Retail Therapy: How Alberta stores best online rivals

Late this past summer, another name appeared under “phonebooks” and “newspapers” on the List of Industries the Internet is Killing: video rental stores. On August 31, Blockbuster Canada announced it would close its 253 remaining stores because it could not find a buyer. Its departure leaves Rogers Plus and various mom-and-pop retailers as the last remaining video rental stores in Alberta.

Haute Future: Bamboo Ballroom co-owners Kyla Kazeil (left) and Anastasia Boruk aren’t about to abandon the retail model
Photograph by Jessica Fern Facette

Could brick-and-mortar retailers be next on the list of Internet-related casualties? It’s certainly a cause for concern, given the rise of online alternatives like Indochino, iTunes and Clearly Contacts, which offer suits, music and eyewear (respectively) at prices local retailers can’t dream of matching.

But owning a retail business in Alberta, which is second only to B.C. when it comes to Internet connectivity rates in Canada, doesn’t have to mean commercial suicide. Alberta regularly leads the country in both retail sales growth and per capita retail sales. Here’s how retailers around the province are maintaining that advantage in the Age of the Internet.

Keep It Local

Unless our biology undergoes some radical revision, the Internet likely won’t replace farmers’ markets anytime soon. Their emphasis on local goods and the people who produce them is intrinsically appealing to many people, and it’s a message that other retailers might want to adopt.

The Bamboo Ballroom, a clothing store on Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue, has done just that. Yes, it stocks popular brands like Free People and Seven For All Mankind, but it also sells clothes from local designers like Cinder + Smoke, Cruz and Suka. “We want to grow the community that we’re in and make Edmonton better,” says co-owner Anastasia Boruk. “Customers want to support a local business.”

The Bamboo Ballroom isn’t blind to the opportunities available online. In addition to its Twitter feed, it plans to add online ordering capability in the next few months. But the store also offers things the Internet can’t, like zebrano hardwood floors, locally designed furniture and the opportunity to have a private shopping party with friends and wine.

The strategy seems to be paying off. After taking a hit in 2009, business has rebounded over the last two years for Boruk and her partner, Kyla Kazeil.

(In)convenience Store

Digital downloads, legal and otherwise, provide quick access to a truly staggering amount of music. You don’t even need to put on a pair of pants to get your hands on any artist you can think of. So how come The Inner Sleeve, with its focus on selling music stored on cumbersome vinyl records, got so busy that it had to move to a larger store?

“We completely ran out of room,” says Paula McNulty, assistant manager of the music retailer. “Vinyl has grown so much.” The store did, too, moving to a new location in Calgary’s tony Marda Loop neighbourhood in 2008. The new store, McNulty says, is roughly three times the size of the old one.

McNulty attributes Inner Sleeve’s growth to the experience it offers customers. “A lot of people appreciate walking into a record store, flipping through the bins, having to dig through all the records to find what they want,” she says. “It’s too convenient to go and download something.”

In fact, McNulty sees the Internet as a net benefit to her business, given the opportunities it provides for advertising and customer communication. “It allows so many people the opportunity to explore different genres and artists,” she says. “It’s thanks to those people that record stores are still in business.”

For the record: Paula McNulty says the thrill of the hunt keeps music lovers coming back
Photograph by Shaun Robinson

An Eye for Customer Service

Online glasses are cheap: Internet retailers like Clearly Contacts or Frames Direct offer new specs for as little as $20. Jim Stewart, the president and co-founder of 20/20 Vision Care in Medicine Hat, realizes that this presents a challenge to his optometry centre, but he thinks businesses like his still hold the upper hand.

“The Internet doesn’t have customer service,” he says. “I think that makes a big difference.”

His company has done better than just weather the digital storm, too. Stewart says business is up 10 to 15 per cent over 2010. The firm hired a second optometrist in July. “If it were to continue at the pace it’s going, [2011] will be our best year,” Stewart says.

He has seen customers return to the fold after leaving for cheaper pastures. He says what brings them back to 20/20 is service that the Internet can’t provide. “There’s more to a pair of glasses than just sending a prescription in and picking a frame online,” he says. “They need to be looked after, they need to be adjusted. If somebody sits on them or steps on them, you can’t send them back to the Internet to get them fixed.”

A Head of the Game

Sandra Mattar, the owner of Headcase Hats, knows that people can buy hats online. She just doesn’t care. “We give people advice for shopping online,” she says. “We measure their heads and we tell them, ‘These are the things you need to watch out for.’”

Helping the competition might seem counter-intuitive, but for Mattar, awakening someone to the fashionable possibilities of hats can only help her in the long run. “We’ve never been threatened by hats being purchased elsewhere,” she says. “There are so many heads and such a huge variety of hats. One store could never be enough.”

Mattar, who opened her second Edmonton location in March, thinks we’re on the verge of a resurgence in the popularity of hats – a societal shift towards covered craniums. At least one segment of the population agrees. After the royal wedding in April and a subsequent tour of Canada showcased Kate Middleton’s fondness for fascinators, Mattar estimates awareness of hats has gone up 50 per cent among middle-aged women.

So while it’s safe to say that nothing is certain in the age of e-tailing, brick-and-mortar stores that focus on service, local tastes and niche markets can have a solid economic future.