THOUGH THE WINTER months were slow, Main Street businesses in Thornhill and Richmond Hill are on the upswing, say local shop owners.
“What I’ve seen with our business is [it] was pretty flat for January, February and March. But as soon as the warmer weather starts, people get out there and start shopping and start spending more,” said Matthew Glickman, owner of Hill Street Blues, a Richmond Hill clothing shop. “But sales didn’t improve. Sales are not fantastic here.”
Since business hit a slump over the winter, and economists forecasted a slow spring season, Glickman took a different approach to buying for spring.
He purchased fewer items in advance, to avoid having a large amount of sale items at the end of the season.
“No one wants to be carrying inventory,” Glickman said. “Everyone wants to be as liquid as possible.”
Dalia Lash, of Mark Lash Fine Jewelry, said she’s noticed that her customers have also been taking a different approach to buying.
“People are still getting married and still want to purchase birthday gifts, anniversary gifts and bar and bat mitzvah gifts,” she said.
“Consumers seem to be making the shift from the over-the-top lavish pieces to more lifestyle- oriented jewellery — jewellery with slight variations on the traditional theme.”
Similarly, she noticed that more customers are bringing in old jewellery to be redesigned into new pieces, rather than buying new items.
Small businesses are crucial to building strong communities, said Rebecca Reuber, a professor of entrepreneurship and small business at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
“It keeps people in the neighbourhood, for healthy, vibrant communities,” she said. “[Small businesses] understand very well the needs of the neighbourhood.”
To help combat the recession and to reinvigorate local business districts, 905 stores are working together and forming business improvement areas.
The Thornhill Historic BIA is in the very early stages, and shop owners have been meeting with local councillors to see how that could improve business.
“The area’s in desperate need of revitalization,” said Coun. Alan Shefman. “It’s not walkable, and there’s a tremendous potential, and we all really want to tap that potential.”
BIAs have been highly successful in Toronto, Shefman said, where municipalities match funds raised by local businesses in order to improve the streetscape of the district with flowers, benches or other kinds of street furniture.
The Village of Richmond Hill BIA was established earlier this year, with Calvin Ho, the chair of the board of management and owner of Big Boss Computers, at its helm. He said his group plans to focus on cleaning up the area and capitalizing on old assets, such as the historic buildings in the area, and the town’s new assets like the new Tridel condominium and the Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts.
“We hope to attract more people to the area by establishing the BIA,” he said.
