Sears customers in Whitehorse have been left shopping entirely by catalogue.

Erik Hougen, who's owned the store since 1998, has closed down the Sears dealership which sold appliances and items out of the Strickland Street store.

He will continue operating the catalogue portion of the store until after the Christmas season.

'Sears is an important part of the Whitehorse retail landscape,' Hougen said in an interview from Vancouver Thursday afternoon.

Hougen had looked for a buyer for a couple of years after some of his suppliers took issue with his involvement with a competitor, but wasn't able to find one.

It's now up to Sears to find someone to take over the catalogue operation, which Hougen said would need to be part of an existing business.

With a lot of Sears customers in town, Hougen said he would keep the business' catalogue operation going through the busy Christmas season.

After Christmas, Hougen said Sears Canada is confident they'll have a new catalogue business in place, making it an easy transition.

Hougen noted he would have liked to continue operating the Sears store out of its location next to Erik's Audiotronic because it's a good fit on Strickland Street next to his electronics store and across from the Brick.

But with supplier concerns and no appropriate buyer coming forward, Hougen is expecting to rent the space to the Yukon government as soon as its converted to offices.

He would not say how much the space will be rented for or to which department because he was unsure if the new initiative had been announced.

YTG would not comment on the lease because it hasn't been signed off yet.

The building was constructed so it could be easily converted into office space if the need arose, said Hougen.

Sears Canada spokesman Vincent Power said this morning the company is continuing to look for the right agent to operate the catalogue operation in Whitehorse.

'Customer service is a very important part of our business,' he said.

To ensure customer service is met, the new catalogue agent needs to meet certain criteria. Among just a couple of examples of the criteria, Power said the new agent needs a capacity to receive parcels and is an established good, viable business.

As Sears Canada continues its search for a new catalogue agent, Power said if there's interested businesses in Whitehorse they can contact Sears at 1-866-275-1675. There they can leave their information and Sears will send out an application package.