Unused Scotiabank Place Turned Into Giant Hickory Farms, Calendar Club

The empty hockey arena is now home to the seasonal
 businesses of Hickory Farms and Calendar Club.

Ottawa - The recent NHL lockout has left the Scotiabank Place arena vacant for months, but it will soon see new life once Hickory Farms and Calendar Club move in for the remainder of December. Both retail operations usually take over empty retail spaces in shopping malls, but with the over 20,000 square foot hockey arena being vacant, it was decided a larger venue would be a good opportunity to reach a larger range of customers. 

Known for their delicious assortment of spiced sausage meats and flavourful cheeses, Hickory Farms will begin unloading over 30,000 cases of Snack Baskets and cheese balls into the facility this weekend. Calendar Club will also join Hickory Farms by stocking over 3 million calendars that are popular with many Christmas shoppers. Large signs were put in place earlier Wednesday to denote the new retail space. Equally splitting the floor space of Scotiabank Place between the sausage/cheese and calendar markets, the two businesses are hoping to attract large crowds of shoppers in need of reasonably priced Christmas gifts over the next few weeks. 

Hickory Farms Vice President of Canadian Operations Judy Topleson thinks the empty Scotiabank Place is perfect for their meat and cheese selection. "We are excited to get in there and offer our customers the finest array of pre-packaged spiced sausage and nut-encrusted process cheeses." Topleson remarked. "The Scotiabank Place staff has been great in organizing special events for us that are normally used for hockey games, such as a cheese-ball gun that will launch tasty cheese-balls into the crowds." said Topleson, who is hoping to open this Monday.

Calendar Club is also excited at the prospect at selling their delightful calendars in the vacant hockey arena, and is offering a free "World's Cutest Kittens" 2013 calendar to the first 3,000 visitors.