The Beginning, Middle and End of Amy’s Loonie Toonie Store: Romance, Lies and Business The idea of Amy’s Loonie Toonie store was dreamed up by a conman named Chuck. Chuck is from Hong Kong and has a track record of swindling people from California and who knows where else. He approached an impressionable mortgage broker name Amy and they “fell in love”. Chuck is a smooth talker with a calming, monotonous voice and completely charmed Amy into opening a chain of Loonie Toonie stores bearing her name. Amy has no experience running a business; none whatsoever. Phil, a British man, is an original owner of a West Broadway location off Heather Street: However, there is now a 60% closing sale and the business will close any day now. The previous location was at the current Caffe Artigiano, diagonally across the street (The landlord kicked the loonie toonie store out). $35 per square feet, $8000 Cdn rent per month and only making less than $5000 dollars, Phil’s business is out of luck; out of business. In my opinion, if he renamed the place and Phil pointed out that the steps hinder his business as not being wheelchair friendly or accessible for people with disability. Plus in reality, the items are far from being the cost of a Canadian loonie or toonie. Maybe worth a loonie but definitely not priced that cheap. Eventually, the owners kicked Amy out the business that bears her name. She was a nosy lady, interfering with daily business in all stores. As well, the marriage did not go through. The West Broadway store was where all of Chuck’s mail arrived and soon, mail from lawyers suing Chuck for swindling 2 to 3 million dollars were piling in. Chuck booked it and Amy no longer had a role in her business. The future of the Davie Street Amy’s Loonie Toonie store look bleak as well as a Dollarama opens up in between the two Amy’s. Dollarama is a ginormous retail chain with stores all over the world, making money on the stock market. They have no middleman and ship directly from China, wholesale. Items 10 cents In China would be marked up to $1.25 at least and upwards. Big box business is of great importance to me. Their businesses ruin local businesses. I firmly believe in buying local, living local, local everything. It’s a win-win for the consumer and the small business. Dollarama driving into Vancouver and beyond is driving all other dollar stores out of business. As Phil points out, Vancouver is not a retail city. London, Hong Kong, Paris, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, etc….have millions of shoppers. Vancouver simply has 3.5 million residents, how many of them shop local versus shopping for cheaper in the States? Let’s ponder the demise of Amy’s Loonie Toonie store and make this a lesson for small and large businesses in British Columbia, Canada. Thanks for reading and happy business for all still surviving in this hostile retail climate. JoAnna Lui
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 05:05:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015