Jacobs Liquidation breaks ground on new location in St. Marys

Jacobs Liquidation and Auction, owned by husband and wife duo Craig and Deanna Jacobs, has come a long way since it opened in St. Marys in 2018.

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The local business owners celebrated the groundbreaking for their new facility on Tuesday.

Located on James St. S, the new 1,579-square-meter store set to open in early 2025 will be more than double the size of its current downtown location. While the Jacobs had the skills – Deanna is an experienced online seller, and Craig is a handy-man – they originally started selling items out of their garage at their Shakespeare home before opening the St. Marys store six years ago.

“I actually did some marketing for another company that was in the same business, and I saw that opportunity, and we really liked the idea, and so we decided to start up our own,” Craig Jacobs said. “We dabbled a little bit out of our garage, selling, and then we went into (the current) building here,”

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There were several factors that led the Jacobs to St. Marys, including the fact there was already a liquidation store in Stratford and the need to stay away from major retailers.

“We kind of (had to decide) was it going to be Woodstock, or was it going to be St Marys?” Craig Jacobs said. “There were a few liquidation stores in Woodstock at that time as well, so we ended up picking St. Marys because we knew, potentially, if you’re on the edge of London you can get here in about 20 minutes.”

While the current location has served them well, the plan was always to move to a bigger location. In 2020, the couple bought 1.2 hectares of land where the new location will be. Beyond not being big enough for their needs, the downtown store does not have enough parking.

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“We pull in a lot of people from London, Kitchener, Guelph, Cambridge and Thorndale, and everyone that happens, we just continually hear, ‘I can never find a spot to park,’” Craig Jacobs said. Parking won’t be an issue at the new location, which will have 150-200 parking spots and also allow for future additions to the building if needed.

Several Perth County and Perth South employees and council members, including Perth South Mayor Jim Aitcheson, attended Tuesday’s groundbreaking. The commercial store is a diversification of the local economy compared to the primary business of agriculture, Aitcheson said.

“When we can get a commercial space like this, we’re there with open arms,” he said. “They’ve done extremely well, and I think they’re gonna continue to do extremely well.”

The representation from the municipalities shows the support they have received from the community, Craig Jacobs added.

“We’ve been blessed,” he said. “I think the biggest thing we got when we opened was, ‘Thank you for opening.’”

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