape, we’ve had to make tough decisions about the future of our company,” founder and CEO Kathryn Adrian said in a statement posted on Please Mum’s website.
“We’re restructuring our business in the long-term interests of the company, our employees, customers, suppliers, and creditors.”
The company is reducing its retail operations to 21 locations. The only three in BC are in the Lower Mainland.
Asked specifically about Nelson, Adrian replied by email that she was sad to close any stores, “particularly those in small communities, but many of our stores were not profitable. It made sense to keep the stores which were the most profitable; strengthening Please Mum’s financial position in order to continue the business and avoid closing the rest of our stores and losing the rest of our staff.”
The Nelson store’s future was already in doubt because it was one of three retailers being displaced to make way for a new Service Canada office.
Northern Reflections will close permanently after July 24, while Bentley Leather expects to reopen in a temporary location within the mall.
Please Mum had six employees in Nelson.