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Winnipeg Free Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Style Encore's second city location steps onto men's clothing stage
Chantelle Harder didn't always have entrepreneurial aspirations, but today she runs seven businesses. In May, Harder and business partner Alex Domingo opened Style Encore at 1190 St. James St. The Winnipeg store purchases and resells clothing and accessories, and is part of a chain created by franchisor Winmark Corp. Harder also owns a Plato's Closet location and a Once Upon a Child store in Winnipeg, and she is the founder of Harder HIIT Fitness, a non-profit community gym in the city. The 46-year-old also co-owns three Plato's Closet locations in Alberta. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Style Encore co-owner Chantelle Harder in the new consignment shop at 1190 James St. Harder's employees are often teens working their first jobs and she enjoys the opportunity to mentor them. 'I love working with young people,' said Harder, who was an educator before becoming a business owner. 'Watching them learn and grow is so rewarding. It's kind of like being a teacher, to be honest with you, which is maybe why I love it so much.' Style Encore offers affordable, gently used casual and business clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories for people in their late 20s and older. It sources the items by purchasing them from customers, who can receive cash on the spot for goods they've outgrown or no longer want. It's the second Style Encore location in Winnipeg (the other is on Nairn Avenue) and the only one in the city to offer men's clothing and an e-commerce platform for online shoppers. The store features a range of brands including Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Gap and Lululemon. The store carries items that sell for as little as $5, as well as luxury handbags, designer shoes and sunglasses that retail for hundreds of dollars. 'I love the concept of keeping all of these things out of our landfills and giving the community a safe and welcoming place to come sell and buy,' Harder said. Harder made her first foray into business in 2001, when she and her then-husband started an online pharmacy based in Minnedosa. Ten years later, she opened her Once Upon a Child location. Once Upon a Child and Plato's Closet are also Winmark brands that buy and sell gently used items, the first for children and the second for teenagers and young adults. For Harder, it made sense to open a store for customers 25 and older so she could meet the needs of people of all ages. She asked Domingo, a human resources manager for her other businesses, to join her in the venture. The business partners and their staff purchased 76,000 items in the six weeks leading up to the location's grand opening May 1. Since then, business at the 4,200-square-foot store has been brisk, Domingo said. 'We expected to be busy but I don't think we expected to be as busy as we are. It's a nice surprise,' she said. Harder and Domingo are both Métis and say they are proud to represent Indigenous business owners. They also find meaning in running a business that focuses on sustainability and offers customers affordable options. Harder is motivated in part by the fact she lives with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. After enduring whole-brain radiation therapy and ongoing chemo treatments every three weeks, she says she is driven to expand her businesses. 'It just kind of gives you a wake up call to make sure that you're living the life that you want to lead,' said Harder, who has four children between the ages of 15 and 21. 'I hope that my stores can create a legacy for my family, and for Alex, too, at Style Encore. I find being busy is the best cancer cure of all.' Friends Alison Wolfe and Karen Toews visited the store for the first time Monday and were impressed. 'I wasn't expecting it to be this full right away, but it's nice to have a lot of options here,' Wolfe said. Toews appreciates Style Encore focuses on selling quality items. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'We're not necessarily looking for the fast fashion. We're looking for the stuff that will last a little longer,' she said. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Winmark Corp. advertises itself as 'the resale company.' In addition to Style Encore, Plato's Closet and Once Upon a Child, the U.S. company owns the retail resale brands Play It Again Sports and Music Go Round. As of December 2024, Winmark had 1,350 franchises in operation. There are more than 65 Style Encore locations in Canada and the U.S. Aaron EppReporter Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. He was previously the associate editor at Canadian Mennonite. Read more about Aaron. 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. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Indianapolis Star
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis is celebrating Star Wars Day, Sunday, May 4th, with these events
