Shoppers returned to the Nanaimo Walmart location on the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 27 after the store was closed due to a fire last Wednesday. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

store re-opens

Nanaimo Walmart re-opens following prolonged closure due to arson

Feb 27, 2023 | 2:21 PM

NANAIMO — Following a nearly five day closure, arguably the city’s busiest store re-opened to eager shoppers.

The heavily used Walmart Supercentre welcomed customers again on Monday, Feb. 27 at about 1 p.m. following a fire in the store last week.

An evacuation was ordered on the afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 22 after a stack of diapers was temporarily on fire in the rear of the store.

The purposely set fire was quickly snuffed out by store staff.

While the store is open again, a vast majority of the baby and clothing inventory was empty as of Monday afternoon.

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Only a handful of shelves in the men’s and women’s clothing sections, along with baby and kids areas contained any product at all.

Staff at the store were unclear when the affected sections would be replenished. Other sections of the store, including the grocery and pharmacy areas were largely unaffected inventory-wise.

Walmart Canada earlier told NanaimoNewsNOW the store needed to remain closed for necessary clean-up and repairs as a result of the fire.

The case is under investigation by Nanaimo RCMP, who stated last week it had a solid lead toward identifying a person of interest.

Having the store closed for roughly five days led to a constant stream of disappointed customers to the north Nanaimo store at Woodgrove Centre.

Walmart employees and contracted security staff at the front door informed shoppers the store remained closed before reopening Monday afternoon.

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