If the men in your life think Princess Auto is the perfect destination location today, just wait until the spring.
That’s when the Winnipeg-based retailer will christen its new flagship store, 105,000 square feet of space where they can hang out, use cool tools, eat and talk shop with other like-minded figure-it-outers.
“When our customers come to our store, it’s a hang-out place. They’ll come for a couple of hours, they want to see what people are working on. This new store is going to amp that up and make it an even more welcoming space. They can talk to people who are doing other cool things,” says Heather Turnbull-Smith, senior vice-president of talent and corporate communications.
The new location has already come out of the ground across the street from one of its current locations on Panet Road (which used to feel big at 40,000 square feet) and workers recently began outfitting the inside.
“It’s a huge investment. This is the biggest building we’ve ever built outside of our distribution centres. We carry such a unique set of tools and equipment, bigger stores just make sense,” she says.
The flagship store will feature a number of new initiatives, including ”The Shop,” a place where customers can try out the tools that we sell and gain access to new thing, like a CNC machine (for precision cutting) and a powder coating oven.
“You can come to our shop and just use them. Our customers are very creative. They like to play and experiment with new ideas, this is a space where they can get access to tools and space to do that,” she says.
There will also be a large recreational area featuring an archery range, enabling customers to test out bows before they buy them, as well as a restaurant, a place where you can go for a burger and a beer and where customers will feel comfortable wearing their work boots.
Turnbull-Smith says building this new store in Winnipeg was no accident.
“This is home for us. Princess Auto is a Winnipeg-based company. This is our community and we plan to stay here. We might replicate these stores across the country but we’re building it in Winnipeg with purpose,” she says.
Princess Auto has 59 stores across every province in the country, including three in Manitoba, three distribution centres, including one in Winnipeg, and a call centre.
