New Cash Mob destination to be revealed in October

The popular Cash Mob project will return to Prince Rupert in October, with organizers currently reviewing the growing list of potential stops, as they make plans to target a local business for a surprise surge of customers.

Saturday, October 18th appears to be the day that they have settled on for the next edition of the Cash Mob experience for the city.

On that day, participants prepared to spend at least twenty dollars will head off to the selected location, making for a fun filled spurt of business for the day.

Previous editions of the Cash Mob proved to be well received outings, with the Argosy Gallery and Ice House Gallery finding their shops filling up with customers, some who perhaps may have never been in the store before.

The program which is co-sponsored by the Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce and Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest makes use of social media to advertise when and where participants should gather to launch the invasion of the target store.

You can nominate a local business for the October Cash Mob by using the Facebook page or twitter feed and marking your nomination with the hash tag #Spend20

More information on the October Mob scene will be delivered to the Rupert Reigns website, twitter  feed and Facebook page as the excursion date of the 18th gets closer.

For more on developments in Prince Rupert's Commercial sector see our archive page.

Shopping treks to Terrace still seem likely

While Prince Rupert residents await the arrival of Wal Mart later this month, the shopping dynamic in the Northwest still seems very much tilted towards the east and the centralization of shopping options in Terrace.

Wal Mart of course is being heralded as a sign of a renaissance in Rupert shopping, preparing to take over the recently closed Zeller's space at the Rupert Square, the giant chain store is going to operate a smaller scale operation in Prince Rupert, one not quite as large as other retail operations across the nation, including the one it Terrace.

Still, it's arrival will be greeted with welcoming arms, the pace of closures in the city of key shopping options indicative of the recent troubles the city has faced.

The city recently issued its thoughts on the commercial sector in the city, suggesting that progress is at hand with the arrival of such shopping options as Chad's Smoke Shop, Express News and Smoke Shop, Dollarama and Rupert Meats to name a few.

However, in that same space of time there have been some high profile closures such as Zellers,  Fields, Mohawk, Pizza Hut and now with rumours percolating that with the arrival of SportChek in Terrace, the Athlete's World in the Rupert Square will be one of the locations Canada wide to close.

Third Avenue, once the thriving symbol of the commercial core still has a large volume of empty storefronts to testify to the decline over the last decade.

With almost equal amounts of openings and closings, basically we're not sure if there is so much as progress at hand over the last year, as there is the city barely treading water when it comes to the commercial options.

While not a complete record (we welcome submissions to refresh our memories), our recollections of the openings and closings of note over the last year or so include the following commercial options.


Closed

Park Avenue Store
OC Diner
Coastal Eyecare
Charlie's at Rupert Hotel
Mohawk Gas Station
Zeller's
Brad's Drive In
Salty Crab Gifts
Studio 9
Pizza hut
Fields


Open

Rupert Meats
Big Fish
Rupert Mini Storage
Chad's Smoke Shop
Intertek Labs
Express News
Theann's Greek Palace
Soup Daddy's
Paws and Claws Thrift Shop
Fresh Onion and Catering
3C clothing
Royal Canadian Legion
Wal Mart (Oct 19)

While the Rupert Commercial sector struggles along its way, things appear to be booming commercial wise in Terrace.

Already home to such big box chain locations as Staples, Canadian Tire, Real Canadian Wholesale, The Brick and the Wal Mart store, Terrace has seen an 8 million dollar revitalization take place at the Skeena Mall. Sportchek opened its doors last week, providing for a full parking lot at the Skeena Mall there for the first time in a long, long time.

Dollarama is also making its plans to operate at the Skeena Mall, as is the Winners chain.

The changing options in the region were noted by the CBC's Daybreak North program last month, with George Baker offering up this review of the commercial sector of the Northwest .

Terrace Standard-- SportChek opens in Terrace, BC
Terrace Standard-- Upgrade to Skeena Mall to cost millions
Terrace Standard-- Terrace's Skeena Mall improvements planned

Prince Rupert is clearly a long way away from those heady days of the Royop  Shopping Village project that was to be destined for the BC Hydro site, that but yet another project file gathering dust on someone's book shelf, perhaps to be resuscitated one day in the future.

And until the kind of shopping options available in Terrace can find a home in Prince Rupert, we imagine that the traffic flow on the weekend will be flowing towards Terrace for the foreseeable future.

Mayor finds positive signs in new business arrivals

It could be that the ability to gain some good quality of cuts of meat is a positive trend for Prince Rupert's commercial class.

With the City heralding the opening of the Rupert Meats as a sign of a rebound in the city's commercial fortunes, the Mayor outlined for the Northern View how he sees economic future of the city as one while in flux, on the right track.

"The City continues to generate interest concerning the sale of commercial buildings, the creation of additional food and beverage establishments and new retail opportunities" said Mayor Jack Mussallem.


"Strong performance of the Port of Prince Rupert and related project announcements will continue to create additional business development opportunities in our City.  Greater diversity of retail and service related businesses will attract more people to Prince Rupert as a service centre, and the increased activity will benefit our existing businesses and residents" Northern View, page 9, Wedenesday, March 7, 2012

He points to the soon to arrive WalMart and and expansion of Shoppers Drug Mart into the Rupert Square as signs of the economic turn for the city, however, in the spirit of balance, he did neglect to mention that WalMart is replacing the closing Zellers and with its arrival the Fields store will close as well.

Shoppers expansion, which is a welcome thing, certainly can't be considered a new business and lost in among the shuffle a few other local businesses that quietly closed their doors over the last few months.

So, while the arrival of a Wal Mart and the introduction of a meat market to the city's commercial class are certainly welcome things, the big picture still suggests that Prince Rupert business owners are still suffering from the economic malaise that has been part of the city's fibre for the last few years.

Combined with a drop in the population over the last decade ( up to and including the most recent census, though those are numbers that the Mayor seemingly does not  subscribe to) it's not a surprise that the commercial properties would be the main indicator of the distress of the business sector in the city.

If we see a surge in new business arrivals and the flocking of the chain stores that has long been prophesied but yet to be delivered, then perhaps we can say we've turned the economic corner, for now though it seems very much to be more of a holding pattern than anything else.

CFTK TV-- City of Prince Rupert Taking Steps Forward in Small Business Growth
CFTK TV-- Small Business (video)