Officials at the Hudson's Bay Co., who in December announced that 26 Ontario Fields stores would close this month, this week said they plan to close the remaining 141 Fields locations across Canada by this fall, including the one in downtown Squamish.

“After careful consideration, Hudson's Bay Company [HBC] has announced we will wind down our Fields store operations,” Tiffany Bourré, external communications manager for the Fields parent company, said in a statement emailed to The Chief on Friday (Feb. 10).

“We will wind down the remaining 141 store locations across the country in phases, with closures complete by Fall 2012. This is a strategic decision by Hudson's Bay Company to focus on growing our other banners: The Bay, Lord & Taylor and Home Outfitters.”

Details about how and when the Fields Dollar Depot store in downtown Squamish will close were unavailable. A phone message left with the local store manager wasn't immediately returned.

The loss of Fields could be yet another blow to the economic viability of Squamish's downtown. A few months ago, Home Hardware moved from its location at Second Avenue and Winnipeg Street to Squamish Station Mall — on the fringes of downtown, but not right in the core, either.

Scott McQuade, president of the Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association (DSBIA), said on Friday, “Obviously the loss of any store downtown is always a concern… What we hope is that we can find quality tenants who can bring more to the downtown to replace them.”

He said the loss of employment for those who work at the Fields store is also a concern.

“These are people who live and work in our town, so obviously there's an impact right there,” McQuade said.

Joseph Segal founded Fields in 1950 in Vancouver. It became a public company in 1968 when it had eight stores. In 1976, a reverse takeover saw Fields shareholders receive three Zellers shares for one Fields.

HBC acquired 57.1 per cent of Zellers in 1978 and acquired complete control of the two store chains in 1981. In 1988, Fields — described by Wikipedia as “a small-format, extreme value retail chain for rural and urban Canadian communities” — became a division of HBC.