Stedmans has been a mainstay of St. Paul’s main street for 45 years, with its eclectic mix of everything from household items to fabrics and yarn and ladies wear to toys, but the long-lasting retail business is now looking at closing its doors.
“It’ll be a sad day when we lock the doors,” staff member Lena Ayotte said, as she rung up purchases from customers who came out at the start of the company’s closing out sale. “I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of sad people.”
Ayotte started working at the store eight years ago, first just helping out and volunteering because she liked the store and its fabrics.
“The other lady said, ‘You better keep her,’” she recalled with a laugh. Since then, she stuck around, calling it an “awesome” job that proved to be right up her alley.
“We have a tremendous amount of pride in the management of this store – the managers and staff for all these years are beyond reproach,” said owner John Stewart, who also owns the Craig’s Department Store in Vermilion. However, as he is now 80 years old, he says it’s been a “lifetime” of working and keeping stores up running, and now it’s time for him to step back.
The location of Stedmans used to be a 5˘ to $1 store, a forerunner to today’s dollar stores. When the business came up for sale, a friend from Vegreville told Stewart about it, and the pair purchased it in 1971, bringing in fabric and yarn, housewares and gift items. The store even kept budgie birds and fish in the back for sale.
Four years after that purchase, when his friend decided to build a store in Vegreville, Stewart bought out his side of the business, and the store kept its doors in St. Paul open, eventually expanding its offerings into women’s clothing.
“That was a big coup in St. Paul, because there wasn’t much for ladies wear,” said manager Janice Fodchuk, adding the women’s clothes, alongside the fabric and yarn, were the busiest sections of the store. “They will be greatly missed.”
For Fodchuk, the loyal customers have been one of the reasons she has been with Stedmans for as long as 12 years now.
“They almost become like family after awhile – you can tease them, and joke with them,” she said.
Stewart said he and his family were appreciative of the Stedmans staff and its customers, and that he originally wanted to sell the store rather than close it. After about six months of looking for a buyer, he decided it was time to start selling off the inventory.
“I feel quite badly because of the staff, and particularly the manager,” he said of the closing, but added he remains hopeful that someone may be interested in purchasing the store.
Fodchuk says that once the store closes, she’ll be returning to the farm.
“I think it will take a while to adjust not to have to come into town and boss people around,” she says with a laugh, adding she and the rest of the staff have made plans to keep meeting after the store closes, even if it’s outside the walls that have been a home to them for so many years.
As for those amazing customers, she knows they’ll be around too.
“They’ll see us at the coffee shops; they’ll see us at the grocery store,” she promises.
