CALEB NICKERSON

SHAWVILLE July 29, 2020

On July 29, long-time owner of the Giant Tiger in Shawville, Ken Pack, celebrated his retirement. Former staff, friends and customers alike gathered at . . .

the store to wish him well. A group of employees presented his wife Carole Lavigne with a large bouquet of flowers.

Pack has been working in the retail sector since he was young lad, and eventually came into a management position in his early 20s. He was eventually sought out to work at Giant Tiger’s corporate office.

“So I got headhunted, and then I got pulled out of that company that I was working for and I actually started at Giant Tiger, where I developed the food program and hired a lot of people that are there today and helped develop the warehouse and tobacco program,” he said. “I’m very proud of what I’ve done for the company.”

Despite his love for finding efficiencies and new revenue streams at corporate, Pack said that transitioning to owning his own store was a wise decision.

“The best thing I ever did was take that step back here and open up in Shawville,” he said.

Though he grew up in Ottawa, his family had cottages in the Quyon area and he made a lot of friends in the area growing up. He said that there was a huge shift going from the culture of the head office to managing a store in small-town Quebec.

“Number one, I can be myself, whereas with the corporate you always have to put this nice little polish … and be sometimes that mean guy,” he said. “Here, I wasn’t that mean guy, I was one of them, I could be myself and that’s what I like the best.”

Several of the employees present on Wednesday have worked with Pack since the first store opened in ’97.

“They didn’t even have the tile on the floor when I started working,” laughed Janice Shibley, who was hired by Ken and Carole after an interview at Kojack’s Restaurant.

“I remember I was so nervous,” she recalled. “I didn’t have a lot because I had been home raising my kids at the time, I didn’t have a lot of dressy clothes for an interview. I can remember I put on a winter skirt and I was cooking because it was summertime. I really enjoyed the conversation with Ken and Carol and they laid out what they wanted for their store.”

Pack said that his goal was to make the facility a fixture in the area.

“That was really important to me, that we were just going to be a part of the community, that this was going to be a friendly place to shop, and we did things very differently than sort of the Giant Tiger way,” he said. “I said we’re going to make it our store, our community store and I think we have.”

These days the store employs about 45 people in total, some of them the children of people that Pack hired years ago.

“We have [people] here who started here as kids and are now married … and their kids are working here,” he said. “We’ve been the full circle and as a business owner when you see that, you’re proud as hell and I am proud as hell. They are my family.”

Shibley said that Pack was an excellent boss and leader at the store, and joked that she had waited to retire until he decided to go.

“Whenever there was a family issue with me, he gave me time,” she said. “He helped me with anything personal. He’s become a very good friend. I’m going to miss seeing him every day and talking to Carole, but I have their phone number.”

Colleen McAuley, who has worked at Giant Tiger since the current store opened seven and a half years ago, was of the same opinion.

“He’s the best,” she said.

Pack said the decision to retire was mainly to be able to devote more time to his family and his farm, though he added that the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed as well.

“This is a huge decision to leave, and it took me over two years to make that decision,” he said. “I’m 63, and I said I didn’t want to work past 65. So I thought about what’s going to happen to me in the next two years and now’s as good a time as any … We have four kids and six grandkids, so we want to enjoy that too … I think it’s time that my emphasis leaves the business community and goes towards my family, the timing’s right for that.”

Management of the store was taken over by Brandyn Gauthier as of August 2, though Pack said that he would stick around to show him the ropes.

“We’ve had numerous meetings, I’ve told him that I’ll mentor him, he has my numbers and he’ll likely need help,” he said. “I will help him, because I want to see this continue for the community and for everyone here.”