Das Schwarze Brett - Issue 5

18
Saying Goodye
European Importers has now closed, as of December
19th, 2017. It really happened! Some comments
from the Germans in Vancouver Facebook Page
are: “Werde den Laden sehr vermission. Besonders
zur Weihnachtszeit.” or “Da muessen wir wieder die
Deutschland Packete einfuehren” or “Do not close. It
would be so sad.”
The business, under the management of Karl von
Renesse, opened its doors as “European Warehouse”
in 1957. He came to Vancouver in 1975 and moved
into a warehouse on Railway Street. When that
burned down, they moved to Alexander Street, close to
Oppenheimer Park and the Freybe Store. Finally, they
bought the warehouse on 220 Prior Street in 1980 and
became “European Specialty Importers” at the end of
1980.
Traute & Karl ran the store together, until Karl died in
1994 at the age of 63. Jasmine, their daughter, went to
BCIT and took a Hotel Management course with a focus
on food & beverages. Karl also spent some time training
his daughter in how to run the store. She started working
there around the age of 21 and was still there at the “bitter
end.”
The highlights of the store were the years leading up to
Expo ‘86, when European Importers supplied most of the
German deli’s, bakeries and groceries across Vancouver
After that, the sales declined until it just made sense to
sell the place. Both Traute & Jasmine will be retiring and
moving on to other things.
I will be posting lots of pictures on my Westcoast German
News Blog, most of which were taken by Dietrich Klaue..
©Westcoast German News publishes Das Schwarze Brett 6 times a year