Small shops of Saint John offer survival lessons

Saint John is known as an industrial hub that livesand dies on major projects. Small businesses, however, just as much as multibillion-dollar industries, have shaped the fabric of the 231-year-old city.

In a province obsessed with attracting new business and where hefty development incentives don't always translate into long-term success many of Saint John's mom-and-pop shops have managed to withstand the slow battering of a sluggish economy, an aging population and the rise of big box stores.

Small businesses employ 25,000 to 29,000 Saint Johners among Chamber of Commerce members alone and more than 8.2 million individuals in Canada.

Small businesses make up about 70 per cent of the total private labour force, according to Statistics Canada.

Closure isn't necessarily failure

"There's a natural tendency to lose a little bit of hope when big projects don't happen," said DavidDuplisea, the Saint John Region Chamber chief executive officer.

"And that affects business attraction and business success."

But even if moods fluctuate, "we've been surviving since the 1700s," Duplisea said.

"This isn't the first time we've had ups and downs. The business community in Saint John has survived for hundreds of years, and will continue to survive," he said.

Sunnier perspective

Anne McShane recently marked 15 years in business as the owner of Germain Street's iconic uptown wellness boutique, the Feel Good Store.

She remembers when neighbouring Bustin's Fine Furniture announced plans to close in 2015 after a century of business.

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"'Everyone was like, 'Oh, this is terrible,'" said McShane.

"But that family held those doors open for over100 years."

McShane said she believes people should have celebrated the fact the store was maintained for a century.

"I think it's helpful for small business that every time one closes, that we don't speak about it as a failure," said McShane.

"Things will change. That's the nature of growth."

The Bustin's building, purchased by developer Keith Brideau of Historica Developments, is now home to a fleet of new businesses, including Real Food Connections, the Buckland Merrifield Gallery, Picaroon's General Store and several soon-to-be-opened bars and restos.

I think it's important that we hold on to our old names and our old businesses.- RoydenMcKillop, co-owner of Hayward and Warwick

There was similar hand-wringing when Hayward and Warwick, an uptown china and giftware shop established in 1855, seemed poised to close in 2012.

Twolong-term employees, Royden and Suzan McKillop, took a chance and bought the business as a retirement project.

"I think it's important that we hold on to our old names and our old businesses," said Royden McKillop, who has sustained the business with his wife for three and a half years.

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"We thought about changing the name at one time, but we decided to keep it," he said.

Suzan McKillop said keeping the name helped connect the store to families that have lived in the city for generations.

"A lot of people say that their grandmother used to bring them in, and now they come in with their grandkids," she said.

Flipping narrative of 'diminishment'

Ronald Cowie, 89, whose family has run Cowie and Son Jewellers since 1921, said he's also been blessed with "incredibly loyal" customers.

But that hasn't mitigated the "tremendous diminishment" he's seen in the uptown core.

"We've had the biggest store on King Street boarded up for years," Cowie said of the long-shuttered former Bargain Shop at 91 King St., "and the former Pascal and Emerson building was closed for 20 years until recently."

But around the corner at Saint John's City Market, Dave Forestell is reimagining Saint John's museum-like, static tendencies as a secret strength.

"It's because of relative lack of prosperity that all these great, wonderful, funky architectural bones are still here," said Forestell, whose lunch counter Slocum and Ferris was founded in 1895 as a commission merchant, and is now a provisioner of local products, including maple, tea and dulse.

"People pretty well have to shop at malls, so it's nice in that ever-changing world to get a little respite," said Forestell.

"All of a sudden, the charm quotient of the uptown has tipped favourably."

Reasons for success unchanged

While big projects can provide much-needed jobs and a kick of optimism, "the reasons why businesses succeed haven't changed all that much in the last few decades, or even the past hundred years," said Duplisea.

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A personal connection between the owner and customers can, in a small city, make or break a business's success.

"We've had down periods in the 36 years we've been hanging out," said Gordie Tufts, owner of Backstreet Records locations in Saint John and Fredericton since 1979.

He still welcomes anyone into the store, "even if they don't buy anything, and just come in and have a chat."

"The social aspect is just as important."

A function of organizations like the Chamber, said Duplisea, is to help newcomers break into what can seem, to some, an impenetrable, tightly-knit business community.

"One of the challenges is how people get into the network, and even know where the network is," said Duplisea.

"There's still a lot of value in face-to-face relationships, and connections between small businesses."

Tufts said he agrees.

"Arrogance can play a devastating part in your business," he said. "If an owner becomes a bit too arrogant with his customers, they walk."

Old-fashioned quality

At Jiffy Shoe Service, a shoe and leather repair, key-cutting, and blade-sharpening shop co-owned by Terry Crowe and Kelly Dykens for 27 years, a welcoming, family vibe is the daily M.O.

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"It's noisy, a bit of a mess, but I'll tell you it brings me great pleasure to take something apart, choose the right application for it, turn it out, and have the customer take it and say, 'Look! You've made it like new,'" Crowe said.

While cobblers are, in his words, a "Dickensian" breed, the shop embraced principles of workplace inclusion and diversity that weren't yet buzzwords when Jiffy Shoe Service first set up shop in 1990.

"There are features of the workplace that we've manipulated to our needs," said Crowe, who suffers from an arthritis-like condition called ankylosing spondylitis.

"This could be a study in how to adapt a workplace."

The commitment to a warm, welcoming atmosphere and quality repairs have paid off, according to Dykens

"We get a lot of the same customers coming to us," she said, as they did over 25 years ago at their first location in Parkway Mall.

"What keeps them coming back is good repairs at reasonable prices," said Dykens. As a result, "we're the last one standing in Saint John," she said.

With experience comes wisdom

The stories behind how Saint John's oldest small businesses have either thrived, adapted, or failed to survive, contain morals for startups and other newcomers to the retail landscape, said David Duplisea.

'We have this really strong fabric of businesses that are resilientand we don't need to change our minds about that based on whatever announcement came last.'- Anne McShane, Feel Good Store

"The pieces that make them successful 25, 50, or 150 years ago are still relevant today," he said.

"They've paid attention to their research and development, their marketing, their strategies."

"Through longevity comes experience," he said, "and their chance of continued success is higher."

While Saint John can definitely use the boost of big investors to combat its oversized economic problems, "we are more than that," said McShane.

"We have this really strong fabric of businesses that are resilient," she said, "and we don't need to change our minds about that based on whatever announcement came last."

Such businesses might be what sustains the local economy when massive new projects and industries don't quite live up to the hype.

Our "small businesses, which cumulatively employ more people than some of the large businesses, and are far more diversified, economically speaking, as a portfolio, should also be celebrated," said McShane.

Ultimately, "growing a sustainable economy is a longer game," she said.

"Even if it's slow, and it's not shiny, it's still happening."