That’s not a very compelling example. One manager, compared to a few dozen locally-hired employees. That’s hardly what anyone would call “shipping in” staff.[/quote]
You want a more compelling example? Ok.
New Future Shop in Vernon. Opened a couple of years or so ago. 80% of their staff came from Kelowna and Penticton, 90% managerial. They hired 3 people from Vernon for stock-room duty, 1 in sales. Places like Future Shop post all their openings internally first, then to places like HRDC only after they’ve recieved internal resumes. They promote internally and always have “Managers-In-Training” should they need to ship off a manager. I know, because I spent a year at Future Shop almost a decade ago.
Then again, it’s all heresay until it actually happens here. But, if you were a “big-box” store looking to do well in the area, would you hire someone with no experience locally, or ship in someone with loads of ambition from another location?
Well of course I would rather they hire locally, but shipping in staff isn’t all bad for Rupert either. Those new people are tax payers who also need to eat and purchase local products to live.
Hence Prince Rupert “Growing”… I don’t know that Kondolas is great news, Kondolas ownes City Funiture, and are probably opening a warehouse here to ship in funiture from over seas via containers. Its just another spin off of the container terminal coming to rupert… You can expect to see ALOT of import/export warehouses being constructed in this area. That’s why this is such good news for rupert… people don’t even have a clue how big this is. All the new jobs that that the city, and port authority have claimed are opening up here, is a serious under estimate, because they cant really calculate all the spin offs. Netlink apparently has plans for a warehouse here, and I’m sure there are dozen more big companies planning the same sort of thing.
No matter what opens up here, no matter how many new jobs are created, no matter how many people are shipped in, there will always be unemployment. I think a lot of people forget about that. Bringing in more people for whatever is going to come here can be good - but that displaces the people that are here already, and they’re still looking for work.
Same thing happened to Calgary in the 90s. Population exploded (not literally of course… although that would be hilarious to see; "Hey John, how are you… BOOM!), and the city expanded so fast it could barely keep up. But the unemployment got worse, and more and more of the cities “low-income” areas deteriorated to downright slums.
Meh… either way, Im kinda fond of the small town thing… although over the years alot of my friends have left, and there really isnt many people my age left in this town. The Calgary scene is kinda interesting… In 1989, it was just under 600,000 people, and now its larger than Vancouver(600,000), Calgary being 1,000,000… of course Vancouver has a larger Metropolitan area(2,800,000).
In 1989, before I moved to Rupert, I was offered a job in Calgary. I didn’t take it for various reasons and has never had any regrets about it. Moving to Rupert was a good thing. But I often wonder what kind of money I would have made on a house if I would have bought something in Calgary in 1994 like I did in Rupert and sell it 11 years later.
It took me 7 years to figure out I hated living in Calgary. Yeah, the big-city has it’s nice features - 24/7 stores everywhere, lots of big-box stores, lots of places to hang out and things to do. But, you have to drive 30 minutes through rush-hour traffic to get there to do anything, it snows in July, and the bars suck. I was there when Electric Avenue WAS Electric Avenue. IIICheers, Coconut Joe’s, Fox & Firkin, Knight’s Pub, etc…
Back then you had to be at the bar before 10pm to get in, and we didn’t have to worry about knife fights after the bars closed. I don’t know how you people do the whole bar scene today - the bar scene today sucks.
I definately don’t want a big city, maybe just more to do. Sure big box stores will bring queen charlotte and Alaska people here. The container port is good except for when you bring these kindof things in you also bring organised crime
Why? The major big-box stores have online outlets (eg; futureshop.ca) that offer free shipping to the Charlottes and Alaska.
If the ferry was $20 round-trip, maybe. But unless people are ready to do a $1000+ shopping trip into town to justify the cost of the boat trip, I can’t see a lot of island traffic coming in.
…Can you image what would happen if Wal-Mart opened an online store in Canada?
Why? The major big-box stores have online outlets (eg; futureshop.ca) that offer free shipping to the Charlottes and Alaska.
If the ferry was $20 round-trip, maybe. But unless people are ready to do a $1000+ shopping trip into town to justify the cost of the boat trip, I can’t see a lot of island traffic coming in.
…Can you image what would happen if Wal-Mart opened an online store in Canada?
[/quote]
My grandparents live in the charlottes and they do make trips to rupert already to buy groceries etc. If you have ever been to the co-op you would understand why.
They may not come over soley for the purpose of going to walmart/canadian tire but they do come over for food etc.
It’s not too much of a stretch to add walmart to that list of places to shop. Not to mention as far as I know they dont have high speed internet over there and not many people are online (my grandma is).
I dont expect people to come in droves but they will come specifically to shop in rupert.
I doubt HBC will open a Bay here. The products are too pricey to move well here-even the togo line (their store brand?? Togo??) is overpriced compared to quality.
Kondolas? Another furniture store-how many does one small town need…
Why? The major big-box stores have online outlets (eg; futureshop.ca) that offer free shipping to the Charlottes and Alaska.
If the ferry was $20 round-trip, maybe. But unless people are ready to do a $1000+ shopping trip into town to justify the cost of the boat trip, I can’t see a lot of island traffic coming in.
…Can you image what would happen if Wal-Mart opened an online store in Canada?
[/quote]
Do you think people don’t spend the money to come to Rupert to shop? I see people from the Charlottes at the mall every day, and they can easily spend $500-$1000 once they get here. Online shopping means nothing… there will always be people coming to Rupert to shop, no matter if they can get the same stuff online or not.
All you have to do is buy groceries or other items once in the Charlottes to realize why those people come over here. We do court one week out of every month over there. Our people bring thier own food because of the price over there.
The size of Terrace’s Wal-Mart is 105 835 sq. ft. with 500+ parking spaces and room for development. And the average store size of a Zellers store is 75 000 sq. ft.
So eh. Future Shop and Sport Chek could fit inside there.
I would love to have London Drugs here in Rupert though. Since they send flyers around the Northwest to attract them to Prince George’s London Drugs, I don’t see why they can’t build one in the region.
I got this Mastercraft Snapback screwdriver/hammer for only 19.99. Yet for 26.99, I could’ve gotten a Mastercraft Snapback Deluxe! It’s a handy tool for jobs around the house. And it’s from Mastercraft, and that’s what counts.
(my grandma is).