Businesses must re-invent

Dear editor:
I read in Monday’s Daily Bulletin an article about the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce urging Fort Frances residents to “Keep your town in business,by keeping your business in town.”
I am insulted that the blame is put on “the consumer” for lack of business in Fort Frances. The businesses here must re-invent themselves.
It wasn’t long ago we were talking about re-vitalizing downtown Fort Frances and it was to be called “The Great Canadian Main Street.” Well, nothing has changed downtown, except for a sign that says it is “The Great
Canadian Main Street.”
The merchants of downtown Fort Frances do not want to give the people what they really want and that is better “shopping hours.” Downtown Fort Frances is locked up by 5:30 p.m.
Take the Santa Claus parade, for example. With people downtown for the parade, the downtown merchants could have opened up late and had “After the Parade Specials,” but they chose not to.
Let’s take a quick look at some history. It is the early 1990s and there is tremendous outshopping to International Falls. The Canadian dollar was “strong” and U.S. gasoline was 99 cents per gallon.
Not only did the gas stations in Fort Frances feel the pinch by the outshopping, so did the restaurants, grocery stores, and all the merchants downtown.
So the merchants went to Fort Frances town council and said that they needed Sunday shopping to compete with the outshopping to International Falls. When the smoke cleared, we had Sunday shopping and who opened up on Sunday? Safeway, SAAN, and Canadian Tire. None of the locally-owned stores opened on Sunday when Sunday shopping was first started.
Let’s jump ahead to 2003. It is doom and gloom: Wal-Mart is coming to town. Seminars were held to help local businesses learn how to deal with this corporate giant.
Wal-Mart came and nothing happened downtown except for SAAN (which became “The Bargain Store) and A Buck or Two, who extended their hours of operation. The rest of the stores kept their regular hours.
It is a new marketplace out there. People want evening shopping. If they didn’t, a Buck or Two, Safeway, The Bargain Store, Canadian Tire, and Wal-Mart would not be open in the evening.
So, here we go again. 2007—another crisis. “Cross-border shopping” has returned. The Chamber of Commerce is asking us to keep our business in Fort Frances. But what are our businesses “doing for their customers.”
For example, recently they had the “Black Friday” sales event in International Falls. Why don’t our merchants get together and have their own “Black Friday,” and keep some those sales in Fort Frances.
I had customers tell me that they went over at four in the morning to get the deals in International Falls. “Black Friday” happens every year, so Fort Frances stores should get in on the action.
I believe our downtown stores should open until 8 p.m. on weekdays and also open 12-4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
Downtown store owners should look at their sales. How much do you sell between 9 and 10 in the morning? Store hours should start at 10 in the morning.
Appliances, furniture, and electronics are hard to buy. You spend a lot of money on high-ticket items such as these but if you get off work at 5 p.m., it doesn’t leave you much time to look. You can’t say people have Saturday to shop because they already have enough to do with housework, errands, and family.
One store owner said to me that if the downtown stores stayed open later, then they could bounce customers off each other. Shoppers might come downtown for one item but end up going into other stores.
One point that our store owners should remember. It takes your customers a while to get used to your new hours. Small ads could be put in the newspaper as a reminder. All it needs to say is your store name and that you are open till 8 that evening. You have to do this for a year before saying it won’t work.
Where I work, we used to open at 8 a.m. from the spring to the fall. The winter hours had us opening at 9 a.m. All it did was confuse our customers. By the time they figured out our new hours, we were changing them again.
I can’t see a store not being able to open until 8 p.m. Open one hour later in the morning and close at 8. A business that used to close at 5:30 would only be adding one-and-a-half hours to their business day.
A word to the shoppers. If you would like to see stores opened later in the evening in Fort Frances, tell the owners or their staff when you are in shopping at their place of business.
So let’s re-vitalize downtown by opening the doors of the businesses until 8 p.m. and bring life to downtown Fort Frances in the evening. Remember, when your business is closed in the evening, your customers can be found at Wal-Mart and over in International Falls.
Thank you,
Doug Jensen
Fort Frances, Ont.