Time for a fresh start
Former Sears watch and jewelry repair shops rebrand, reopen in kiosks
When Sears Canada finally pulled the plug last year, Milon Talsania’s familyowned business was collateral damage.
For about three decades, it had operated the watch and jewelry repair kiosks under contract in Sears stores in five provinces, including at the Cambridge Centre and Kitchener’s Fairview Park mall. At one point, there were 62 locations in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
And even as Sears struggled, the Richmond Hill-based business founded by Talsania’s parents, Sam and Nina, was growing.
“We were about to spend a lot of money in terms of systems, expansion,” said Talsania, vice-president of operations. “We felt that there would always be an opportunity for us.”
But that all came to a crashing halt last year as the retail giant announced the closure of some, and ultimately all, of its stores. About 200 employees at the repair kiosks were affected.
When Sears announced last October that all of its remaining stores would shut their doors, “we kind of did our crying that day,” Talsania said. By the next day, “we were running. We moved forward.”
The business rebranded as Fast Time Watch & Jewellery Repair, and set out to reopen in as many former Sears malls as possible.
In a span of about eight weeks this year, it has already opened nine Ontario locations, including a new kiosk at Fairview Park mall in front of the old Sears store.
The business was able to retain all nine of its managers from those Ontario cities, along with a lot of their staff. The Kitchener location currently employs three staff; Talsania said it would like to have five or six.
It is hoping to open other Fast Time locations in area cities including Cambridge, Guelph and Brantford where Sears kiosks existed. There are also locations in Belleville and Hamilton.
“We want to go in strong into this market,” he said. “We had a tremendous, loyal customer base.”
The kiosks offer watch and jewelry repair across all brands, along with sales of watches, bands and gift items including pen sets. The malls are fond of the kiosks, Talsania said, because they drive foot traffic into the shopping centres.
“Maybe things happen for a reason,” Talsania said. The new locations are out in the mall rather than tucked inside a department store.
“More customers can find us. We can open ourselves up to a whole new world.”