Second week of The Sale!!!!! As usual, given the limitation of the readies, I am scratching my head trying to work out how to promote this baby. We are putting out 2000 flyers in locations around our neighborhood and other neighborhoods. Many thanks to Stef and Dave We shall hopefully grab a few punters that way. We REALLY do want people to come and buy our shirts at the marvelous prices we have right now. - $14 a shirt and $10 for a kids shirt - new shirts and old shirts alike - genuinely half price.........there's also a whole bunch at $10. Come on by and haggle with Jenx. I am not sure how long our sale will last. My plan was to finish at the end of February but if it proves wildly successful, I will keep it going.
Life is generally in flux at the moment chez Montréalité. We have been forced to move our studio out of the rear of our store at 51 Bernard.O and relocate to Cote des Neiges. It also appears certain that we will be looking to move to a new store from May 1st. This is a long story which will be reserved for a future blog. Personally, I will be very sad to have to leave the Mile End and our pleasantly vacant corner of Clark and Bernard but that is part of the problem.
I was not going to dive in here but I must: There is a problem going on in Montreal. Too many empty stores - too many high rents. Landlords want too much money for what are often pretty poorly conditioned stores. The new tenant has to not only pay high rent but must also renovate with money they need to keep open for the first year while they try to build clientele. Landlords turn around and tell us - oh we have no choice but to put the rent up - our taxes have gone up. OOpya!!!....but the landlords get that money back from their tenants anyway in the form of a business tax which they collect directly from the tenant. Its a kind of a vicious circle.
The point of this rant is that we, the citizens, need open stores on our streets. Who wants a commercial street with a bunch of vacant stores? Where nobody cares, where the life has disappeared down the cracks in the sidewalk and no one wants to go there...what to you get next...you get the drugs, gangs, graffiti (altho' I must admit that I like graffiti)............. do I really want to walk down there in the dark?
Yes, I know, a wee bit of exaggeration, but hell, in a convivial place like our fine city, we want our stores and corners full of people, happy to talk, happy to share time with each other.
Remember that next time you shop at Walmart or Zellers or hit the Fairview Mall, you are contributing to the vacant stores in your City neighborhood of the future.
Small businesses, mom and pop stores, help build communities - Internet sales and shopping malls do not.
Back to promo and I am no expert so if there is one of you out there reading this, give me a shout.
