Up against a Brick’s wall

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This article was published 26/10/2018 (2717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brick’s Fine Furniture has survived an attempt to steal its name, multiple moves and the deaths of its two beloved founders in a half-century of business in Winnipeg.

But the combination of summer construction in front of its Bannatyne Street location, the lack of parking in the Exchange District and the changing economic climate have taken the high-end furniture retailer to the end of the line.

Fred and Cynthia Brick opened their original store in August 1969 on Princess Street. Their daughter, Marsha Brick, will close the doors for good by the end of the year.

The eldest of the couple’s five children has been running the family-owned business since her mother died in July. She has worked there for the last dozen years and operated it with her mother after Fred died in July 2016.

“The bottom line is we haven’t been making money here,” she said Friday. “The summer decimated us and my mom’s death made it worse.

“This isn’t a decision we came to lightly. My siblings and I have been discussing this since July 14, the day after our mom died. My parents had such a good reputation and were doing this for so many years that we knew that if we were going to close the store, I’m going to do it in a very ethical and proper manner.

“I know my parents were hoping to keep this in the family; to pass this down to us and to our kids afterwards, and the fact that we can’t do it, it’s very tough.”

Fred and Cynthia got $1,400 of startup money from the sale of Fred’s coin collection in 1969. They were forced to re-mortgage their home and Cynthia’s mother’s home seven years later when the location was leased to someone else and they purchased a building on Lombard Avenue, where they remained for 34 years. They relocated to Market Avenue in 2010 before moving to the current location nearby.

The Bricks made national headlines in the early 1990s when they took on retail furniture giant The Brick in a case of trademark bullying. The couple won their five-year legal battle to uphold the family’s right to use their name on the store. The case is still held up as an example of a rare underdog win in trademark law.

Reflecting on the ordeal after Fred died, Cynthia recalled that Fred always said that the only thing you leave in this world is a good name, and they weren’t about to let a big-box chain take it from them.

“I’m the oldest, so I remember them starting out and doing all of this; how hard they worked, how they had to fight to keep the family name and all the years of working so hard to have the gallery store,” Marsha said.

The store’s lease is up at the end of December. Until then, merchandise will be for sale at discounted prices and people will be able to place orders from Canadian suppliers, Marsha said. Any merchandise that arrives after the store has closed will be delivered to the customers by Rolly’s Transfer, which does all of the store’s deliveries.

Marsha said watermain replacement from June until August, followed by bike-lane construction — both affecting access to the store’s entrance — delivered a devastating one-two punch.

“We had 12 weeks in the summer where we had no place (for customers) to park. My sales for the month of August were three. I sold a chair, one was a couple of pillows and one was a mattress. July was only a few more,” she said.

Even if she’d been able to survive after that, the market for high-end furniture has disappeared in the city, she said.

“The climate has changed. Years ago when we opened up, there was Steek’s, Penthouse, Wilson’s. Everybody’s gone. We’re the last high-end store in Winnipeg. As much as I’d like to stay that way, we just don’t have the numbers.”

“People used to buy a house just once, stay in that house until they’re 70 and buy furniture that will stay. People now will buy houses and flip them every few years. People aren’t spending money on furniture like they once were.”

Marsha said she is looking at other options in the furniture business, and she plans to continue writing the Brick’s weekly advertorial column that appears in the Friday edition of the Free Press. Her father began writing the weekly ad for the Sunday edition and moved it to Friday years later. Cynthia continued writing it after his death.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca