Is the "mom and pop" style retail department store extinct today?

[Long Island Mike]

Everyone: Some personal memories and pics like the ones in the "Real Niagara Falls" section of Rosberg's Department Store posted by Flar got me to thinking: Is the small department store of yesteryear extinct-I now feel it is. By the way-does anyone know when Rosberg's in NFS closed?

I remember two retail department stores here on LI that have faded from memory-One was called Swezey's and had department stores in Patchogue and Riverhead's Downtowns as well as three other locations. They used to advertize as "Your Department store in Suffolk (County)" I recall. Swezey's closed its 5 stores in late 2003. The other was Mid-Island Stores - that chain of 10 stores faded away in early 1994.

Do any small retail department stores still exist? One that can be placed in this category is Toronto's own Honest Ed's-is that store still one of a kind?
In my criteria stores of this type would have just one location or if there is more than one the number of stores usually is a single-digit number.

These days it would be hard indeed to compete with the Wal-Marts or Targets of the world or more upscale and well-known retailers like Sears, Macy's or JC Penney's. Are there any memories or comments out there?
Long Island Mike

 

[ShonTron]

Kingston still has J&R, though it's very much like Honest Ed's. Hamilton had two local department store chains that lasted into the early 1990s - Robinson's and The Right House. But around 1990 or so, most of them disappeared - Goudies in Kitchener being another example.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Zoning by the cities prevent the mixed use of buildings. This creates the extinction of the local convenience store, which could have grown if they end up successful.

Instead, if you want to open a store, one has to go to a strip mall. The strip mall prefers to lease to either chain stores (which look all the same) or the franchises (which look all the same). There is less a possibility of someone who can provide something unique.

 

[BUGEYEDBRIT]

this place is in my hometown, its like walking back in time...



http://www.jacksonsofreading.co.uk/

any store that still boasts a working 'lamson pneumatic tube system' dating from the 1960's deserves our support !

 

[Long Island Mike]

Updated info on LI store closings found...

Everyone: I decided to check the Internet and I found that the Swezey's group of 5 department stores closed in late 2003-that one slipped right by me-and the Mid-Island chain of 10 stores went out of business in early 1994. I was living in the Philadelphia area at that time and I missed that one altogether. In both cases they were small locally-owned stores that just could not compete with larger retailers. As WK Lis mentioned zoning plays a big part in the extinction also of these stores.
BRIT: That Jackson's Corner looks like quite a place! LI MIKE

 

[BUGEYEDBRIT]

If you liked that one - try this:

http://www.camphopson.co.uk/

this one is in Newbury, just down the road from Reading, they do it all,dept store,furniture, erm.....funerals ?

 

[Skeezix]

Zoning by the cities prevent the mixed use of buildings. This creates the extinction of the local convenience store, which could have grown if they end up successful.

Instead, if you want to open a store, one has to go to a strip mall. The strip mall prefers to lease to either chain stores (which look all the same) or the franchises (which look all the same). There is less a possibility of someone who can provide something unique.

Zoning didn't prevent mixed-use buildings. I think what you're trying to say is that zoning prevented the mixing of uses, so that commercial uses were kept out of residential areas, except at the periphery. However, this was really typically only an impact in newer, more suburban areas. In the core, in older neighbourhoods, the zoning for the corner stores was either retained, or the commercial uses continued as legal non-conforming uses. Even in suburban areas, the neighbourhoods were built around the automobile, so the need for parking was as much a factor as zoning in relegating the stores off residential streets.

What killed many of the corner stores was not zoning, but rather changes in food shopping habits, especially the transition of grocery shopping to an automobile-centered experience. As with so many retail sectors, the independents had trouble competing with the chains. And in Ontario at least, Sunday shopping was the coup-de-grace, as it removed the one advantage corner/convenience stores had over their larger competitors. Many corner stores continue to limp along, serving primarily as outlets for cigarette and lottery ticket sales, with limited selections of food and other household items. The chains do better, obviously, but even then a typical Macs outlet stocks a lot fewer non-junk food items today than they would have a couple of decades ago.

