‘There’s just days where nobody comes in’

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This article was published 04/06/2024 (498 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s festival season may be life or death for Krystle Pagkalinawan’s shop. She’s already cut her company’s hours — to weekends only, for now — and taken on another full-time job.

“Unless there’s a drastic change, then I will likely be forced to close,” Pagkalinawan said.

She launched Plant Lab Botanical Design in early 2020; it coincided with Manitoba’s first COVID-19 public lockdown.

After a years-long pandemic, rapid inflation and changes to how people work and shop, Pagkalinawan is considering shuttering her physical store in the Exchange District.

She’s waiting on upcoming summer events — like the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival (June 14-22) — to see whether sales increase.

“There’s just days where nobody comes in,” Pagkalinawan described. “Really hard to pay the bills that way.”

Entrepreneurship wasn’t her childhood dream. It was, however, an “obvious next step” for the blossoming plant lover who wanted to be her own boss.

Pre-pandemic, Pagkalinawan began amassing knowledge about house plants. Friends asked her about their own flora; meanwhile, she managed a retail shop at the Winnipeg airport.

She registered Plant Lab Botanical Design in early 2020. and quit her day job just before the pandemic struck. Her initial months relied upon online sales and, briefly, a retail outlet on King Street.

Pagkalinawan signed a lease on Albert Street in 2021. She lives in the area and wanted to be community-focused, she said.

“Support local” was a strong message bolstering sales during those pandemic days, Pagkalinawan recalled.

“Everybody understood: the local companies … need the business,” she continued. “I know times are tough, but you don’t see that right now.”

In-store sales don’t cover rent, Pagkalinawan said. She began working part-time around 18 months ago. In February, she made the leap to full-time employment elsewhere, as an accounts manager.

She recently announced she’d be restricting Plant Lab’s hours to Saturdays and Sundays.

“It feels unsustainable,” Pagkalinawan expressed. “I no longer can just eat the costs.”

She believes many reasons contribute to her shop’s low foot traffic: customers have less disposable income amid a higher cost of living; popular markets may draw consumers away.

Movie shoots in the Exchange can be a deterrent, as is some Manitobans’ perception of a crime-filled downtown, Pagkalinawan added.

She’d like to see more BIZ events, more frequently, drawing shoppers to the Exchange District. If foot traffic doesn’t pick up soon, she plans to shutter her physical store and focus on servicing, where she visits clients’ locations and tends to their plants.

“There’s a whole population base that is still absent, and that is the daily office worker,” noted David Pensato, executive director of the Exchange District Business Improvement Zone.

“It’s going to take time to rebuild that customer base.”

The Exchange District is logging roughly 20 to 30 per cent fewer pedestrians than it did pre-pandemic, Pensato stated. However, evening traffic at restaurants and arts venues has rebounded, he added.

Dips come during the day. Office workers have returned but not to the numbers posted before COVID-19 arrived.

The neighbourhood is growing its residential population. Still, the growth will likely be “10 years too late for many people down here,” Pagkalinawan commented.

The Exchange District is constantly adapting and evolving to meet economic conditions, Pensato stated. This period, though “a little bit more acute and a little bit more serious,” is another evolution.

“Our door is always open when member businesses have concerns or ideas.”

Dave Geisel, co-owner of bike shop Natural Cycle, has noticed less foot traffic now than in 2019. The Albert Street store owner figures sales have been diverted online.

A lack of foot traffic isn’t an issue for all Exchange District retailers. Rod Sasaki, owner of Warehouse Artworks, continues to see long-time clients — he’s been in the Exchange for more than 30 years.

“If it’s a new business, it’s a different ballgame,” Sasaki commented, adding he believes it’s harder for new companies to launch, especially downtown.

Tara Davis Studio Boutique has posted its best sales ever in the past two years, according to its owner and namesake.

Generally, consumers are spending less per visit, but overall sales are up. Thus, more people are around overall, Davis reasoned. “There are businesses who are thriving that have been here more than 12 years.”

Meantime, ,local companies usually receive two to three business days’ notice before they’re potentially affected by filming, stated Kenny Boyce, City of Winnipeg manager of film and special events.

Foot traffic being blocked is an “extreme rarity,” and phone numbers for the city and film crews are readily available if businesses want to make complaints, Boyce said.

Over the past year, the city has only received one or two complaints regarding filming — a very low number, Boyce highlighted.

“Every business in the Exchange is important to us,” he relayed. “Any time there is an issue or a complaint, we try to deal with it in the now.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com