A long time ago... May 25, 1977 to be precise, an epic space opera arrived at 43 movie theaters in a galaxy not so far away. Star Wars and its subsequent films have since become one of the most popular movie franchises of all time, spawning TV shows, toys, books and graphic novels adored by fans the world over. May the 4th — a pun off the line, "May the Force be with you" — is popularly known as Star Wars Day, an informal holiday in which devoted fans celebrate their appreciation of the cinema saga created by George Lucas. Here are some ways both children and adults can celebrate Star Wars Day in Indianapolis: May The Rave Be With You Where: 7 Johnson Ave, Indianapolis When: 10 p.m. Saturday, May 3 - 3 a.m. Sunday, May 4. What: Monsterz Inc. in Irvington is hosting a Star Wars-themed dance party for adults age 21 and older. "Come as your favorite Star Wars character," according to an event announcement on their official website. "Bring your light saber and interstellar vibes to fill the night as DJs drop beats powerful enough to shake the Death Star." No Jedi mind tricks: Test your Star Wars trivia at the Indianapolis Taproom Where: 1301 E Washington St, Indianapolis When: 7-9 p.m., Sunday May 4 What: The Ash & Elm Cider Co. is hosting a Star Wars trivia night at its Indianapolis taproom, according to a social media post. Along with trivia, the night will include a costume contest, prizes and food. The event is kid-friendly. Organizers expect the event to be popular and encourage those interested to reserve a space on OpenTable. Can't make it to that event? There's another Star Wars trivia night happening at Books & Brews at 9402 Uptown Drive Suite 1400, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 4. Another trivia event for families is happening earlier in the day at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4, at the Hamilton East Public Library, the Noblesville Branch, located at 1 Library Plaza. Get your little Padawan some robes: Star Wars Drop at Once Upon a Child When: Sunday, May 4 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. What: Once Upon a Child in Greenwood and in Indianapolis will be dropping gently used Star Wars apparel in celebration of Star Wars Day.
CBC
18-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
'It was a nightmare': Sask. business owner describes GST holiday challenges
Businesses in Saskatchewan are reporting mixed results after the two-month GST holiday ended on Saturday, with many reporting added costs for negligible increases in sales. On Dec. 14 the federal government implemented the tax holiday on numerous consumer products like children's toys, some alcohol and newspapers. The program ran for two months, ending Feb. 15. Peggy Hlushko owns Once Upon a Child in Regina, which sells used children's toys and clothing. Due to its unique business model where she buys and sells used clothing, calculating the altered taxes on both transactions quickly became unmanageable. "It was a nightmare," she said. "It took me probably a day and a half just to try to get it set up to take the taxes off." As Once Upon a Child is an American company, Hlushko says she didn't receive any support on how to handle the transfers. She relied instead on collaborating with Saskatchewan's other Once Upon a Child store owners. "What we did we had to do ourselves and figure it out, and hope at the end of the day we did it right," she said. "And now even last night I went back in and had to take it off, reset all my taxes." "I'm still hoping that I got them to reset properly." 'An administrative nightmare' Brianna Solberg from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) credited the federal government for its intentions with the tax holiday, but said it created an "administrative nightmare" for many small businesses. "We were taking hundreds of phone calls from business owners who were confused as to what they were obligated to do during this," she said. "Not to mention, we heard a lot of fear from business owners that at the end of this, if they didn't apply the tax correctly, then the CRA would be coming after them." "Literally this created different tax categories that never existed before." Solberg added that the government should have clarified sooner that the program was not mandatory. The GST holiday also only applied to some categories of goods like clothing and grocery store items, but even within those categories, many products were exempt. It was up to retailers to make those distinctions, and make sure taxes were collected correctly through their check out systems. One example Solberg mentioned was toys. Toys were tax exempt under the holiday, but only those marketed specifically to children. That meant that for items like LEGO sets and puzzles, some were exempt, but others marketed toward adults were not. In a survey of their members, the CFIB reported that only five per cent of small businesses saw strong sales compared to the same period the year before. Only four per cent of retail businesses reported increases, along with 15 per cent of hospitality businesses. The same survey found that 66 per cent of small businesses received the same amount of sales compared to the same period the year before, but did so dealing with challenges to reprogram their point-of-sale systems and train staff to deal with the holiday changes. Mixed early results Canada's inflation rate declined to 1.8 per cent in December, the most recent month with available data. According to Statistics Canada, food purchased from restaurants and alcoholic beverages — both items covered under the GST holiday — contributed the most to the deceleration. Other reports were more mixed. The Royal Bank of Canada's Consumer Spending Tracker, which collects purchasing data from its cardholders, reported that spending on items included in the tax holiday declined by 0.3 per cent in January after increasing by 1 per cent in December. Meanwhile, Canadian payments provider Moneris said people made fewer purchases between Dec. 14, 2024, and Jan. 15, 2025, compared to the same period a year earlier. Purchases at restaurants went down, but more transactions were made at children's clothing stores, according to the company.
