Its a rainy Saturday afternoon and Marco Biron is welcoming customers at Bernstein & Gold Interiors for one of the last times. Hes consolidating the store, which he opened in Yaletown in 1992, with his Granville Island store, Gigi B.
The signs on the windows and throughout the store offer up to 70 per cent off an eclectic mix of everything from gorgeous $4,000 Italian silk ceiling lamps to $1,500 Pashley bicycles and $20 handknit mittens.
This is my passion beautiful things, he says of the stores offerings. I have Gigi B to feed my family.
Across Hamilton Street are three empty storefronts. A few doors down is another papered-up store. To his right and left, Rodneys Oyster Bar and the Flying Pig are bustling; the nail and hair salons are full. But there are few casual shoppers strolling by.
Its not just Yaletown thats changing, its the nature of retail shopping itself, Biron says.
When he opened as Yaletowns first boutique, the former warehouse neighbourhood was just starting to blossom as a destination. Many stores were artist owned and operated; a neighbouring furniture shop built their furniture onsite. The rent was cheap $1,250 a month compared to $8,000 today and many customers didnt have much money either.
When a lot of designers and architects moved into the neighbourhood, their aesthetic informed their search for stylish pieces. Westside and Shaughnessy residents would spend the day browsing from store to store, loving B & G for its timeless, shabby chic pieces.
Today, Yaletown is still a destination for restaurants and nightlife but retail can have a hard go at it, he says.
Consumers arent looking for heirlooms any more; theyre looking for a trendy piece, Biron says of how shoppers have changed. Theyre bringing in a magazine and saying, I want this instead of having their own taste.
Since trends change, people dont need to know its well made and will last theyre going to be changing their look in a few years.
Modern customers are also coming in with their iPhone logged into the manufacturers website, wondering why Biron cant match the online price.
Biron uses Alessi, the maker of high-end Italian kitchenware, as an example. Alessi sells things on its website with a 10 to 15 per cent mark-up. I cant survive on a 10 per cent mark-up the way Costco does.
Those manufacturers are at risk of losing the brick and mortar retail stores which have to pay rent and staff that allow consumers to get the touch and feel of the products, he says.
His Gigi B store on Granville Island does well because he caters the stock to the tourist crowd who want something they cant find at home to take back with them.
Until last October, Jennifer Gray had a storefront location for her womens fashion boutique, Jennyfleur Loves..., in a Yaletown mall. Streetfront rents were too expensive but not just in Yaletown. She looked at renting in Gastown, South Granville and Main Street; not only were rents expensive, many required a three- to five-year lease. Thats crazy in this economy, she says.
Part of the problem is how many people are involved, including realtors, with everyone adding a charge. They are not negotiable on the rents and would rather let the spaces sit empty, she says. Some vacant stores even so no to seasonal pop-ups.
As an owner-operator, like Biron, she couldnt sustain the hours required to be open at night to catch the Yaletown dinner crowd as well as during the day. She believes the future is in sharing spaces.
I shared space with Holly Boutique over Christmas and we just did a collaborative warehouse sale with other retailers this past weekend. So for now I am open and free flowing and that is the way I like it.
Of course, she also runs her business online, selling primarily to US customers. The challenge in Vancouver is that many customers want to try the clothes on first, she says, which is why she also has a mobile store (a colourfully decorated "hautemobile").
Marimekko, with its colourful clothes and home designs, recently moved its retail store from Hamilton Street into a shared, but separate, space with its Designhouse at 851 Homer.
