West End businesses taking a hit

“Business has been piss poor,” said Nicholas Hoare, owner of the Greene avenue bookstore Nicholas Hoare. “The whole street is washed out. We’re taking a monumental hit and I’ve never seen anything like it. Anybody that tells you otherwise is lying through his teeth.”

While consumer spending in electronic products and appliances, household accessories, food and hardware has experienced growth above the 4.7 per cent average in 2008, according to the Retail Council of Quebec, it’s not enough to balance the lack of spending in other areas, said Lynn Wilkins, mutual fund representative and financial security advisor for Braley Winton Financial Group, a financial planning firm in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. “In terms of daily spending people aren’t doing as much as they used to,” said Wilkins. “There’s a trend of saving as opposed to spending right now. People aren’t as willing to go out and buy the big ticket items—but they’re still looking because they know the deals are good.”

From furniture to clothing, sales are down. NDG’s Café Grand and Dixe Mille Village, a fair trade retailer, and Westmount’s Pier 1, Babar en Ville children’s bookstore and high end woman’s clothing store Boutique Georges Rech, have all experienced drops in sales so far this year. “There’s not the recreational shopping as much,” said Maya Byers, owner of Babar en Ville. “We have good and bad days but it’s a bit of a roller coaster right now,” she said, noting that the slowdown really started post-Christmas. “It’s not that bad but it’s not good either,” said Guylaine Rodrigue, manager of Pier 1 Imports in Westmount. “It’s gotten worse since November.”

But retail sales numbers don’t seem to be reflecting this reality. A poll conducted this month by Harris/Decima for Scotiabank found that 45 per cent of Canadians are spending the same as they were six months ago. Only 19 per cent said they were spending less, and 36 per cent said they were spending more. Despite the rapid slowdown of the global economy and a persistent financial crisis, almost half of average Canadians haven't changed their spending habits and retail sales are still increasing. “At the end of the day, people gotta have their coffee,” said Stefan Gustafson, who opened Café Grand last January on Sherbrooke West in NDG and feels confident his café will brave the economic storm due to low overhead, minimal staff expenses, and low cost meals.

But the severity of the economic slowdown only recently hit consumers, said Wilkins. “The majority of the population didn’t realize where we were until very late in the year, so the figures for this quarter may be very different [than earlier figures],” said Wilkins. “Also the people that are more nervous and intend to be tightening their belt buckles seem to be the older people. The younger people are still in a fantasy. They don’t really accept [the current economic situation] or understand truly what’s gone on,” said Wilkins.

And that may be about to change. “The further we go into the recession, younger people too may become more aware and decide at some point to start slowing down on spending,” said Wilkins.

Evidence that the younger generations may have caught on to the savings trend, consumer spending on smaller ticket items like those purchased at pharmacies, furniture stores, clothing stores, and sports, music and book stores, experienced below average growth in 2008, according to the Retail Council of Quebec.

For Hoare, the instant the recession hit last fall business dropped. “Our neighbours are exactly in the same boat,” said Hoare. “So are the people on Sherbrooke street. We’re selling books not bread, and people want bread on their tables.”