As for the independent department stores, which is really the topic of this thread, I suppose they just had trouble competing with the chains, not to mention they suffered the impact of the slow shift of retail dollars away from traditional department stores. More importantly, the chains thrived with the expansion of suburban retail, while the independents often (but not always) stuck to the declining (in relative terms) downtowns. Also, the traditional department stores were usually family-owned, and subsequent generations were often incapable, or unwilling, to provide effective management.

Ottawa is an excellent case in point. That market used to be dominated by local department stores, to the extent that the national chains avoided the Ottawa market in the heyday of the department stores, except for one small Morgan's outlet on Sparks Street. Even Eaton's, which at one point had almost 60% market share in Canada and stores in every province, didn't have a store in Ottawa until Bayshore opened in the early 1970s. Instead, Ottawans shopped at Friemans (bought out by HBC in the 1970s), Murphy Gamble (bought out by Simpsons in the 1970s), Caplan's (killed by the construction of Rideau Centre across the street, not to mention the Rideau bus mall) and Ogilvy's (bought out by Robinson's, not too much before Robinson's itself went belly-up). The opening of a Simpsons-Sears outlet in the Carlingwood mall in the 1950s represented the beginning of the end.

 

[doady]

Department stores in general aren't doing too well, let alone the mom-and-pop ones. Everything now is big box and category killers.

 

[freshcutgrass]

I remember Heath's Department Store in Tillsonburg, Ont closed in June 2006, after 160 years (owned by the Heath family since 1945). It probably wasn't easy, but they managed to stay in business in spite of the local malls...it closed because the owner retired and had no family to take on the business (and obviously no outside buyers willing to risk giving it a go).

Not that it's quite the same thing, but there are still plenty of "general store" type places that continue to stay in business in small-town Ontario, despite easy access to malls these days.

 

[marnylou]

Brocks - Ma and Pa Department Store alive and well in Port Perry Ontario!

Hello - I am new to this forum! Just wanted to let you know that yes, Ma and Pa department stores are alive and well! My sister and I operate a clothing and footwear store in Port Perry Ontario with a second location in Fenelon Falls Ontario. We recently celebrated our 125th Anniversary and held a Gala event raising over $50,000 for our local hospital.

Brock's is a family owned store, spanning 5 generations of the Brock family. Once a general/dry goods store, it has evolved into grocery, hardware, then back to soft goods today. Housed in a beautiful, downtown Victorian building with Lake Scugog outside the door, it is a location that is hard to beat.

But it is far from easy - we are always innovating, travelling around the country looking for new and interesting products, renovating, creating a website and new webstore - but retail is in our blood and we wouldn't think of doing anything else! Visit us at www.brocks.ca

Marina Brock
Brock's
168 Queen St, Port Perry Ontario CANADA
905-985-2521
www.brocks.ca

 

[adma]

Speaking of which, I wonder if something like this Dorset, Ont. institution counts...

 

[freshcutgrass]

Places like Robinson's survive because they are quaint Cottage Country traditions. In reality, it's just another dumpy little variety/convenience store, and treated as such. The dockside restaurant across the bridge is ok though.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Too many rules and regulations for new businesses

It is getting harder for new "Mom and Pop" stores to appear. Zoning by-laws restrictions make it difficult to try out new ideas. This store, pictured below, would not be able to set up shop in Mississauga for example. Not a chain store, not a franchise, no parking lot, "graffiti" on the walls, "does not meet community standards", signs do not conform, not enough capital cash, location wrong...

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This little mom and pop shop opened in 1948, in Toronto. I think it is still doing good business. (Click on picture)

 

[TKTKTK]

Mom and Pop stores open up all the time in the suburbs. Walk into Shoppers World in Brampton and you'll find 90% of the businesses are family owned and operated.

You don't see Mom and Pops opening Honest Eds-style stores because that's no longer the shopping fashion - they'd never get their business plan approved, and they'd likely not stay in business long enough for you to notice them.

We prefer specialisation to generalisation now.

 

[Ahsun]

There's a small chain in South-Western Ontario named "Budd's", 3 locations Kitchener, Guelph, Simcoe. I think they have those vacuum tubes as well.