Allan Tew is confident Sun City Liquidations & Auctions will be open in downtown Salmon Arm as of, if not before, February 1.
Tew owns the Sun City Liquidations & Auctions store in Kelowna and is in the process of opening a second one at 380 Alexander St. – the former Pet Valu location.
He and Kelowna store associate Stephanie Ekmecic were in Salmon Arm on Wednesday, Jan. 11, moving in product and hiring staff. Just from people’s response that morning, Tew was feeling very good about Salmon Arm.
“It boosts us – the amount of people coming by this morning and waving,” said Tew.
When looking for a Salmon Arm location, Tew said he checked out 380 Alexander online and initially dismissed it. Over the summer the property’s owner, Bill Laird, invited Tew to meet with him and the two were able to work out an agreement.
“Bill, I think his goal was to get somebody like us downtown to help bring the people back into downtown,” said Tew. “I think we’ll do that. I think our product, the variety, the price point, will bring the people. I think if we pick and choose the right staff, that’s also going to keep them coming.”
Asked what products Salmon Arm’s Sun City Liquidation & Auctions will carry, Tew said everything – from furniture to food, to clothing, to electronics and large and small appliances.
“We get product from every major retailer you can imagine,” said Tew, noting one of Sun City’s biggest contracts is Costco.
“I could fill three of these stores – there’s’ enough product available.”
Asked how he came to the decision to open a store in Salmon Arm, Tew explained the Kelowna store has seen its share of business from Salmon Arm residents.
“We’ve actually done deliveries of bathroom vanities, paddleboards, appliances, etc. to Salmon Arm,” said Tew. “We were approached by a major retailer to take on more of their product, take on another location, and we are pretty much saturated in Kelowna. I didn’t want to say no but I knew I needed to create another avenue to be able to sell it.”
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Another reason for choosing Salmon Arm: family.
“My mother lives here, my younger brother, my oldest son, his wife and my granddaughter just moved here two months ago,” said Tew. “We love Salmon Arm. I think it’s beautiful. I think it has enormous potential and it was always on my radar.”
Tew opened the first Sun City Liquidations & Auctions location in Kelowna’s Westside in 2017. In recent years the store relocated to 2495 Enterprise Way in Kelowna.
“We’re family owned and you’ll know that the minute you come in the store,” said Tew, describing what sets Sun City apart from other liquidation stores. “There’s a very casual vibe, we have a lot of fun, we work our butts off…
“We want to be good stewards of the community – we often buy food deals that are too much for our store to handle so the food bank will get a bunch.
“What sets us apart, it’s our staff, it’s our people. We’re not corporate, we try to treat everybody the same – we get people from every walk of life and we’re happy about that.”
Tew said Salmon Arm’s Sun City Liquidations & Auctions will be open, “come hell or high water,” by Feb. 1.
“We will probably have the store stocked four or five days early and we may do some sort of soft opening,” said Tew.
More information can be found on the business’ Facebook page. Tew said there will soon be a page set up specifically for the Salmon Arm store, where people will be able to see new items as they arrive.
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