It took 30 minutes for shoppers pouring into the new SportChek store at Hillside Centre to undo more than a week’s worth of work.
The store, which opened officially Thursday morning, was a hive of activity just minutes after the doors opened at 9 a.m., with shelves emptied by shoppers taking advantage of grand opening discounts.
“It looked so pretty this morning,” said SportChek manager Bruce Bayes.
But he didn’t mind that the crowd of shoppers had sent merchandise displays askew as they rifled through looking for active wear and sports gear.
The inventory for the new store was put on display over the last week.
It is the Island’s largest Sport Chek with 20,000 square feet on the ground level and 8,000 square feet of Atmosphere’s outdoor gear and apparel on the second level.
Bayes said about 6,330 cartons were unloaded from 10 tractor trailers. His staff of 104 spent days getting the gear onto shelves and learning how to tag, hang and fold apparel in preparation for the opening.
And in the first hour, a lot of that inventory went out the door, much as he expected, Bayes said.
“There’s been some anticipation. There have been people peeking in the windows over the last few days and asking for flyers,” he said. At one point, there were short lines at the store’s three entrances — the south entrance facing Shelbourne Street, the mall entrance facing Scotiabank and the upper entrance to Atmosphere from the mall’s upper parking lot.
Bayes said they opened without warning for 90 minutes Wednesday night and were busy until closing.
Hillside Centre general manager Kerry Shular called SportChek “a huge piece to the puzzle.”
“It means we have so much more to offer our customers. Until now, there wasn’t a whole lot of offerings for men in particular and that’s changed with SportChek. They bring stuff men are looking for.”
There are three SportChek locations in Greater Victoria, including the Hillside outlet.
Another one is planned for next year in Langford in what was a Best Buy location.
They stores sell the same inventory, but the novelty of the new Hillside store and its location likely played into the Thursday rush, he said.
“This is the latest generation of [store design] with the latest fixtures and look,” he said, adding the store is unique as it is the first SportChek-Atmosphere combination location on the Island.
The Hillside SportChek features a winding path that steers customers around the store with lanes branching off to areas such as hockey, golf, skiing gear and shoes while apparel is everywhere.
Up an escalator, Atmosphere’s space is more rustic with plenty of wood finishings and displays for tents, kayaks, snowshoes and hiking gear.
Bayes said the store expects its bestsellers will be footwear and apparel, as being in a shopping mall means seeing more customers who happen upon the store rather than having made a trip specifically for some type of gear.
“We are close to the university and Camosun College [and] expect to be busy,” he said.
That is likely to hit another level when retail giants Target and Marshall’s open in March and May, respectively.
It’s all part of an $80 million reinvention that includes Thrifty Foods and a two-storey Target location. Once finished, the mall will have 590,000 square feet.
Ahead of the busy Christmas shopping season Warehouse One, Kernels Popcorn and Bell have opened new locations in the mall.
Shular hopes Paris Jewellers, Lids, and Forever Flawless will open in the next few weeks.
