Academy Road retailer joins move online from brick, mortar
A Winnipeg retailer has departed Academy Road for its new address: a website URL.
Grace & Company shuttered its storefront May 23. On Monday, it launched a revamped website.
'I just decided that sitting in my store for six, seven hours a day and having two or three people come by was not really feasible,' said owner Dorothy Vannan.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
The exit of her shop, and its European labels, follows neighbouring boutique Margot + Maude. The latter business opted for a fully online model — plus pop-up shops — earlier this year.
There's been a noticeable segment of small retailers leaving brick-and-mortars behind since the COVID-19 pandemic, industry experts say.
Vannan opened Grace & Company at 556 Academy Rd. in 2016. She built the brand over years. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic — 2019 — was 'phenomenal,' Vannan recalled.
Upwards of 20 people visited the shop daily, she relayed. Grace & Company started a website, following an industry trend, but only put 10 per cent of its wares online.
'If COVID hadn't happened, who knows where we would be,' she said Tuesday.
But the pandemic did happen. So in 2020, Vannan and her daughter built out Grace & Company's website. All the Polish, Ukrainian and Italian imports were listed, the dinnerware to the linens.
Sales rolled in as a 'shop local' sentiment persisted. The years succeeding pandemic-era lockdowns have been tougher, Vannan said. 'I had months where it was like literally nobody.'
She slashed store hours in 2024 — 'I can't stay open just to have two people in an eight-hour shift' — and watched as the number of online sales continued to outpace in-person transactions.
She paid off her pandemic-era loans, but even so, the accounting numbers aren't ideal, Vannan said. She chose not to renew her lease last year.
'This is a positive thing that we've done to save Grace & Company,' Vannan emphasized. 'It's not a pretty reality, but it's not a complaint.'
The overhead costs of a brick-and-mortar are gone. Vannan said she believes the next chapter will be 'great.'
Anecdotally, both the Retail Council of Canada and Canadian Federation of Independent Business have noticed small shops shifting to fully online platforms amid storefront cost increases.
Rent, utilities, property tax, insurance, labour and crime-related losses (such as theft and vandalism) add to the operating bill.
Firms like Shopify have made it easier to run an online business. Also, people have grown more comfortable shopping online due to the pandemic, said John Graham, Retail Council of Canada government relations director for the Prairies.
'There's a lot of risk in shifting to online-only,' he said. 'It's very hard to rely on a Google search in an online space where you're competing with … competitors around the world.'
Such a business model usually requires a 'substantial increase' in marketing. If a company can attract clients, then running online-only can be a positive change, Graham said.
Storefronts are affected by their location and parking set-ups, he added.
Leaving a physical boutique for solely website sales has been a learning curve for Regan Greenwood. Her business, Style Bar, exited 470 River Ave. last year.
Greenwood estimates her sales are half of what they'd be during a typical spring with a storefront. However, she's been focused on raising her young family. As her children go to school, she'll dive deeper into paid advertising.
'I don't regret my decision,' Greenwood said. 'Mentally and personally, it's been the best decision for me.'
Oversaturated spaces online are difficult to stand out in, she noted. But she has friends with physical shops who are struggling.
'Amazon is pretty relentless on these small-business owners,' said Tyler Slobogian, CFIB senior policy analyst for the Prairies and northern Canada.
Businesses that cut storefronts often reappear via pop-ups, he added. Grace & Company will likely hold pop-ups and may take a portion of a Corydon boutique next year, Vannan hinted.
She'd like to see more people shopping local: 'There's so many local businesses here that are not feeling the love that they should be.'
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A 'Buy Canadian' sentiment is still strong, but less so in import-filled retail sectors, Graham noted. He's seen consumers buying discount brands that are cheaper and similar in quality to brand-name competitors.
'It's sad to see … something close,' said Lenny Kerr, manager of Bump Maternity on Academy Road.
Kerr watched Margot + Maude exit. (Another business has since moved in.) Bump Maternity hasn't seen a decrease in foot traffic; Kerr attributes it to the customer base.
Manitoba experienced a 7.4 per cent increase in overall retail sales, year over year, in March.
gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
Gabrielle PichéReporter
Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.
Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
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Story continues below advertisement That was all in pursuit of meeting the central bank's inflation target of two per cent, part of a mandate from the federal government that's up for review next year. Get weekly money news Get expert insights, Q&A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday. Sign up for weekly money newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Macklem said the past few years have led the Bank of Canada to scrutinize some of its metrics, like core inflation and how it responds to supply shocks in the economy. But he defends keeping the bank's inflation target, particularly at a time of global upheaval. 'Our flexible inflation targeting framework has just been through the biggest test it's ever had in the 30 years since we announced the inflation target,' he said. 'I'm not going to pretend it's been an easy few years for anybody. But I think the framework has performed well.' Macklem said, however, that he sees room to build out the mandate to address other areas of concern from Canadians, such as housing affordability. Whether it's the high cost of rent or a mortgage, or surging prices for groceries and vehicles, Macklem said the past few years have been eye-opening to Canadians who weren't around the last time inflation hit double digits in the 1980s. 'Unfortunately, a whole new generation of Canadians now know what inflation feels like, and they didn't like it one bit,' he said. Story continues below advertisement Monetary policy itself can't make homes more affordable, he noted — in a nutshell, high interest rates make mortgages more expensive while low rates can push up the price of housing itself because they stoke demand. But Macklem said one of the things he's reflecting on is that inflation can get worse when the economy isn't operating at its potential or when it's facing great disruption. 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Story continues below advertisement 'International co-operation, to be honest, has never been easy. It is particularly difficult right now, but that doesn't make it less important. That makes it more important,' he said. 'I do think Canada, as the chair of the G7, has a leadership role to play.' 2:56 Carney's government tables 'One Canadian Economy' bill to eliminate internal trade barriers The Bank of Canada is also changing the way it has conversations with Canadians and the kind of data it considers. A day after the June interest rate decision, deputy governor Sharon Kozicki told a Toronto business crowd how the central bank is using data more nimbly, relying heavily on surveys and more granular information to make monetary policy decisions in an uncertain time. These sources offer a faster way to see what's happening on the ground in the economy than traditional statistical models allow. 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