The Body Shop in Penticton's Cherry Lane Shopping Centre will close by the end of the month.

Image Credit: Submitted/Lisa Olson

After at least five years in the Cherry Lane Shopping Centre in Penticton, the Body Shop has been forced to shut down.

That’s due in large part to a mall policy that stores have to be open during mall operating hours.

“It’s kind of a sad situation,” Body Shop team lead Lisa Olson told iNFOnews.ca “It came down to staffing issues. The mall charges when you are not open during mall hours so, because we didn’t have the staff, we couldn’t be open. Basically the mall said: “We’ve given you enough leeway. We’re going to charge you now.”

They were charged for the hours they weren’t fully opened, including the half-hour Olson closed for lunch, as she was required to by Employment Standards rules as the only employee in the store. The mall is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. six days a week, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

“It’s just hard to hire anyone now,” Olson said. “I was running restaurants. It’s almost impossible to hire people and to hire people who will stay.”

The Body Shop owned the outlet and didn’t want to try to relocate, she said.

While staffing was an issue, Olson also puts a large part of the blame for the closure firmly on the shoulders of the Cherry Lane Shopping Centre managers.

“The mall is the problem,” she said. “This mall has struggled. The rent has gone up and the foot traffic has gone down.”

Cherry Lane’s website shows 49 tenants, including large anchors like The Bay, London Drugs and Save-On-Foods. It also shows 10 outlets for lease.

The food court is down to only one business.

READ MORE: iN PHOTOS: Food court at Penticton mall down to one restaurant

“The lack of stores that people are interested in is a big problem,” Olson said. “We’re getting very niche stores and the few that are here and have been here a long time, they’re here because they’ve built their customer base based on who’s walking through the mall.

“They took out the game store. They took out anything young people are really looking at. That is problematic. Like, what are you doing? I feel like Penticton really just dropped the ball when it came to the young people. The young people are the ones who are spending. The young people are the ones who are shopping, really. Yes, we have our adult people and they do shop, but their shopping patterns are different than the people who are actually spending money.”

READ MORE: Hudson's Bay agrees to pay Penticton mall 50% of rent for now

Olson has a background in managing restaurants and moved back to Penticton four years ago, after being away for a number of years.

“It’s just a shame because this is really a nice store with really good products,” she said. “It definitely would have done well under the right management. I would have cleaned up the store and made it a good store for sure.”

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The store will close Aug. 26 so merchandise is being offered at 50% off.

“Isn’t that sad,” Olson said. “When I got hired they were like: ‘You’re perfect management material.’ And then: ‘You’re done.’”

Despite the setback and the fact that she passed on some other good job offers to go to work for the Body Shop, Olson was very upbeat about the whole situation and her future.

“I will find something,” she said cheerfully.

The Body Shop in Orchard Park Mall in Kelowna is also closed right now but that’s for renovations. It’s expected to re-open in September.

No one from Cherry Lane Shopping Centre responded to iNFOnews.ca’s request for an interview by publication time.

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