‘Mentally, financially a burden’

When Fiona Zhao thinks about the rising cost of safety when running her business, it’s not just dollars and cents — to her, it’s a societal issue.

Zhao began Unique Bunny in 2014 in Winnipeg, an early adopter of South Korean and Japanese skincare retail in the city, before expanding to 10 locations around the country. But Unique Bunny’s longest-running Winnipeg storefront, on Osborne Street, closed after eight years in 2023, with the company citing crime growing out of control in the area.

Data released by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on Wednesday found 61 per cent of surveyed business owners in Manitoba believe crime in their respective communities has increased over the past year — the second-highest rate in the country.

The news doesn’t surprise Zhao.

“We are not feeling safe, to be honest,” she said Wednesday. “We have encountered so many issues about theft and customers showcasing different, bad attitudes toward small businesses nowadays. People are frustrated.”

Thieves have stolen hundreds of dollars of inventory and later come back, she said, trying to get past security guards Zhao has hired.

“Lots of my staff, they really have lots of ownership. I really appreciate them, but they try to stop (theft),” she said.

“I told them, don’t do that anymore. I’m always concerned about my staff safety at the same time. So it’s mentally, financially a burden.”

But it’s more than inventory lost.

Zhao said staff have faced insults and threats to their safety. She took to Unique Bunny’s social media accounts last month to make a public plea for respect from customers, after police were called when staff were sexually harassed via multiple phone calls made to two Winnipeg store locations.

“It’s how society works now… They just assume that we have a huge profit and are trying to take advantage of the customers,” she said. “That is also not true, because we are all trying our own way to be the best of who we are and try to survive day by day.”

“We have encountered so many issues about theft and customers showcasing different, bad attitudes toward small businesses nowadays. People are frustrated.”

The CFIB survey found Manitoba was second only to Newfoundland and Labrador in the number of business owners that believe crime was getting worse; only four per cent said the situation had gotten better.

Sixty-two per cent of the 139 Manitoba business owners surveyed said they were worried about personal and staff safety as a result of crime.

CFIB senior policy analyst Tyler Slobogian said its surveys have shown more and more business owners perceive their work as unsafe in recent years.

“What we’re hearing from many owners, based on this data, is it’s not just about the financial losses anymore. It’s more about safety, stress and whether they can keep operating as well,” he said.

Overall, police-reported crime is on the decline across Canada, but reports of shoplifting have jumped 66 per cent between 2014 and 2024, according to Statistics Canada data.

“Right now, business owners are really having to think like security guards instead of entrepreneurs, at this point, in Manitoba,” Slobogian said.

The Winnipeg Police Service will be releasing its 2025 statistical report in the spring.

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WPS Cst. Stephen Spencer said the property crime unit has found shoplifting numbers “fluctuate depending on how many prolific shoplifters, and which ones, are in custody.”

“Business owners are really having to think like security guards instead of entrepreneurs, at this point, in Manitoba.”

The second Small Business and Retail Crime Prevention Conference takes place April 27 at X-Cues’ Café at 551 Sargent Ave.

Organizer Michael Paille, who owns comic shop Cobra Collectibles, said WPS Chief Gene Bowers and Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, along with other community leaders, will be there to take questions and concerns from the business community.

“A lot of my customers don’t want to come out anymore, so we have to fix that problem before the whole Winnipeg small-business community just ceases to exist,” he said.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.