The closure of the UPS store in the northwest Calgary community of Crowfoot has left some employees and customers in the lurch.
Mia Ostere worked at the retail location for two-and-a-half years.
She found out she was out of a job after arriving at the store at the beginning of January.
“I came in on the second (of January) to: ‘The store is now closed,'” Ostere said.
On the door was a sign from the franchise owner. On the notice, Peter Traxel expressed profound sadness for having to turn the store’s keys over to UPS. He blamed escalating rental costs, tax increases by the City of Calgary, and what he called the reality of Alberta’s economy.
Ostere is now worried about her own reality.
“I haven’t gotten my paycheque, I haven’t received severance pay or anything like that,” she said. “And I haven’t been able to get a hold of him.”
Long-time customer and computer consultant Gary Haberl told Global News the closure also came as a shock to him.
“Being there three years and all of a sudden you walk up to the door and it’s locked,” Haberl said. “What do you do? You have cheques (from clients) coming in.”
Haberl, who owns Lions Park Computers, works remotely so he needs a mail drop off and pick up spot. He said it has been a hassle trying to reroute all of his packages and mail.
“I can’t have somebody just delivering it to a house, delivering it to a client, delivering it somewhere. We had stuff that took us about a month to get.”
Global News has made several attempts to contact franchise owner Traxel, but has not received a response.
UPS Canada Vice President Steve Moorman told Global News there are currently ongoing discussions regarding the store that he cannot yet share.
“I hope UPS steps up and I hope they do something about it,” Haberl said. “Because if these are independent stores — I mean their name is on it, they need to deal with it.”
UPS re-opened up the location shortly after Traxel closed it so that customers could get their mail and packages. Moorman said the company was also in talks with another owner to take over, but that there is no update to those talks. Customers are now being directed to another location for help shipping and receiving.
Ostere is not very hopeful she will get her job back and is now scrambling to find a new one.
“I put my heart and soul into this place trying to make it better — and it’s gone.”
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