Remembering the Penticton Woodward’s store

It’s been 25 years since the Woodward’s department store in Penticton closed, but it’s not been forgotten by the people that worked there.

“As soon as you mention Woodward’s, everybody goes, ‘oh yeah, that was a fabulous store.’ It was the best place to work,” said Carol Beecroft, who has organized a reunion this week for former employees of the store.

The reunion takes place this Saturday, July 14 at the Lakeside Resort, starting at 5 p.m. But it has taken months to get it put together.

“I’ve been on the phone since March. It’s like a full-time job,” said Beecroft. “I did one in 2000, but we’d only been gone for seven years, so of course, you remember people more.”

It was 1975 when Woodward’s opened a store and food floor in Penticton’s Cherry Lane Shopping Centre. It closed 18 years later when the 100-year-old company was sold to Hudson’s Bay Company, who converted it to their brand.

“We’re having our first store manager, Dick Freeman, from when we opened in 1975, he’s coming,” said Beecroft who said finding the former employees took a long time, but Facebook helped, along with word of mouth.

“Everybody knows somebody that doesn’t live here that used to work at Woodward’s,” said Beecroft, adding that 88 people have already registered and more are coming in.

“I don’t know if everybody is going to recognize everybody when we get there, but I am going to have name tags,” said Beecroft. “It was 1993 when we left, so I have been in real estate now for 25 years. Some people I haven’t seen for 25 years.”