Give me your thoughts on this what are the great stores here?
We have some great Restaurants, Pubs and food stores are fine, but what else do we have?
We have either low end junk or high end nothing middle of the road…
Of course I was being glib. Fields does not exactly equal death. Vancouver may have a couple stores, I don’t know. But my point was Fields offers so little in mid-range quality. I tend to think of it as a lower-level Zellars, and it will be. And I hate shopping at Zellars.
I would like to see a local entrepreneur look at the market and say: "jeez, there is a market for clothing that does not read across the breast ‘I Love Miami!’. Maybe I am wrong. I have only been in Rupert for a couple of months. But I doubt that. I live in Rupert too and I tend to believe there is more local desire than another bargain shop.
Rupert has a real lack of places to buy kids clothes. Sure you have the junk at Zellers and some really nice high priced stuff at Bambino but there is a lack of middle of the road stuff. I tried to find a newborn sleeper in this town not too long ago and found so few that I could count them on one hand. The Wholesale Club in Terrace has alot of kids clothes that are of pretty good quality and reasonably priced.
I also tried to buy a simple cooler here and couldn’t find a single one that wasn’t styrofoam so I bought one at Canadian Tire the next time I was in Terrace.
Sure Rupert retailers offer some things to sell but they are also missing the boat in many ways.
Fields will give an option but it is far from what we need.
Well while it would be nice if all the big names would come to town, the simple fact is that the ecnomomy here is still in decline despite all the rosy coloured thoughts of late, the population continues to exit rather than enter and well as the fiasco on the highway showed us all, for many companies it’s just too expensive to clear a site and set up shop.
Not to mention the taxes the city charges the business class in town and the ever popular end of the highway syndrome and for now I guess a Fields is about as good as it’s going to get.
The phantom Canadian Tire store of the last ten years never seems to arrive, the rumours of Wal Mart setting up shop seem to vanish as quickly as we hear them and in the interim we watch third avenue’s stores put a run on brown paper for the windows (when they bother).
Unless the city makes it attractive for the big name type stores to come here, they’ll just as gladly set up shop in Terrace and siphon us on down the highway (when it is open of course)
Although the economy is still in decline there is still a market for many things that are not provided here. There are many existing retailers that could re-invent themsleves or add additional products. We don’t necessarily need a big box store or a Canadian Tire to make our residents spend more money locally.
In addition to that, the customer service in some places in town is horrible. I’m not going to mention any retailers specifically but when the manager of a store tells you to go somewhere else because they are too busy to help you, that is a problem. Another one is being stood up 3 times in 3 weeks by someone coming to service something in my home. 3 times with no explanation or returned call. You don’t have to kiss a customers ass but at least make them feel like their business is appreciated or many people will just spend their money somewhere else.
You have many good points… They say our we can’t support large new retail, yet we pour into Terrace to shop… I am sick of the arrogance of the service here, lack of selection, and the amount of junk… And now Fields is coming … yuck…
I refuse to just blow money for the sake of shopping “local”. If these clowns cant be competitive then pull out the brown paper bags.
I dont know of any great stores here…sorry.
For sure we don’t have every concievable option in town, but the shops that come to mind are places like the bookstore, Homework, Good Times, Eastwind, Shutter Shack, the stationary store, IMO. I guess it all depends what you’re looking for and I’m willing to pay a little more to support my community.
I’ll pay more if I get the service to go with it. I support small business where I can but I’m not going to empty my wallet at some store just to satisfy the owners need to pay for his home on Graham Ave. and his cabin at the lake when I can get it cheaper elsewhere. I’d like to have a cabin at the lake some day too.
The stores you mentioned are good ones are are worthy of our support. There are others as well but there is still a gaping hole in our retail sector that could be filled to keep some money from being spent elsewhere.
Fields, really? Originally I was told by some friends and it was confirmed by the Marketing Manager of the Mall that it was going to be a Liquidation World. (Not that it is any better than Fields) But so much for that…
Just curious… When is this store supposed to open?
Two trips per year to the metrotown mall all the stores you need then some.
Liquidation world is OLD NEWS… that was well over a year and a half ago that it was in the works to come here. If we were to get a Liquidation World in the mall it was to open before the one in Terrace did.
I have heard it will be a Fields store which we had here many years ago well before the Boom started here. What a joke “Boom”.
I moved here from Mall City not too long ago (Nanaimo) and yes, I miss all the good shopping. But what I love about the shopping here is that if you bring in a flyer, or even a printed page off the internet, most retailers are going to match the price on the same item. I bought a Wii at Zellers, then printed off the page from the Walmart site, and went back to Zellers with my receipt, and they had no problem refunding me my $10. Not only that, but you can take in info from ANY store, including Future Shop or Best Buy, and they will match the price. Yes, sometimes it’s hard to find specific items here in town, but really, how much STUFF does one person need? But that being said, if you do want/need an item most retailers here in town would be willing to order it in for you, and if they can’t, you can do your own search online.
But I do agree that the service sucks at most stores here. It’s sort of a “take it or leave it” attitude in a lot of places.
Fair enough geetar grl.
I share one of your good stores…east wind, I do like MCLEAN and Rudderham for some reason also. And entire is straight up Whats IMO?
See the local merchant preys on the like of people like you who have the mentality of " Imust support local merchants". The community does need people like you to keep supporting gouging, by local merchants. If we didnt then everyone would piss off to terrace.
When I go shopping, which aint often…I usually know what I want. For me…I couldnt give a rats ass if store staff say anything to me. I dont care. I aint there to make friends as I usually know what I want.
Who cares about service!!!
That is short for: In My Opinion
Mcsash that is what I seemed to like about you, no pussy footing around and you always seem to express yourself where no one can say What?
Well judging by the latest developments on Highway 16, no one will be ready to piss of to terrace as you say, for a while anyways…
its suppose to be opening January 30th, according to the $ store mall merchants.
So what if this is a “low end” store I am really quite curious as to how the other merchants will react to other shoppong alternatives, have you ever tried to return an item to Zellers? I have personal experience with upstairs and “customer service” I mean… no customer service, Or find an employee to get you something from the higher than high bedding department? I shop there because I have no other alternative.
I have since stopped going to the only fast food restaruant in town because the service absolutely sucks, waiting 20 + minutes on MY lunch hour is not acceptable, let me just point out that line-ups are not long, it is the service or I guess the training of the employess that is the problem… let me say, if there was an A&W down the road the Big “M” would definately change their systems. I sound harsh and annoyed I know but I think opening up other places like Fields and the home hardware building store, giving patrons more selection on where to spend their hard earned money will make other merchants step it up on customer service!
[quote=“mcsash”]
See the local merchant preys on the like of people like you who have the mentality of " Imust support local merchants".[/quote]
Hey, I’m no sheep - I don’t have the mentality of “I MUST support local merchants” - I LIKE to support them because I would like to see this town prosper and spending my money at Wal-Mart in Terrace doesn’t do much for Rupert. However, like anyone else I avoid certain businesses in town - for a variety of reasons, not just excessive prices or bad customer service.