In its 38-year history, JJ’s Fashions has moved twice. Now, with the store on the brink of its third move, owner Dave Streloff says this will be the last.
“We’ll be there forever now,” he said. “We were downtown for 27 years and I never thought we’d move from there.”
The family has owned the lot on the corner of Columbia Avenue and 21st Street for years, Streloff said, and when they saw the lease was coming up on their current location in the Kootenay Crossing Mall they decided to utilize the empty lot.
“We’ve owned the land forever and with the way Castlegar is growing it made sense,” he said.
Originally, JJ’s Fashions was called the Kootenay Klothes Kloset and was on the corner of Columbia Avenue and 4th Street downtown. Specializing in men’s fashions, they slowly started to add denim (which was sold as JJ’s Fashions in the basement) and then the business continued to grow. Now, women’s fashions make up about 60 per cent of the business, with brand names like Roxy and Billabong taking up a good portion of the floor.
Streloff said because the new building is so big (the top floor and part of the first floor will be rented out) people think the new store will be huge, but that’s not the case.
“The selling floor of [the new] store is almost identical,” he said.
After 11 years in their current location, though, they knew what they wanted to change.
The new store is brighter with better lighting and tons of windows, he said.
On Monday, the store will be doing the big move. Streloff’s plan is to just load the clothes in piles and on hangers to take over to the new store. They still have their current location until the end of the month, where they’ll keep sale items.
“If anybody wants to pick through some really good deals they’ll still be here,” he said.
The new store will open at 4 p.m. on Tuesday for a VIP event.
“It’s for loyal people that come in here,” he said. “We wanted them to have first look, first crack.”
To become a VIP, all one has to do is visit JJ’s Fashions’ Facebook page, “like” the page and write on their wall. Streloff said every person that writes on the wall is entered to win a $2,000 shopping spree for that evening.
For more information, visit their website at jjsfashions.com. JJ’s Fashions is open Monday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.