[URBAN NOTE] "High-end shops in downtown Oakville closing doors"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Sam Grewal has an interesting report from the shopping districts of suburban Oakville west of Toronto. Relatively prosperous, the community's high-end shops are apparently going wanting for customers in the aftermath of the recession.

Inside downtown Oakville’s Second Chance consignment clothing store, described as “upscale resale,” the almost new Coach bag going for 85 bucks won’t be there for long.

It’s brisk business during the Saturday lunch hour, but around the corner, along Lakeshore Rd. (old Oakville’s main strip), the stores where some of the clothes inside Second Chance were originally bought are hurting.

“A lot of people with money, they’re not shopping here any more,” says Rita Hollis, owner of L.J. Shoes and Leather.

She works the counter at her own store. “It’s all the owners working inside the shops now. They never used to, but who can afford all the staff anymore?”

Gesturing around her empty store she rattles off the names of a half-dozen high-end retailers that used to draw business to her shop before they recently closed. “Garvey’s (Fine Men’s Wear) and Silkeborg were huge.”

Silkeborg, a high-end clothing, accessories and home interiors boutique, used to be located in a heritage building across the street. Now, above the papered windows, the sign is all that’s left. More than a dozen other storefronts along old Oakville’s once booming high street are also boarded up or feature “store closing” signs.

Higher rents and parking rates, as well as competition from outlet malls, online and cross-border shopping, are mentioned by struggling business owners. But the recent recession’s impact on Oakville’s affluent class is the theme they all turn to.

“They’re cashed out. We call it ‘maxed’,” says Greg McKinnon, owner of The Running Company. “They’re paying $2,000 a month for the Beamer and the Land Rover in the driveway, they have million-dollar mortgages and $50,000 in landscaping. There’s not a lot of money left over.”