The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 71

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1999 G3 WEST ISLAND Goodbye to all that Staff saddened as Eaton's store in Fairview mall prepares to close its doors ANN CARROLL TheGazette Eaton's Pointe Claire is scheduled to close its doors Sunday after 34 years in operation. But for many employees, the ending of the Eaton's era at the Fairview mall has been coming for months in gradual, painful stages. Lisa Dussault and her colleagues in the cosmetics department had to bid their final goodbyes last week when a group of 46 employees were let go. Only a skeleton staff has remained during the last selloff week. Dussault and her friends met in the mall Friday at lunch break to chat about their last day on the job much as they have got together on evenings and weekends over the years to have dinner or take in a movie.

"I'm going to go around hugging and kissing everyone," said Dussault, 34, a single mother of two. She has been working at the store for 13 years. "Not me. I'm walking right away," said Brigitte Loerick, 28, who was hired in 1989 for the Christmas rush and stayed 10 years. "I'm going to start bawling," she added, teary-eyed.

"They're like a second family." Their grief isn't just about losing their jobs, the employees said. It's an Eaton's thing: tradition, the store catalogue, Santa Claus breakfasts, money-back guarantees, the sense of belonging to an old family business. 'AN EATON IAN AT HEART When Dussault left briefly last year to work at Sears, her manager lured her back to Eaton's on the ground that she was "an Eatonian at heart." Dussault has no regrets, despite the fact she's now out of a job. "It was good training. I matured here and learned a lot about customer service," said Dussault, who penned an ode to Eaton's Pointe Claire on the occasion of the employees' farewell dinner: "When you look back in time to the days you spent here Hold your heads up high and give yourselves a cheer! Timothy would be proud of his Eaton's Pointe Claire 'Cause you were the classiest staff he'd find anywhere!" The employees said they have known some classy customers over the years, as welL One elderly gentleman dropped by the store every day to say hello, recalled Gather- ine Ortenzi, 57.

"He'd come in all spiffled up, with his mustache waxed. If he didn't show up, we call to see if he was sick." Dussault used to write little thank-you notes at night to regular customers at her a. T- i. il 1 I llllttllllt t-v'-'7 cosmetics counter, cut me iona memories allen McInnis, gazetti extend only to loyal customers, she said, not Employees gather outside Eaton's Pointe Claire outlet, set to close Sunday. They're like a second family" one worker says, to "the vultures who came for the final sales and treated us like dirt" St.

John's Blvd. Dussault said she has the Eaton's demise: upper-level mismanage- dition. Loerick hopes to find another job in retail consolation of spending her first Christmas ment, not enough advertising, dated mer- "People today don't want service," Loer sales; Ortenzi has offered to help a son who holidays with her children. chandise, high prices, the English-rights ick ventured, has just opened a restaurant, Guerrina, on The women speculated about the causes of boycott, customers who don't care about tra- "Theyjust want the lowest price.".