Bigger is often better, and that’s the case with Chatham’s Giant Tiger store, according to manager Mark Lush.
After a decade located on Richmond Street behind The Beer Store, Giant Tiger relocated to Thames Lea Plaza, opening Saturday and taking over the former Staples store in the heart of the plaza.
Lush said the new digs have more than 26,000 square feet of space, with in excess of 21,000 of it as front-end floor space. That compares to about 11,000 square feet at the former location.
“With the extra square footage, we’ve got the ability to show more product. We’ve focused to have more in our fashion department and general merchandise area,” he said.
That doesn’t mean there is no difference in other areas, such as groceries. Lush said new freezers and expanded produce coolers give shoppers better access to food selections.
While Lush and his staff looked forward to expansion over the summer to the new location, residents in the area could hardly stand the wait, he said.
“A lot of people around here were excited,” he said. “There has been a void in this area for grocery selection for some time. And we have very aggressive prices.”
Lush said he would miss the old location, as it just wasn’t feasible to keep both in operation.
“The people in that neighbourhood were very good to us,” he said. “But they understood that it was very busy in there. It was hard to move around with a cart in that store.”
Now, he’s in charge of one of the largest Giant Tiger stores in southwestern Ontario.
