Does anyone know anything about the future of the new shopping center at the old hydro site? I went through the Mall today and lord it’s awful esp. down stairs…
I am thankfully getting to Vancouver once in a while and when I am not I will be shopping even more in Terrace…
Except for good grocery stores we have no shopping in this town…
Well it’s no wonder we have no buisnesses in town when people take an attitude like yours.
Who wants to open a buisness when people keep ditching local places and driving up to terrace to shop at walmart.
Why do you think more stores are closing down?
If everyone took that same attitude we wouldn’t have any stores at all.
If there isn’t a demand for something, then it wont come.
bubbasteve, I agree with you. the less people that shop in town, the harder it is for businesses to stay open (sort of common sense actually 
)
I also have heard that the more shopping that is done in terrace, the higher our tax rates are? =o
Uh, while it would be nice if we all just stayed home and shopped local, the simple fact is that it would seem that they are “offering” things there that the locals here want…
If perhaps we “offered” those things here, then there wouldn’t be that Mad Max like drive to Terrace every Saturday morning…
As for the question about the shopping mall, I’m thinking that they’re waiting to see if there actually is going to be the “boom” we all keep hearing about, right now building a shopping centre for a town with a population in decline and a lack of industry to fund the purchases would seem like a less than capitalistic thing to be doing…
Podunkian, I sure hope Hollywood does not read this post, it would not sit well saying there is no Pond Boom. All in all the mall has turned into a form of youth drop-in center, all kinds of kids meeting there and being from the hood.
A very big reason that I shop alot more in Terrace now is becuse it is getting harder to find products that I need in this town. When it comes to kids clothing you have low quality/ low cost Zellers and high quality/high cost Adlan, which is shutting down. Drive to Terrace and you can find quality kids clothes at Walmart or the Wholesale Club, and also a huge selection, for reasonable prices.
My son is playing soccer this year on CHSS field. That field has been here for what?..12-13 years? Yet, do you think I can buy a pair of turf cleats in Rupert? Nope. Farwest may have them but I’m not going to give up my spleen for a pair of shoes that he will not fit in 6 months.
I turned this town upside down last year trying to find a cooler to buy. Know where I eventually found one? At Canadian Tire a couple of weeks later.
Prince Rupert retailers can take alot of the blame when wondering why many people are shopping in Terrace. At least there you know that you will find what you need.
Rupert NEEDS new retail development to keep business here.
not sure on the numbers, but… how many people would you assume go to terrace? how badly is it hurting our business’?
around 15,000 - 17,000 people in town, one could say maybe 400 of those people shop in terrace every other month. that to me is not a big deal.
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not sure on the numbers, but… how many people would you assume go to terrace? how badly is it hurting our business’?
around 15,000 - 17,000 people in town, one could say maybe 400 of those people shop in terrace every other month. that to me is not a big deal.
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Yea, more like 9-10,000 people live in Rupert.
The reason I shop out of town is mainly due to the fact that you cannot find anything here.
Even the simplest items are often unavailable…
Shop Local is a good idea but they merchants must have something to offer and at a fair price…
Guess the new center is on hold as you say where is this “boom” ?
Well, I bought a nice HP Laserjet printer here in town at Kaien Printer Essentials. Karen had the unit I wanted. 
Well Karen is an exception … good for you…
Agreed. Karen is a solid business person; she has my business from now on.
Karen has it all; lots of eye candy, I’m not allowed to go in with out the wife, as I might buy too much stuff…
Well I guess thats why we are going to close a couple of schools, because we have such a
influx of new people here
i call bullshit on those numbers, unless they are including port ed and surrounding villages…
I don’t, theres way more people out and about lately then I ever remember.
Speaking of buisnesses, has any one been out and about and entered in the draw for the Jeep Patriot the Daily News is raffling off?
Not a chance…population has hardly gone up since 2006.
Listen to the bandito …good post about the schools closing
yeah I dont know how they can justify some of the record new high house prices…?
The only thing that boomed to date was taxes and the price of homes…
Where are all those expensive home buyers going to shop?
A few years ago you could not give away a house now its crazy…
Oh well real estate agents have made a killing after years of slump…
Is there any kind of betting pool going on over when the new mall will actually begin building?? I’ve been hearing rumours about that place since before I left Rupert and that’s over eight years ago now. 
It’s happening all over the province. The speculators are buying up properties, doing minor repairs and attempting to flip them for a profit. Too much HGTV/TLC for some people. It’s especially bad in Kelowna right now, you cannot buy a house for less then 300K and what you get for that is less than appealing.
On the plus side you can get a MASSIVE 500sq foot condo for only $200,000 what a smoking deal, the only catch is it isnt built yet.
I find these statistics downright scary, this is the breakdown of employment in Kelowna for 2006:
construction: 27.3%
professional scientific & technical services 13.4%
real estate & rental/leasing 15.5%
Yeah thats right more than 20% of our population is tied directly to the real estate industry. What makes this more interesting is that in 2001 just under 1% of our population was employed in the real estate market with 9% employed in construction.
We’ve more than doubled our workforce tied directly to the real estate market between 2001-2006 with a population growth of ~10, 000 people.
What makes this recipe for disaster worse is that the median income in kelowna is 24,754
Moral of the story housing prices are going to come down, hard. At least here. I suspect the same for Rupert as there is nothing fueling the increases there either.
Thankfully my job is in no way tied to the local market in Kelowna so when housing prices do come down i’ll be in an excellent position to snap up a nice piece of property.