Prince Rupert has seen a fair amount of businesses close their doors over the last few years, the empty storefronts along 3rd Avenue testimony to the economic climate of the city over the last decade or so.
Still, hope like the arrival of spring is a highly anticipated thing around here, so there's much chatter about a few new business offerings in town of late,
including some excitement generated by the Mayor himself.
There's the new meat market in Cow Bay which has had locals talking of late, as well as the pending arrival of Wal Mart after Zeller's liquidates itself (and Fields) out of existence later this spring.
There's word of a Dollarama for the Mall and relocation of Shopper's Drug Mart to the old Extra Foods location in the mall as well, but we imagine, that once word gets more widely delivered, the majority of the talk over this sudden surge of business opportunities will belong to the store set to go directly across the street from Subway in the heart of the downtown on 2nd Avenue West.
The Chad Smoke Shop reportedlyhas taken root in that location (at least that's the inference from the sign on the outside) once the home of an ice cream parlour many years ago, it would seem it will be seeking a slightly different clientele upon its opening.
One thing is certain, we don't think that they'll be much of a threat to Eddies News.
Google us goes the sign in front of the building, so with a few clicks of your keyboard here's some of
what you may find... and
this and
this
Of course a few more clicks and we'll find that the business plan hasn't always found a welcome mat out in other communities across Western Canada where the franchise has arrived.
Chad Smoke Shop owner gets rough ride
Town to review position on smoke shop
Smoke Shop sparks backlash
We're not sure how much due diligence the city is required to do before granting a business licence, nor if in fact they have the ability to refuse such licences. But surely they had time to look into the application and the reaction to past applications elsewhere, it's not like the city has suddenly faced a gold rush like quality of business applications.
One also wonders if City Council members and the Mayor were even aware of the nature of the business prior to the arrival of the delivery trucks earlier this week.
Perhaps they were too busy discussing such things as website development and keeping any would be tanker fleet out of Prince Rupert harbour to track such mundane concerns.
Like any new business the key to success is to get a bit of a buzz about town on their venture, to that we're fairly sure that they'll be the talk of the town in short order.
We're also pretty sure that City Council is going to hear much more about the newest addition to the Prince Rupert Business scene.
All that's left for now we guess is the grand opening, hmm, wonder if the Mayor will be there to cut the ribbon.
