O•S•C•A•R© Shop Your Local! - Old Ottawa South

Page 2 The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR DEC 2008
A few of the local shop owners.
from Top Left, Tim Harold (3 little Monkeys), Joan Garvey (Wag), Mary Faught (The Mud Oven), Sue Fay (Soul Matters)
bottom left, Arthur McGregor (The Folklore Centre), Val MacIntosh (The Clothes Secret), Lyne Burton (Wag), Vince Caceres (The Cyclery) , Andrea Covas
(WestCoast Video). Photo Taken by Tom Alfoldi
Submitted by The Shop
Local Alliance
Drop into West Coast Video
on Bank Street, and you’ll
run into your neighbours in
Ottawa South, their kids and sometimes
their dogs in tow, cruising the aisles. If
you have a question, staff will probably
not only find what you are looking for,
but give you their personal opinion of
the movie, and suggest a few similar
titles you might like. On the way out,
you can buy a package of Belgian
chocolate chip cookies, homemade by
a woman in the neighbourhood. A few
Shop With The Locals
doors down Bank Street, at Rowland
Leather, you can check out a buttery soft
leather purse, made locally and designed
by the man who owns the shop. If you
feel like a coffee, you have a choice
not only of several chain outlets, but a
quirky “Dog Cafe,” which welcomes
pets as well as their owners, inside Wag
pet store on Bank near Sunnyside.
Those are just a few of the small,
local businesses along Bank Street
that help make Old Ottawa South
so lively and so livable: shops that
provide unique products and the kind
of personal service you are unlikely to
find in your average big-box store on
Merivale Road. The businesses are as
unique as their owners. If you live in
the neighbourhood, you can walk to
them. Such, locally-owned businesses
are the backbone of a lively downtown
neighbourhood. The owners of some of
these shops met recently at the Firehall
to discuss ways to promote shopping
locally at the 50 or so stores “between
the bridges” of Billings and the Bank
Street Bridge. The Shop Local Alliance
was born, and you’ll probably see the
first results popping up in Old Ottawa
South store windows soon. The alliance
has designed a catchy poster designed to
remind the community about the value
of supporting local businesses. The
slogan? “Your buck shops here.” Also
in the works is a coupon book that will
offer discounts from neighbourhood
businesses and could be used to raise
money for charity.
The campaign won’t exactly be a
hard sell. Most people in Ottawa South
love the mix of stores along Bank Street.
That’s one of the reasons many people
move to the neighbourhood, notes Tracy
Arnett, a realtor at the meeting who does
a lot of business in Ottawa South. Lyne
Burton, co-owner of Wag, and Claudia
Sanmartin, both came up with the idea
for the campaign. “Part of the appeal of
living here is that it’s a neighbourhood
of diverse, eclectic little shops.” Burton
said recent events jolted her to worry
about the future of the neighborhood’s
Bank Street business strip: The closing
A
few reasons to support local
businesses: -They are usually
small stores that cater to the
neighbourhood, so residents can
walk there, which is healthier for the
environment than driving to a bigbox
chain store. --They help create
a sense of community. --They help
create diversity and choice by offering
a range of products decided on by the
of the Fresh Fruit Company, and the
pending closure of the Mayfair Theatre,
“It became overwhelming, wondering
what will happen in the future to our
little business district.”
At the Firehall meeting, a dozen
business owners and several Old
Ottawa South residents discussed the
importance of reminding people that
local shops won’t survive unless they
are patronized. The campaign comes
at a time when there is growing public
support across North America for the
idea of “shopping locally” as people
learn more about the environmental and
economic advantages of supporting local
businesses. Local farmer’s markets,
including those recently established
at Lansdowne Park and on Main
Street, have been extremely popular,
for instance, and it seems everyone is
talking about the value of a “100-mile
diet.” Locally-owned businesses also
help create a sense of community, noted
Ottawa South resident Brian Tansy, who
attended the meeting. The closure of the
Fresh Fruit Company, for example, was
more than just the loss of a convenient,
walkable place to buy groceries. It
was also a place where you inevitably
wound up meeting and chatting with
neighbours.
If you are a local business in the
neighbourhood and want to be part
of the campaign please contact Lyne
Burton at wagpetshop@rogers.com
owner, rather than a restricted choice
dictated by head office. -They tend
to support the community in the long
term because often the owners live
in the neighbourhood, too. -They
offer economic benefits, as more of
the money spent at local businesses
tends to stay in the community, and
local businesses are more likely to
use local resources and services.